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Darrell Wallace Jr. is first African-American to win in Truck Series

RELATED: Dillon, Harvick have war of words

MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Darrell Wallace Jr. capped a dominant day at Martinsville Speedway with a historic result. The Sunoco Rookie of the Year contender won the Kroger 200, becoming the first African-American driver to find Victory Lane in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series.

With the win, Wallace Jr. also becomes the first African-American driver to win a NASCAR national touring series event since Wendell Scott won in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series on Dec. 1, 1963.

"This (win) means everything," a jubilant Wallace Jr. said "This is an emotional win for me, especially doing it in Wendell Scott’s backyard. I love coming here to Martinsville, it’s always good to me. It finally paid off. I think it’s my third trip here. I love coming here, the fans are great here and we always put on great races. I had to do some muscling there at the end and get around Ty (Dillon) and keep away from (Kevin) Harvick, so we dodged a few bullets in the race and this is awesome.
 
"I had so much confidence coming into this race, and I told my guys that I did, and I told everybody that asked if I was going to win I said, ‘Hell yeah’ every time."

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The NASCAR Drive for Diversity graduate Wallace Jr. took the top spot for the first time of the afternoon Lap 10. All told, he led 96 of 200 laps.

Wallace took the lead for the third and final time of the day on Lap 151 and never relinquished, taking the checkered flag in his 19th career start holding off Brendan Gaughan and Jeb Burton to collect Toyota’s 11th NCWTS win of the season.

While the Kyle Busch Motorsports driver was celebrating his triumph, tempers were flaring in the garage following a late-race tangle between Ty Dillon and Kevin Harvick. A bump from Dillon sent Harvick around and subsequently collected series points leader Matt Crafton. Harvick and Dillon hit each other’s trucks while driving to pit road under caution. Once they entered pit road, Harvick stopped in Dillon’s pit stall to voice his displeasure.

From there, chaos ensued as crew members for the Richard Childress Racing stables fired back with words of frustration, and also a sledge hammer directed at the No. 14 Anderson’s Maple Syrup Chevrolet Silverado.

Harvick would pull his machine behind the wall and be done for the day, while Dillon continued on to finish 22nd.

Ben Kennedy, in just his fourth NCWTS race for Turner Scott Motorsports, finished fourth with Ryan Blaney recovering from an early spin to finish fifth.

Denny Hamlin, the Keystone Light Pole sitter, recovered from a spin to bounce back to sixth, German Quiroga Jr. was seventh, Johnny Sauter eighth, Scott Riggs ninth and James Buescher comprised the remainder of the top 10.

Crafton holds a 51-point lead on James Buescher entering the final stretch. Dillon is third (-61), Burton fourth (-68) and Sauter in fifth (-82).
 
Just three races remain on the 2013 Truck Series calendar. Next up is a return trip to the Lone Star State for some Friday night racing at Texas Motor Speedway.

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The 20-year-old joins Wendell Scott as African-American NASCAR national series winners

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — In short order, Darrell Wallace Jr. has piled up accolades usually preceded by the word "youngest" or "fastest" or "first." Now, with a win at Martinsville Speedway, Wallace adds another history-making accomplishment to the list – and continues a competitive landscape evolution.

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With the victory, Wallace becomes the second African-American driver to win a NASCAR national series race, joining trailblazer and NASCAR Hall of Fame nominee Wendell Scott.
 
"We congratulate Darrell Wallace Jr. on his first national series victory, one that will be remembered as a remarkable moment in our sport’s history," said Brian France, NASCAR chairman and CEO. "Darrell’s success, following fellow NASCAR Drive for Diversity graduate Kyle Larson‘s win earlier this season, is indicative of a youth and multicultural movement that bodes well for NASCAR’s future growth."
 
The Concord, N.C., driver of the No. 54 Toyota for Kyle Busch Motorsports in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series is running for Sunoco Rookie of the Year honors this season.
 
In 2010, Wallace won the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East Sunoco Rookie of the Year and was championship runner up. Last season at Dover, Wallace became the first African-American driver to win the 21 Means 21 Pole Award presented by Coors Brewing Co. in the NASCAR Nationwide Series. Wallace won the pole award for the NCWTS race at Dover in May this year, making series history as youngest winner of the award – a record now held by Chase Elliott.
 
