|
 |
|
Date of Birth: 1-25-1941
Place of Birth: Florence , SC
Name at Birth: Elzie Wylie Baker
Years: 1959-1992
Starts: 688
Poles: 38
Wins: 19
Top 5”s: 202
Top 10”s: 311
Buddy Baker, best known as “Lead Foot” or the “Gentile Giant”, was the son of two time winner of the NASCAR championship and Hall of Fame member Buck Baker. In 1970, he became the first driver to ever exceed 200mph on a closed course. The same year, with a victory at the Southern 500, he became the first NASCAR driver to win the same race at the same venue as his father.
Buddy Baker drove one of the fastest and scariest cars in NASCAR. It was called the “Gray Ghost”. The reason it was given this name was because the car would come up behind other drivers and blend in with the track making it hard to see. The hood, top and rear deck were gray and the sides were black making it difficult for other drivers to see till it was past them. NASCAR made Baker put Day-Glo strips on the front of the car so it would be more visible in the rearview mirrors of the other drivers.
Buddy won the 1980 Daytona 500 and his victory remains the fastest Daytona 500 ever run with an average speed of 177.602mph.
Buddy Baker was the first driver to win NASCAR’s “Big Four”, the Daytona 500, Aarons 499, Coca-Cola 600 and the Southern 500. Only 8 drivers have accomplished this feat, and Buddy is the only one of the eight to not have won a championship.
He owned a car with Danny Schiff from 1985-1989 and was instrumental in the career of Jimmy Spencer. He competed in 2 IROC series.
In 1997, Buddy Baker joined his father Buck as an inductee in the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in Talledega , Alabama . He was inducted into the Charlotte Motor Speedway Court of Legends in 1995 and into the National Motorsports Press Association Hall of Fame in 1997. Buddy Baker was named one of NASCARS’s 50 Greatest Drivers in 1998.
Buddy had many famous quotes, but one of the best was “It killed my pride if I didn’t run up front and if you didn’t win, it was like being the second man to discover America ”.
|