Racing History Minute - December 1, 1963

The third race of the 1964 season would take place on December 1, 1963, on the half-mile dirt track known as Jacksonville Speedway Park located in Jacksonville, Fla. Ned Jarrett had won the firstrace of the 1964 season on the half-mile dirt track in Concord, NC, and Fireball Roberts won on road course in Augusta, Georgia in the second outing of the season.

Jack Smith put his Plymouth on the pole for this race, and Richard Petty in a Petty Engineering Plymouth would start second. Third place starter Jimmy Lee Capps was also driving a Plymouth. Billy Wade in a Cotton Owens Dodge would start fourth and Ned Jarrett would start his Burton-Robinson Ford in fifth place. Jack's pole winning speed was 70.921 mph. Maurice Petty attempted to qualify a second Petty Plymouth but crashed on his qualifying attempt and did not start the race.

Jack Smith led the first lap and held onto that lead until lap 21 when Ned Jarrett took over. Somewhere between lad 21 and lap 176, Richard Petty took the lead from Jarrett. While that may seem an avoidance of the leader issue, what comes next is even more suspicious.

Buck Baker, driving his own Pontiac was flagged the winner of the race having completed the scheduled 200 laps. Immediately upon dismounting from his car in the pits, Wendell Scott, the independant driver from Danville, Va, filed a protestclaiming that he had won the race because he had actually passed Buck Baker 3 times during the race. Counter protests were filed and NASCAR officials began attempts to sort this all out.

The 5,000 fans who attended the race, watched Buck get the trophy and kiss the beauty queen and were, for the most part, gone some four hours later when Johnny Bruner, Sr.. NASCAR's Chief Scorer confirmed that Wendell's scorer had actually missed two laps when the number 34 Chevrolet went by so, in fact, Wendell had completed 202 laps compared to Buck's 200 and Wendell was declared the winner although few were around to see his victory. By the time NASCAR made their decision, the fans were gone, most of the competitors were gone, and the beauty queen was gone. The worst of it, according to Wendell, was HIS trophy was gone.

There were 5 caution flags for a total of 24 laps which slowed the average winning speed to 58.242 mph. The most spectacular of the caution incidents was when Larry Thomas took a wild ride in his Dodge, actually tumbling into the catch fence above the guard rail.

Finishing order:

1. Wendell Scott, Scott Chevrolet, winning $1,000.00

2. Buck Baker, Baker Pontiac, winning $600.00 (2 laps down)

3. Jack Smith, Smith Plymouth, winning $400.00 (3 laps down)

4. Ed Livingston, Livingston Ford, winning $300.00 (7 laps down)

5. Richard Petty, Petty Engineering Plymouth, winning $275.00 (8 laps down)

6. Neil Castles

7. Ned Jarrett

8. Buddy Arrington

9. Johnny Allen

10. Billy Wade

11. Possum Jones

12. Tiny Lund

13. Jack Anderson

14. Joe Weatherly

15. Roy Tyner

16. David Pearson

17. G. C. Spencer

18. Larry Thomas

19. Jimmy Lee Capps

20. LeeRoy Yarbrough

21. Curtis Crider

22. Jimmy Pardue

PERSONAL NOTES: There is no doubt in my mind, or the minds of many around back in those days, that the "scoring mix up" was a contrived effort by NASCAR to avoid placing a black driver in Victory Lane with a white beauty queen, especially in a place like Jacksonville, Fla. I was not at that race but I have talked to a fan or two who happened to be there and it was clear to them that Wendell took the lead for good with about 25 to go but some think it was even earlier than that.

There may be some of you reading this who do not know that Wendell was barred from runnin at Darlington for a couple of years because of the color of his skin. Of course we all know that NASCAR is now proud, and rightly so, of its "Drive for Diversity", but they have a lot of making up to do for the injustices done to Wendell Scott.

I have relayed Wendell Scott stories before in some of the posts I have made here. Wendell was always very nice to me and always seemed to find something to laugh about when I would hang around. You see, it was easy to hang around Wendell and his crew (his sons) and learn from what he was doing. At first I was too young to realize what, in fact, was being accomplished by Wendell Scott. That man was a determined competitor, as determined as anyone out there. He ran what he could afford and as he seemed to be slapped in the face every direction he turned, he accomplished great things. Ned Jarrett, Richard Petty, Smokey Yunick and others helped Wendell out with parts and pieces and sometimes whole cars, but what Wendell accomplished he accomplished through his hard work and dedication to the sport.

I watch Darrell Wallace, Jr. running these days with all the advantages the Diversity Program has to offer and watch his success at such an early age. I can't help but think of where Wendell Scott would go with such backing.