In 2012, Wallace finished among the top 10 in three of his four NASCAR Nationwide Series starts for Joe Gibbs Racing, with a best finish of seventh at Iowa Speedway.
 
Wallace, who competed under the NASCAR D4D banner from 2010-11, is the second graduate from the program to win a NASCAR national series race, following Larson’s April victory at Rockingham Speedway in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. He is also the fourth NASCAR D4D driver to compete in a national series this season, with Ryan Gifford’s ninth-place finish in his NASCAR Nationwide debut at Iowa and Paulie Harraka’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series debut at Sonoma.
 
Wendell Scott, a two-time NASCAR Hall of Fame nominee, won a premier series — now Sprint Cup — race at Speedway Park in Jacksonville, Fla. on Dec. 1, 1963. The Danville, Va. native competed in 495 races between 1961 and 1973, passing away in 1990 at the age of 69.
 
Since 2004, NASCAR Drive for Diversity has provided an opportunity for multicultural and female drivers to compete in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series and NASCAR Whelen All-American Series with the goal of racing in NASCAR’s national series. Since 2010, five different drivers have totaled for 12 wins over 45 K&N East races and Larson won the series championship last season. The NASCAR Drive for Diversity Combine for the 2014 class begins Monday, Oct. 21 and will run until Wednesday, Oct. 23.

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Nine-time winner in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series earned honorary Oscar in 2012

RELATED: Full Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup coverage

Hal Needham, a Hollywood stuntman and director who also won nine races as a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series owner, has died at the age of 82.

Needham’s business managers told the L.A. Times that he died Friday in Los Angeles.

From 1981-1989, Needham entered 250 races as an owner in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, winning nine races from 1982-1985 with Harry Gant. His first win came at this weekend’s venue, Martinsville Speedway, with Gant in the 7-Eleven/Skoal Bandit Buick. Stan Barrett, Morgan Shepherd and Rick Mast also piloted cars for Needham.

In 2012, Needham received an honorary Oscar for a legendary career as a stuntman, breaking 56 bones on the job. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, he directed starring vehicles for Burt Reynolds, including "Smokey and the Bandit," "The Cannonball Run" and "Stroker Ace," which included NASCAR Hall of Famers Dale Earnhardt and Cale Yarborough and former drivers Neil Bonnett, Gant, Terry Labonte, Benny Parsons, Kyle Petty, Tim Richmond and Ricky Rudd.

For the current NASCAR Hall of Fame exhibit, "Lights. Cameras. NASCAR," Hall historian Buz McKim had hoped to secure a famous car from the stock car movie.

"Everybody would have loved to see the ‘Stroker Ace’ car," McKim told NASCAR.com’s Kenny Bruce. "We called the guy who built it; he didn’t know where it went. We called the studio, they didn’t have it. We beat the bushes for three months.

"The great thing about exhibits is they have an opening date. Eventually at some point, a month or two before the opening date, we have to say ‘stop looking for the chicken car.’ "

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Logano paces Saturday’s first session; Kyle Busch, Kenseth also show speed

RELATED: Full practice results, lineup

MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Joey Logano set the pace in Saturday practice for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series in cool, crisp conditions at Martinsville Speedway.

Earnhardt, in the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, topped the final 50-minute practice session with a fast lap of 97.533 mph. He starts 12th in Sunday’s Goody’s Headache Relief Shot 500 powered by Kroger (1:30 p.m. ET, ESPN), vying for his first win at NASCAR’s oldest track.

Logano, driving the No. 22 Penske Racing Ford, topped the leaderboard in the early 55-minute session with a lap at 97.468 mph around the 0.526-mile oval. He’ll start sixth Sunday on a track where he has just one top-five finish and has yet to lead a lap in his Sprint Cup career.

Clint Bowyer was second-fastest to Earnhardt in final practice, followed by third-fastest Kasey Kahne, Earnhardt’s Hendrick teammate. Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Kyle Busch and Matt Kenseth, who will start third and fourth respectively in Sunday’s 500-lapper, closed out the top five.

Familiar faces rounded out the top five in the early practice Saturday, with Busch, Earnhardt, Kenseth and Bowyer grabbing spots two through five on the leaderboard.

