Buck Baker
3/4/19 - 4/14/02
Charlotte, NC

635 career Cup Starts (1949 - 1976)
Best Finish: 1st, 46 times
Most Recent Win: 1964 Southern 500 @ Darlington (9/7/64)
2-time Cup Champion ('56, '57)
Elzie Wylie "Buck" Baker was one of the most successful drivers of the 1950's.  Baker's racing career began in Greenville, SC in 1939.  Baker was one the thirty-three drivers who competed in the innagural NASCAR Strictly Stock at Charlotte Speedway in 1949, where he finished 11th.  He won his first career race at Columbia Speedway in 1952.  His first big win came in the 1953 Southern 500 at Darlington.  Buck would go on to win at least one race a year for the next ten seasons.

Baker got the biggest break of his NASCAR career after the fourth race of the 1956 season, when businessman Carl Kiekhaefer hired him to be a driver for his new team.  The results were noticed immediately, as Baker won in his first start for Kiekhaefer at Phoenix.  Buck put on one of the most impressive  performances in NASCAR history, winning 14 times and finishing out of the top ten just nine times in forty-eight starts.  Baker left the Kiekhaefer team at the end of the season.  The following season, Buck fielded his own team. He won the championship by 704 points over second place Tim Flock.  He became the first back-to-back champion in NASCAR history, winning ten times and finishing in the top 5 thirty-eight times in forty starts.

Baker continued as one of NASCAR's top drivers into the early 60's, although he was never able to return to championship form.  He would win the Southern 500 twice more, in 1960 and again in '64.  The 1964 win came behind the wheel of Ray Fox's Dodge.  It would prove to be Baker's final NASCAR Cup victory.

Buck continued to race in NASCAR's top division on a part-time basis from 1967 through 1976.  He focused, with success, on competing in NASCAR's short-lived Grand American division in theearly 70's.  His final Cup race was at Charlotte in 1976, where he finished 24th.  After his retirement, Baker started the Buck Baker Driving School to help drivers hone in ther skills.  He was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1990 and named one of NASCAR's 50 Greatest Drivers in 1998.  He died of natural causes at the age of eighty-three.
Buck poses with car owner B.A. Pless.  Baker grabbed the first of his forty-six career victories in this Hudson Hornet on April 12, 1952 at Columbia Speedway in Columbia, SC.
Baker powered his Chevrolets to ten victories in 1957, becoming NASCAR's first back-to-back champion.  Baker won the first NASCAR race ever hald at Watkins Glen that year.
Racing became a family afair in 1959 when Buck's son, Buddy, took to the track.  Buddy would go on to win 19 times in his 33-year career, including the 1980 Daytona 500.
After a three year retirement, Buck returned to NASCAR in 1976 at the age of 57.  He finished sixth in his first race back at Darlington, driving this car for Junie Donlavey.  He started just seven more races that year, wrapping up his career with a 24th place finish at Charlotte.
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