After watching Bubba Wallace, Lavar Scott ecstatic to begin full-time NASCAR career

Lavar Scott has always been around racing.

It started with his grandfather, an automotive shop owner who was always enamored with race cars. That passion led Scott’s mother to become a drag racer, and his older brother was driving quarter midgets before Scott climbed into his first race car.

Now 20 years old and a member of NASCAR’s Drive for Diversity program, Scott will compete full time in the ARCA Menards Series. An impressive run at Daytona last year kicked off a season in which Scott placed third in the East series standings, and he accomplished his goal of securing a season-long ride.

When he was growing up in Carneys Point, N.J., Scott knew who NASCAR’s top drivers were. He’d be on the go at tracks around the Northeast every weekend, but because of his love for the sport, he would often go back and watch highlights of races whenever he could.

And when Bubba Wallace started racing in NASCAR’s Cup Series, Scott felt a sense of motivation. Not only did watching a fellow Black driver succeed inspire his own career, he feels it can open the door for a more diverse sport moving forward.

“Seeing people like you doing big things at a high stage — at something you want to do — truly does give you motivation and inspire you,” Scott said in an interview with The Charlotte Observer. “I felt it. I watched Bubba and was like, ‘Oh my gosh. I just want to do that.’ If he could do it, I know I could do it.

“The seat I’m sitting in right now at Rev Racing, he probably has sat in the same seat. So, knowing that I’m kind of on that path that he was on, and he did it, why can’t I? Why can’t two million kids behind me do the same thing?”

All in the family for Lavar Scott

Scott’s grandfather, Wayne, started micro sprint racing at a young age and always had an interest in cars. He opened an automotive repair and maintenance business in Carneys Point in 1978, and his love for racing was embraced by his family — including Lavar’s mother, who has an NHRA license, in addition to many of his aunts and uncles.

At age 5, Lavar Scott joined his older brother racing dirt quarter midgets at Blackbird Quarter Midget Racetrack in Delaware, across the Delaware River from his South Jersey hometown.

“When your parents are doing something, you kind of want to do it and be like them,” Scott said. “And it just progressed from there. We started picking up wins and championships, moving to higher classes, got the ride with Rev Racing. Got in contact with them, came here for the combine and it all played out perfectly.”

There’s only one asphalt track, Wall Stadium Speedway, near where Scott grew up. On Wednesdays during some summers, he and his family would go race on the dirt track at the West End Fairgrounds near Susquehanna, Pa., before micro races at Atco Raceway on Saturdays and quarter midgets Sundays at Blackbird.

‘Happy to be in this position’

This season, Scott will be teammates with second-year driver Andres Perez de Lara. Part of NASCAR’s Drive for Diversity program, he joined Rev Racing in 2021.

After initially joining the team, Scott realized the trajectory his career could take. Nick Sanchez, now 22 and a recent ARCA Menards Series champion, also came to Rev Racing as part of NASCAR’s Drive for Diversity program — and is the reigning rookie of the year in the Craftsman Truck Series.

Last year at Daytona, despite having less time to prepare and an unfamiliarity with superspeedway racing, Scott led for 14 laps and was in contention for most of the race.

It marked the first of 11 ARCA Menards Series races he ran in last year — including all eight in its East series. He finished third in the East standings with five top-five and seven Top 10 finishes, and this year, will get to run in all 20 ARCA races.

“It inspired me watching (Wallace),” Scott said. “So, I know that if it did it to me, it’s most likely doing it to 95% of the other kids out there watching us. It’s real, and I’m just happy to be in this position.”