Motorcoach driver fails in second attempt at NASCAR lawsuit

By Bob Pockrass - Associate Editor

Friday, March 21, 2008

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A U.S. District Court Judge has dismissed a second lawsuit that David Scott, a black motorcoach driver who worked for Penske Racing, had filed against NASCAR stemming from a highly publicized 1999 incident at New Hampshire International Speedway.

The incident occurred when Scott was greeted by a pair of motorcoach drivers, one of whom was wearing a white pillow case over his head as if he were a member of the Ku Klux Klan. NASCAR indefinitely suspended the two motorcoach drivers involved.

Scott had claimed NASCAR and sister company International Speedway Corp. discriminated against him by not granting him a vendor contract he sought and that NASCAR discriminated against him for not following through with an alleged promise to hire him following the incident. The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in New York City.

Judge Deborah Batts ruled in January that the statute of limitations had passed for all of the allegations except for the vendor-contract situation. The judge had ordered Scott to re-file the lawsuit to assert a plausible claim and the grounds for it.

The judge then dismissed the remainder of the case Wednesday, ruling that the new complaint did not expand on the original one.

“[Scott] was given explicit direction as to what set of facts could survive another motion to dismiss but chose not to change a single word in the description of the underlying events,” Judge Batts wrote.

In past court filings, NASCAR says that Scott was given several work opportunities that were declined and he was not qualified for the
racing official job he wanted.

Scott can ask the judge to reconsider her ruling and also can appeal the judge’s decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.