Brian Donovan, a former Newsday investigative reporter, has won more than forty journalism awards, including the Pulitzer Prize and Columbia University’s Paul Tobenkin Award for reporting on racial and ethnic intolerance. Driving on the EMRA Vanderbilt Cup circuit, he has won a season championship, as well as a track championship at Pennsylvania’s Pocono Raceway and dozens of races from Canada to West Virginia. He gained exclusive access to Wendell Scott over the last fourteen months of his life and interviewed more than two hundred individuals to capture this epic, previously untold American story. He lives on Long Island.
"Hard Driving is an almost bigger-than-life account of Scott,
NASCAR's first and only black driver to compete on a regular basis.
. . . Donovan tells it like it was. . . . A copy of Brian Donovan's
masterpiece should be in every library in the country, including
schools. No value can be placed on its worth, not only from the
stock car racing side, but from the black history aspect. . . . The
only down side of this release is the fact Wendell Scott never had
the opportunity to read it. Read it. You will be glad you did. And
I'll add this little warning. The last part may bring a tear or two
to your eyes."
— Morris Stephenson in The Franklin News-Post
"Donovan has written a book that is both a history and a sports
classic."
— Detroit Free Press
"A fascinating book . . . a wonderful story about a really
interesting guy."
— Toronto Star
"The gripping story of a fascinating, brave man who deserves
serious recognition for his solitary accomplishment. . . . Donovan
has produced one of the most compelling sports biographies of this
or any year. A must-read for NASCAR fans."
— (starred review) Booklist
"In this excellent biography, Donovan, a Pulitzer Prize-winning
newspaper reporter and seasoned race car driver, recounts the
overlooked life of Wendell Scott, the one-time Danville, Va.,
moonshine runner who broke the color barrier in stock-car racing in
1952 and competed for more than 20 years in a sport dominated by
Southern whites... Donovan's writing is well-paced and measured,
clearly depicting the complex atmosphere of race relations in the
segregated South. His extensive reporting, including interviews
with Scott before he died in 1990, combined with his descriptive
and enjoyable prose about racing, make this book a deeply
compelling story."
— (starred review) Publishers Weekly
"In Hard Driving, Brian Donovan has given us a beautifully
insightful look at Wendell Scott—a vital NASCAR pioneer—that’s
exceedingly well-written, and researched with the kind of zeal and
expertise necessary for a tale that covers so rocky a road. Talk
about a necessary sports biography. Hard Driving is
unquestionably a winner."
— Robert Edelstein, author of Full Throttle: The Life and Fast
Times of NASCAR Legend Curtis Turner
Brian Donovan has written a surprisingly moving and powerful
account of Wendell Scott’s utterly American Odyssey. It offers a
window into a world not that far removed from our own, as we
struggle still to judge each person, as Dr. King said, on the
content of their character–not the color of their skin.
– Ken Burns, filmmaker, winner of three Emmy Awards, including one
for Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack
Johnson
Wendell Scott was to NASCAR what Jackie Robinson was to baseball.
The difference was that Robinson played in liberal Brooklyn and had
the backing of Branch Rickey, and Scott raced in the segregated
South and hadÉnobody. The hard-working, dauntless Scott, like
Robinson, should be a national hero. Until that day, he has Brian
Donovan’s moving biography as his legacy.
– Peter Golenbock, author of Miracle: Bobby Allison and the
Saga of the Alabama Gang
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