CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- A former NASCAR team member who was the
victim of a 1999 racial prank is suing NASCAR, claiming the
sanctioning body failed to deliver on a promise to provide him work
after the incident.
David Scott, a former motorcoach driver for car owners Roger
Penske and Michael Kranefuss, is seeking back pay and compensatory
damages in his suit filed Aug. 8 in the Seventh District Court in
New York City.
Scott, who is black, was subjected to racial slurs and
harassment in several run-ins with a handful of white motorcoach
drivers during the 1999 season. The situation exploded during a
July race at New Hampshire International Speedway, when two white
motorcoach drivers confronted Scott with one wearing a white
pillowcase over his head to imitate a Ku Klux Klansman.
The coach drivers, Mike Culberson and Ray Labbe, were fired from
their respective teams and NASCAR revoked the licenses needed to
work at the race track.
Scott claims that during NASCAR's investigation into the
incident that president Mike Helton, who was the vice president of
competition at the time, gave Scott several ways to get in touch
with him and other high-ranking NASCAR officials.
"We're doing this to make sure that if there are any other
incidents you can contact us, and if you work for us there won't be
any problem," the suit quotes Helton as saying. "We'll just hire
you so we won't have to worry about anyone bothering you."
But Scott claims that when the incident became public a few
weeks later at a race in Watkins Glen, N.Y., former vice president
George Pyne sent a NASCAR plane to the track to immediately fly him
home to North Carolina.
"NASCAR is concerned about your safety, there are going to be
reporters at the track," the suit quotes Pyne as saying. "We want
to control the situation. We don't want this to get out of hand.
We're concerned about racing fans throwing objects. This is a move
to protect you. People may view you as a trouble maker. I'm gonna
send my plane up to get you."
Scott did not return to the track again in 1999, and accepted a
settlement on his contract with Penske and Kranefuss in early 2000.
But he said he only did so because he believed NASCAR would be
hiring him in some capacity, as he claims Helton and Pyne had
promised to do.
Helton was not available for comment Tuesday, but NASCAR
spokesman Ramsey Poston said Scott was never promised employment
within NASCAR, but officials did try to help him land outside jobs
-- which Scott turned down.
"We did everything we said we would do, and that was to help
identify opportunities," Poston said.
Scott, now 43 and living in Oregon, said he only wanted to work
for NASCAR because he enjoyed being at the race track and part of
the action.
"We sat down and talked about employment inside of NASCAR, but
my impression was they wanted me to get a job at Bilo grocery or
UPS," he told The Associated Press by phone. "That's not what I
wanted to do, and that's not what we discussed. I needed them to
help me find a job within the sport. I didn't need help finding
work outside of the sport."
Scott said that after he left his job as coach driver, he
maintained a dialogue with Helton and Pyne for the next several
years discussing possible opportunities within NASCAR. But he
claims a voice mail message left by Helton in February of this year
made it clear that there would be no job.
"Basically the phone message that he left for me was, `There is
nothing for you, NASCAR has done all that they can do,' and that
was it," Scott said.
That message prompted him to file his suit.
Ricardo Aguirre, Scott's New York-based attorney, said he knows
the time elapsed between the 1999 incident and the filing of the
suit is suspicious but blamed the delay on Scott being strung along
by NASCAR officials.
"The lay person is going to say this guy is an idiot, he's just
out to get some money," Aguirre said. "But up until February of
this year, he had a mantra going on, there was an integral
friendship and a relationship. He was in constant contact with Mike
Helton. There was a dialogue."
Poston maintains NASCAR never promised Scott a job and acted
appropriately following the incident.
"Back in 1999, both NASCAR and the employers of those
responsible for the deplorable prank took swift and severe
action," he said. "As we said seven years ago at the time of the
incident, there is no place in NASCAR for intolerance. NASCAR has
not and will not stand for harassment of any kind."