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Bill Lester
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Bill Lester (born February 6, 1961) is the driver of the #15 Chevrolet Silverado in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. He is the only African-American presently competing full-time in a NASCAR circuit. In 1984, he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in EECS from the University of California, Berkeley. Fresh out of college, he worked at Hewlett-Packard for a few years before deciding he wanted to focus on auto racing.
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It wasn't 400 miles and he was nowhere near competitive with the leaders, but Bill Lester was plenty happy with his 32nd-place finish Sunday in the NASCAR Nextel Cup event at Michigan International Speedway. Lester, the first black driver to race in NASCAR's top series since Willy T. Ribbs ran three races in 1986, showed marked improvement in his second Cup start.
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BDR's original foray into the Truck Series, it debuted in 2004 at the Florida Dodge Dealers 250, where Bill Lester drove it to a sixteenth place run. He posted just one top-ten that year and finished 22nd in points. The next season, he won two poles (back-to-back at Kansas and Kentucky), had a best finish of fifth and moved up to seventeenth in points. Lester failed to finish in the top-ten during the 2006 season and dropped to twentieth in points. Tyler Walker began the season driving the renumbered #36 truck full-time in 2007, with sponsorship from 360 OTC. Six races into the season, rookie Ryan Mathews replaced Walker after it was learned that Walker was suspended for violating NASCAR's substance abuse policy, and the team had lost its sponsor, 360 OTC (which wanted #36).
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!William "Bill" Lester attended the University of Okahoma prior to his marriage in 1931. Bill and his wife, Doris, moved to Fairfax, OK 1 June 1931 where he started with "The Fairfax Chief" newspaper, becoming Editor and later President of the Company. The family lived in Fairfax, OK for about 5 years. The family lived in several other towns in Oklahoma where he worked on newspapers, settling in Pauls Valley, OK in the fall 1936, Bill still working on the newspaper. While living in Pauls Valley he became interested in the social work field and became a case worker for the Welfare Department. After a year in Nowata, OK, the family moved to Norman, OK in the Fall 1942, where he served as County Welfare Director.
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William Alexander Lester III, known simply as Bill Lester, was born on February 6, 1961, in Washington, D.C. Soon thereafter his family moved to California and Lester grew up in the San Francisco area. He was raised in an upper-middle class academic family. His father had a Ph.D. in theoretical chemistry from Catholic University and Lester's childhood was filled with science, math, and computers. "I can definitely lay credit to my role model being my father," Lester is quoted as saying on the African Americans in MotorSports website. "He's a very strong man, a very strong African-American, and a very accomplished man at the same time."
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When Bill Lester was chosen to drive full time in a NASCAR national touring series, his biggest dream came true. But his path to that dream has been very different from that of most of the drivers he competes against.
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Bill Lester