Series points leader Jimmie Johnson, an eight-time Martinsville winner, was eighth-fastest in the early session and sixth-best in final practice. Pole-starter Denny Hamlin, a four-time winner here, was just 28th on the speed charts in the early practice, but improved to 17th in final practice.

The first practice session was slowed by two spins, one early by Greg Biffle in the No. 16 Roush Fenway Racing Ford and one late by Bobby Labonte in the No. 47 JTG Daugherty Toyota. Labonte made contact with the wall, but his crew was scrambling to repair his Camry and avoid going to a backup car.

Only one caution for debris slowed the final practice.

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Series points leader to start in middle of JGR trio

RELATED: Race lineup | Full Chase coverage

MARTINSVILLE, Va. — It isn’t an unusual sight to see Jimmie Johnson taking the green flag from the front row at Martinsville Speedway. He’ll do that Sunday after snagging the second starting position in Friday’s Coors Light Pole Qualifying.

What will be unusual is to see him cornered in the double-file lineup by Joe Gibbs Racing drivers all around.

Denny Hamlin will start from the pole alongside Johnson in Sunday’s Goody’s Headache Relief Shot 500 powered by Kroger (1:30 p.m. ET, ESPN) with JGR Toyota teammates Kyle Busch (third) and Matt Kenseth (fourth) lined up behind them in the second row. In the post-qualifying press conference, it didn’t take much coaxing to plant the seed of a Gibbs triple-team to shake up the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series standings.

"No doubt, we’re going to be racing in close quarters all day Sunday," Busch said, "and I’ve got the best shot at Jimmie’s left-rear getting into (Turn) 1."

Busch happened to be sitting next to Johnson at the time, prompting laughs from the five-time champion, who holds a four-point lead over second-place Kenseth and a 26-point advantage over third-place Busch.

Still, Johnson said he wasn’t concerned about anything unseemly taking place at the drop of the green.

"I wasn’t until Kyle got so excited. No, maybe I should be, but not as of now," Johnson, an eight-time Martinsville winner, said with a laugh. "We will all race hard, I’m sure. We have all been, at least so far, have been in a lot of situations with each driver and been able to race hard and take it right to the line, but not cross it."

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Wreck causes tensions to escalate at Martinsville

MORE: Results of the Kroger 200

MARTINSVILLE, Va. — All the feel-good stories surrounding Kevin Harvick and Richard Childress Racing making the most of their final, lame-duck season together went up in a cloud of smoke Saturday afternoon at Martinsville Speedway.

An on-track confrontation between Harvick and Ty Dillon, Childress’ grandson and a full-time competitor for RCR in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, boiled over in the late stages of the Kroger 200 with both drivers battering each other’s trucks under caution. It escalated from there, ending with a sledgehammer being thrown from a member of the Childress crew at Harvick’s Joe Dennette-owned No. 14 truck on pit road and pointed words that threaten to leave a sour taste as their 14-year partnership ends.

Harvick, tied for third in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series standings in his last season driving RCR’s No. 29 Chevrolet, didn’t seem to have the farewell tour vibe that’s carried his team through the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup playoffs after the fracas. Instead, it sounded like goodbye and good luck after the altercation.

"I don’t care what they throw at me," Harvick said as he made a beeline from the 0.526-mile track’s infield. "That’s exactly the reason I’m leaving RCR because you’ve got those punk-ass kids coming up."

Dillon exited his No. 3 Chevrolet and had a cool-down debriefing session with Childress and team officials before speaking with the media. After he collected himself, he seemed less upset with the 22nd-place finish that hampered his championship hopes than with Harvick’s rapid departure from the track and avoidance of a post-race discussion.

"After the fact, to tear up our car even worse and hit us after the fact and continue to tear up our car, it’s just typical Kevin Harvick," said Dillon, who dropped from second to third in the Truck Series standings. "That’s pretty much the career with RCR for him."

Childress, who was summoned to the series hauler for a consultation with officials, emerged tense and shaken, but verbally was the picture of restraint. When asked if Harvick would be in the team’s Sprint Cup entry Sunday at Martinsville, Childress said "we’ll still roll." There are four Sprint Cup races left on the schedule for the driver-owner pairing, which began on the NASCAR Nationwide Series level in the 2000 season, before Harvick joins Stewart-Haas Racing next year.

