Why Bubba Wallace’s Talladega win is such a big moment for NASCAR

Bubba Wallace claimed his maiden NASCAR Cup Series at Talladega on Monday to become the first Black victor in the category since Wendell Scott in 1963. Both Wallace and Scott had faced obstacles and racism in their paths to their breakthrough wins, and NASCAR is trying to put it right with its range of diversity programmes

Charles Bradley Oct 5, 2021, 3:36 PM

The last time an African-American driver won a top-tier NASCAR race, it was December 1963. But what happened next at Speedway Park’s half-mile dirt track in Jacksonville, Florida couldn’t have been more different from the reaction to Bubba Wallace’s maiden career Cup Series win on the high banks of Talladega on Monday.

In the winter of ’63, Wendell Scott was never given the trophy and, initially, he was flat-out denied his win. Instead, Hall of Famer Buck Baker was declared the victor, and he received the trophy and got to kiss the ‘race queen’ on the podium for photos.

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Author Charles Bradley

Charles Bradley is Motorsport.com’s Global Editor in Chief. After spending five years in the aerospace industry in his native North Wales, while working weekends as a freelance writer at racetracks around the UK, Charles joined the staff of Motoring News in the heart of London. He transferred to the nascent Autosport.com team in 2000 before transitioning to the magazine, becoming its Editor between 2011 and 2014. Charles then upped sticks to work in America, as Motorsport.com’s Editor in Chief, where he created the multi-national and multi-lingual editorial team that quickly became the world’s most-read motorsport website. He was instrumental in delivering three of the biggest Global F1 Fan Surveys in sports history and is also a multiple award-winning scriptwriter. Charles is an overseas member of the Guild of Motoring Writers and lives in Miami Beach with his wife Helen – and a cat that’s named after Serbia’s top football club.