Black History Month: Lester keeps trucking (cont'd)

In September he went to California but failed to qualify, something Lester admits was terribly disappointing. So when the series returned to Atlanta in October, initial plans had Lester to try one more time. He declined.

"I decided I didn't want to run just to be running," Lester said. "That was my decision."

By then, the three-year marriage between Lester and Bill Davis Racing in the Truck Series was nearing its end.

"It was just time to change the environment," Lester said.

Davis said it was about money.

"We struggled so hard with sponsorship," he said. "We just couldn't get Bill to have the finishes like our other trucks had. Everybody involved, including Bill, gave three hard years of work, but it came down to sponsorship dollars. Waste Management was there, but past that, there weren't any sponsorship dollars."

For Lester, it was a continuation of the same story that plagues every driver trying to catch a break, white or minority, male or female.

"What I need is strong corporate support," he said. "I just want to be on a level playing field, and I haven't been given that yet. I've always been short on one aspect. I've either had funding but been short on manpower. Or I've had the manpower and been short on funding. This is a team sport, and you're only as good as the equipment you're driving. I'd just like to have all the aspects in place for an opportunity."

And that's where he finds himself with Ballew.

"The opportunity came available for me to be the center of attention, and I've never had that with a team before," Lester said. "I've always been on a team as the second or third truck. When you have two or three trucks, it's very difficult to run the truck at the same level as the others. So here, I am the primary focus."

Lester is the only full-time truck at Billy Ballew Motorsports, although Ballew said Kyle Busch will run a second truck in a handful of races. But even being the center of attention makes nothing easier. A week before the season opener at Daytona, Ballew was making rounds in Atlanta talking to potential sponsors for his driver.

It also doesn't extinguish the flame that burns in Lester to drive a Cup car once again, something that has been discussed with Ballew considering his team's partnerships with high-powered Cup organizations, including a long-term relationship with DEI. But for him -- or any black driver -- to drive in NASCAR's premier series, Lester said it will take two things: exposure and opportunity

"You have to be exposed to the sport at an early age, and you have to be given the opportunity to show others your talent," said Lester, who points to NASCAR's Drive for Diversity program as a way to provide those opportunities to young minority drivers.

"Will somebody graduate from the program and make it to the Nextel Cup level? I don't know. That's in the hands of the driver. There's absolutely no way to tell if in five, 10 or 15 years that an African-American driver will be in the Nextel Cup Series. There's no way to predict that. At least, I don't know of one."

Once again, Davis said the crystal ball shows dollar signs.

"The obvious answer is sponsorship," he said. "What it will take for Corporate America to identify a black driver who can go do it on the track as well as the marketing side of things, who knows? It baffles me to think that Bill is not that guy."