"I’m disappointed. Very disappointed — that’s all I can say," Childress said after leaving the series hauler. "I’ve got too much class to say what I really want to say. When I say it, I’ll say it to his face."

NASCAR officials said they were reviewing the incident.

The dust-up began with 13 laps remaining in the 200-lap event, when Dillon applied pressure to Harvick in a harried contest for second place behind eventual race winner Darrell Wallace Jr.

Dillon gave Harvick’s truck a tap entering the first turn to move his rival out of the groove, then stuck his fender down low. Neither driver made it out of the corner pointed straight as the two came together, catching series points leader Matt Crafton — running a close fourth at the time — in the mess.

After the two trucks righted each other, Harvick clanged his truck broadside across Dillon’s No. 3 on the backstretch. Dillon retaliated by driving into the back of Harvick’s No. 14 all through the third and fourth turn. Once the two trucks came down pit road, Harvick stopped in front of Dillon’s pit box, where the RCR crew confronted him with a brightly colored sledgehammer aimed toward Harvick’s truck. Harvick eventually pulled away, then parked before the race’s conclusion to exit the speedway, assailing his soon-to-be-former team on camera before leaving.

"The 3 just dumped me," Harvick said. "Exactly the reason why I’m leaving RCR because you’ve got those kids coming up and they’ve got no respect for what they do in this sport and they’ve had everything fed to them with a spoon. So, I cut him slack all day and, you know, he just dive-bombs me in there, dumps me. I’ve got to thank all these (race sponsor) Anderson Syrup guys for everything that they do. It’s a shame you’ve got to get taken out by some rich kid like that."

Dillon claimed that Harvick hit the brakes in an effort to prompt contact or stall his momentum, and that his actions made Crafton helpless to avoid contact. Crafton continued after makeshift repairs to finish 17th, losing just six points from his commanding edge in the standings.

Dillon wound up as the last driver on the lead lap, falling one position to third in the standings, now 61 points out of the lead with three races left in the season.

"That stunk — the wreck part — but to tear up a truck after the race and totally take us out of the race and not to stick around after the race and walk off and not even want to say anything to me. I’m sure he’s tweeting something now about it. So, he can’t even face me after," Dillon said. "I’m pretty disappointed in the things that just went down. I used to look up to that guy but I guess he doesn’t understand the circumstances of what’s going on.

"I understand it’s tough racing down there in (turns) one and two at Martinsville. I know we wrecked, but to tear up a truck after the race and act like a punk on the track and on pit road and stop on pit road on my pit stall when my guys were coming out, that was pretty ridiculous. I’m not happy with him. And for him not to stick around, that’s pretty sad, too."

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Tears flowed for 20-year-old in historic victory

RELATED: Results | Tensions flare after Harvick, Dillon wreck | Wallace’s win was historic

MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Darrell Wallace Jr. didn’t simply become the latest first-time winner in NASCAR on Saturday at Martinsville Speedway.

The 20-year-old’s victory in the Kroger 200 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race marked just the second time an African-American has won in one of NASCAR’s top touring series.

Wallace joins Wendell Scott, the Danville, Va., native who scored his only win nearly 50 years ago, taking the checkered flag at Speedway Park in Jacksonville, Fla. Scott’s victory came in what is known today as the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.

"Oh my god. This is — I don’t know man, I’m speechless right now," Wallace said after surviving several late-race restarts to collect his first victory in his 19th start in the series. "I couldn’t even hold it together coming off Turn 4 … I still can’t.

"I had so much confidence coming into this race and I told my guys that I did. … I told everybody that asked if I was going to win, I said, ‘Hell yeah’ every time. It was no ‘maybe, we’re going to try.’ This one was for sure and we capitalized."

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The driver of the No. 54 Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota led three times for 96 laps, including the final 50 laps.

"This is certainly a monumental day and hopefully one that he remembers for a long time and can cherish," said team owner Kyle Busch. "The first one is always the most important one because it seems like after that they can just come pretty easily."

NASCAR Chairman and CEO Brian France called Wallace’s victory "one that will be remembered as a remarkable moment in our sport’s history.

"Darrell’s success, following fellow NASCAR Drive for Diversity graduate Kyle Larson‘s win earlier this season, is indicative of a youth and multicultural movement that bodes well for NASCAR’s future growth," France said in a statement provided by the sanctioning body. 

