Winning in Reverse

by Bill Lester

NASCAR has traditionally been a southern, white man's sports, but it was knocked off its axis when Bill Lester entered the playing field. Bill did not grow up in the sport as so many other drivers had. He enjoyed racing as a side hobby while he worked as an engineer at Hewlett-Packard until, at the age of 40, and while standing on the brink of peril or promise, he quit his job to pursue racing full time. Blessed with natural talent, Bill still had a trifecta of odds against him: he was black, he was middle aged, and he wasn't a southerner. Bill was not the quintessential "good old boy" that...