Bill Lester gives up on Sprint Cup

Bill Lester

The good news for Bill Lester: He's back, racing at Daytona International Speedway . The bad news: His race starts at 2 p.m. He'd really rather be racing at 8 p.m. Lester is entered in the Brumos Porsche 250 Grand-Am race, teamed with Orlando's Ryan Dalziel, a former Champ car driver, in the Riviera Beach-based Orbit Racing Dinan BMW in the Rolex series. At 48, Lester knows he is likely to finish out his racing career where it began, in sports cars, instead of his ultimate goal: NASCAR Sprint Cup. Lester became the first black driver to compete in the Cup series in 20 years when he made two starts in 2006 for Bill Davis Racing. Most of his NASCAR career, though, was spent in the Camping World truck series, where he made 142 starts, won three poles and had seven top-10 finishes. He would liked to have raced longer, and more often in NASCAR, "but I've been fortunate do be able to do what I have on the limited amount of support and funding that I've been able to find." Even when his driving career is over, Lester said he doesn't plan to stray far from motorsports, possibly working to fund minority drivers for the future. "I'd definitely be interested in working with a developmental project, maybe helping find the next Bill Lester, Willy T. Ribbs or Wendell Scott." Orlando Sentinel