Crew chief Jerry Baxter said the breakthrough win was a culmination of a season’s worth of hard work and experience finally coming together.

"He’s had speed since the first race of the year," Baxter said of his young driver, "he’s had speed every week. It seems like we led a lot of laps … but he’s getting mature, he’s learning how to race and I think our whole team is."

It was Baxter’s second win as crew chief in the Truck Series — he also helped guide Cale Gale to the win at Homestead last November.

Wallace shot to the front for the first time on Lap 10 of the 200-lap even on the tight, unforgiving half-mile, passing Johnny Sauter. He stayed on point until fellow KBM driver Denny Hamlin took the lead on Lap 41.

Wallace returned the favor on a Lap 106 restart to lead 15 laps before Ross Chastain muscled his way underneath the leader on Lap 121.

When the race went green following a caution for contact between Hamlin and points leader Matt Crafton at Lap 150, Wallace and Ty Dillon staged a brief side-by-side battle for the lead until Wallace gained the advantage.

Three subsequent cautions inside the final 30 laps kept the leader from building any substantial advantage, until Dillon, running third, tried to get inside second-place Kevin Harvick in Turn 1 with 12 laps remaining. The resulting spin also collected Crafton, who was running fourth, and Chase Elliott. 

Harvick and Dillon exchanged sheet metal following the incident as each headed to pit road, and when Harvick stopped briefly in Dillon’s pit stall to show his displeasure, crewmen from the Richard Childress Racing team of Dillon had to be pulled away from his truck by NASCAR officials.

"I had to do some muscling there at the end and get around Ty," Wallace said, "and keep it away from Harvick. Dodged a few bullets during the race … this is awesome.

"This is good for not only myself and my team, Kyle and Samantha, Jerry, Toyota, everybody involved. This is big."

Wallace is one of nine African-Americans who have competed in the Truck Series since its debut in 1995.

A six-time winner in NASCAR’s K&N Pro Series East, Wallace had a best finish of fourth (at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park) before Saturday’s win. The lack of success, he said, was "tough."

"I forgot how to win," he said. "I forgot what it feels like to win. It’s been over a year. … But this one … I couldn’t even hold it together coming off Turn 4 — I wasn’t even on the throttle … because I was in tears.

"I knew we had a big enough gap, but I was just praying that the checkered flag was out when I did cross it."

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Strong showing would help ease sting of disappointing season

RELATED: Full Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup coverage

MARTINSVILLE, Va. — NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Denny Hamlin said he still hasn’t decided if he will have offseason surgery to correct back issues that have plagued the Joe Gibbs Racing driver. 

"I still haven’t met with the doctors to figure out the best option," Hamlin, 32, said Friday at Martinsville Speedway. "I have been feeling so much better this last month or so that I’d like to steer away from surgery if possible. 

"Obviously I don’t want to just cover up the pain with the treatments that I’ve been doing. That just numbs you a little bit. We still have an issue there that we have to address in the next month or so." 

Hamlin, winner of the Coors Light Pole for Sunday’s Goody’s Headache Relief Shot 500 Powered by Kroger, missed four races earlier this season after suffering a L1 compression fracture when he was involved in a last-lap crash at Auto Club Speedway.

Hamlin is competing in both NASCAR races this weekend at Martinsville — he also won the Keystone Light Pole for the Camping World Truck Series race. The length of the races, as well as the track, he said, minimize the potential for aggravating the injury.

"We’re at a short track so the hits here usually are minimal because your speed is minimal here, but I feel fine," he said. "The last couple of months or so I’ve gotten out of the car and my back has felt as good as it did when I started. I think the truck race here is relatively short, just 200 laps, goes by pretty quick here. Hopefully there are some things I can learn from Saturday that can translate to success on Sunday." 

A four-time winner at Martinsville, Hamlin scored three top-10 finishes in his first five races back following his time out of the car, but five DNFs in the 17 races after his return erased any hopes the No. 11 team had of qualifying for this year’s Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. He enters this weekend’s Cup race 24th in points. 

"One thing I can tell you is that it makes you appreciate the job you have," Hamlin said of his time on the sidelines. "Obviously, the next time we get to Victory Lane it will make me appreciate that moment that much more because it’s been such a struggle. Not only … the back stuff, but I mean we came back and we were pretty good and had two top-fives in a row. Since then, when you lose that edge of being at the top of your sport, it’s making you fight that much harder to get back to the top. 

