Named one of NASCAR's 50 greatest drivers in 1998, Buck Baker won 46
races and was a two-time champion in NASCAR's top division. He entered
636 races in his career, including NASCAR's first "strictly-stock" (now
Winston Cup) race at Charlotte in 1949.
He won the 1956 NASCAR championship while driving for Carl Kiekhaefer,
one of the first multi-car owners in NASCAR history. In 1957, he drove
for Bud Moore and won his second championship, becoming the first
driver to win back-to-back championships. He won many races in other
series, including NASCAR's Grand American series, and he won the first
NASCAR road race at Watkins Glen in 1957. He was also a three time
winner of the Southern 500 at Darlington.
One of Baker's sons, Buddy Baker, followed his dad into NASCAR racing in
the early 1960s and the elder Baker retired from driving in 1973,
although he made a brief comeback attempt in 1976. In 1980, he founded
the Buck Baker Racing School at the North Carolina Motor Speedway in
Rockingham, NC and operated the school until his death. It was at this
school that Winston Cup Champion Jeff Gordon first drove a NASCAR stock
car. The school later expanded its operation to the Atlanta Motor
Speedway, and the Bristol Motor Speedway. Buck Baker was inducted into
the National Motorsports Press Association's Hall of Fame in 1982, and
the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1990.