As I look back on those days of hanging out with Wendell, sometimes when he had fallen out of a race early, my biggest memory is that I never thought of Wendell as a "black man" an "African-American". I thought of him as a race driver and a very fine one. Somehow I think that's how Wendell would like it.

Honor the past, embrace the present, dream for the future

An excellent post, especially during this season of thanks and giving. A terrible injustice was committed by NASCAR 50 years ago.

Race report as published in Spartanburg Herald. While its only AP wire copy, I do think its notable that this South Carolina paper chose to include it - especially considering how Scott was treated in Darlington. The only other paper I've found on Google News Archive to run the same report was in the Daytona Beach Morning Journal.

Though I'm sure a December race on the lower-profile Jacksonville track wasn't widely covered, I do wonder where pictures can be found of Baker in victory lane. Once Scott was declared the winner, I suppose most of them were discarded, never published or editorially squashed.

The Don Coble article below ran in the October 17, 2010 edition of The Florida Times-Union newspaper in Jacksonville:

Wendell Scott's family gets long-lost trophy, and closure

Don Coble/The Times-Union

Wendell Scott's family (from left) daughter-in-law Mabel, son Franklin, daughter Sybil, wife Mary and son Wendell Jr., pose Saturday night in front of replica of the racer's long-lost trophy from his victory in 1963 and his baby blue Chevrolet at Golden Isles Speedway in Waynesville, Ga.

I don't want to diminish the events that took place in Jacksonville. But its been interesting through Tim's racing history minutes and articles I've found for many wins by the Petty contingent to see how many times NASCAR's scoring was messed up. Obviously, it was a tough thing to score a race with all the cars, laps, pit stops, cautions, etc. And fortunately along the way, Morris Metcalfe managed the two-scorer system to help shore up the manual process. Yet its still amazing to see how many times fans, media and teams had to wait for NASCAR to sort through the cards to verify the winner as well as the rest of the finishing order.

In the case of the 1963 Jax race, all signs seem to point to NASCAR and maybe the promoter hiding behind the pattern of scoring woes over the years long enough to avoid having Wendell seen in victory lane.

Thanks, Dave. I never had any question that this race would be the post for December 1. I remember all the discussion in my circle of friends back when this happened. Even though we were only teenagers then, we knew exactly what happened. Never doubted NASCAR did that on purpose for the reason I stated in the Minute. Thanks for all your support.

The right thing was finally done when that trophy went where it belonged!

Chase, as you point out, NASCAR scoring back in the day was, at best, guess work many times. Along with this incident with Wendell in Jacksonville, the debacle at Darlington that deprived Larry Frank of a Victory Lane celebration always sticks in my mind. Larry deserved much more than he ever got from that win. Now, even with the "scoring loops" all around the track, questions arise from time to time. Having scored some races myself, I can attest to the fact it is not easy but it is very important to the fans and the participants.

Buddy, thanks so much for adding your personal memories to this post. I love it when someone posts a personal memory to one of these History Minutes.

I'm guessing the third place starter Jimmy Lee Capps is the same Jimmy Capps from Jacksonville the later ran the GT/GA series.

I am guessing you would be exactly right Dennis, although I don't have that concrete information. Thanks for the addition to the post.

Symbolically yes. But the real mystery seems to be what happened to THE trophy. Scott's family was presented with a best-guess replica. What no one seems to know is what happened to the original trophy presented to Buck. Hopefully it'll turn up one day. Buck won a lot of races, and its likely he had trophies stored in boxes all over the place and in various stages of disrepair. But with all the controversy over the Jax race - then and in the following years - you'd think the trophy would often be within arm's reach.

Many racers from the 50's, 60's and early 70's can point to at least one race and say "I won that one" yet the record book has someone else listed.

One fact missing here: that Jack Smith [supposedly] retired because Wendell had won the race.

I remember this well as Ronnie Rohn is a very dear friend of mine. That's him in the back ground in the red shirt. I remember he worked very hard to make this happen and was so proud to have pulled it off...

Fact with "supposedly" qualifier. Can't help but laugh. You may be right - but certainly reads funny. Reminds me of quote my girlfriend (later to become my wife) said years ago when she defended a rumor monger we worked with.

She said "He doesn't spread gossip. He tells things he thinks are true."

To this day, I still remind her of that quip from time to time. But yes, I also have a very comfortable couch on which I can sleep well.

Well, we know that Jack 'retired' for a week in 1957, and then came back. He also retired from driving at Darlington after 1959 due to his bad crashes there, especially the over the waller in 1958. We also know that Jack and Wendell raced together again 4 weeks after Wendell's win, at Savannah. And then 3 weeks later, Weatherly died while driving for Jack's previous long time car owner. So that may have had something to do with Jack's retirement, too.

At Savannah, they had a "oops we blew it" ceremony for Wendell, which might also be a factor.