"So for us, I think that the moment in which we become our old race team that we’ve been for the last seven-and-a-half years and we start winning races again, it’s just going to make me appreciate it that much more. 

"It will be overwhelming, I guess you could say, once we win." 

Hamlin has 22 career Cup wins. Friday’s pole run was his fifth of the 2013 season. He also captured poles at Fontana, Charlotte, Dover and Bristol. 

But those poles haven’t translated into wins — he’s winless this season with four races remaining. The Virginia native has won at least one Cup race each season since joining the circuit full time in 2006. 

"Disappointing, but for a lot of different reasons," Hamlin said of his season thus far. "We actually started the year and we were competing for race wins before we had the crash at Fontana. We were in a position to win that race; Bristol we were pretty good until we had a blown tire. 

"(It’s) disappointing because not only did that take all of our momentum away, but then we were fighting something all the time." 

Blown tires in four consecutive races, he said "kind of takes you out of the Chase picture, and the next thing you know you go into R&D mode and then you really struggle. 

"So, it’s been a very trying year. I guess that would probably be the key word … but you’ve just got to suck it up and realize that we had seven great years and there’s a lot of great drivers that have missed the Chase once or twice and a lot of great drivers that have gone winless throughout a season. 

"It doesn’t make them any less of a driver or hurt their legacy at all because we all know how good they are and we’ve just got to battle through it. This has just been one of those years that’s going to make you tougher and stronger in the long run."

Darian Grubb, Hamlin’s crew chief since 2012, said setup and engine package changes have been nothing more than what the team would normally go through as it tries to improve performance.

"We haven’t thrown away the season by any means," Grubb said Saturday. "As a team trying to get better, you continue to try new and different things, different approaches. I think that was part of our problem before, we didn’t try some of those things."

With temperatures expected to be a bit warmer on Sunday, breaking into the low- to mid-60s, he said the temperature swing makes it "tough … trying to predict how your race package is going to work.

"But I feel like we’ve got a pretty good idea; we’re not very far from our baseline that Denny always runs here. Obviously he knows how to get around this place."

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Live from Kern County Raceway, Bakersfield, Calif.

Watch: NASCAR K&N Pro Series West race, 10 p.m. ET

"Quote."

— Quote author


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Darrell Wallace Jr. becomes first to win in series history

There have been nine African-American drivers who competed in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series:

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Chase Austin, 3 starts (best finish, 13th, Daytona, 2/13/09)
Marc Davis, 1 start (Gateway, 2008)
Bruce Driver, 1 start (Richmond, 1999)
Bill Lester, 142 starts (best finish, 5th, two times, most recent Auto Club Speedway, 2/24/06)
Bobby Norfleet, 1 start (Portland RC, 1999)
Willy T. Ribbs, 23 starts (best finish 13th, Pikes Peak, 5/20/01)
Preston Tutt, 1 start (Chicago MS, 2001)
Darrell Wallace Jr., 19 starts (best finish, 1st, Martinsville, 10/26/13)
Tim Woods III, 5 starts (best finish, 25th, Auto Club Speedway, 11/2/01)

Laps Led:
Wallace 340 (last led 10/26/13 Martinsville Speedway)
Lester 92 (last led 7/14/07 Kentucky Speedway)

African-American wins in NASCAR national series — 2.
*Darrell Wallace Jr., Martinsville Speedway, Oct. 26, 2013; Wallace has won one Truck pole on May 31, 2013 at Dover International Speedway
*Wendell Scott, Dec. 1, 1963, Jacksonville, Fla. (Race was part of 1964 season). Scott won one pole on July 20, 1962 at Savannah (Ga.) Speedway, a ½-mile dirt oval.

The April 22, 2000 event Portland (Ore.) International Raceway was the first for a NASCAR national touring series in which two African-American drivers competed: Lester and Norfleet.

The Sept. 28, 2001 event at South Boston (Va.) Speedway was the first for a NASCAR national touring series in which three African-American drivers competed: Lester, Ribbs and Woods. Bill Lester won pole for NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race May 15, 2003 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. He won back-to-back poles at Kansas and Kentucky Speedways in 2005.

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