[Deathwatch] Buck Baker, NASCAR driver, 83

[Deathwatch Central <cdw@slick.org>]

Winston Cup Champ Buck Baker Dies 
Mon Apr 15, 9:33 PM ET 

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Buck Baker, a two-time Winston Cup champion who was
included on NASCAR's 50 greatest drivers list, has died. He was 83.

Baker died late Sunday night at Carolinas Medical Center. Family
members said he was in the hospital for a procedure involving a
pacemaker that had been implanted earlier.

Baker was part of NASCAR's history, learning his driving skills while
running moonshine along the backroads of North Carolina. He was a city
bus driver in Charlotte when he turned to racing full-time, competing
in NASCAR's inaugural season.

He went on to win 46 Winston Cup races — 13th on the all-time list —
and 44 poles. He was the first back-to-back series champion, winning
titles in 1956 and 1957.

"Throughout the entire racing world, I don't know of anybody who would
said he didn't give 110 percent from the time they dropped the green
flag until the time the race was over," said his son Buddy Baker,
himself a winner of 19 NASCAR Winston Cup races. "He was that same way
in life, too."

Buck Baker, born Elzie Wylie Baker on March 4, 1919, in Richburg, S.C.,
started 631 races, seventh most in NASCAR, and ran the most laps and
miles for three consecutive years beginning in 1955. He was a
three-time winner of the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway, one of
NASCAR's most storied races.

"There was a time in the modified division that nobody could beat him,"
Buddy Baker said. "He won 27 in a row once at old Charlotte fairgrounds
track, and the bad part was that we were the promoters at that track.
They'd boo him coming in and boo him going out, but the next day
everybody would be hanging around at his shop."

Buck Baker, who retired in 1976, was inducted into the National
Motorsports Press Association's Hall of Fame in 1982 and the
International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1990.

For the past 20 years, Baker had operated the Buck Baker Racing School,
one of the first schools to teach the skills involved in stock car
racing. The school was based at North Carolina Speedway in Rockingham
and also operated at tracks in Atlanta and Bristol, Tenn.

Four-time Winston Cup champion Jeff Gordon drove a stock car for the
first time at Baker's driving school in Rockingham, the first step in
his move from open-wheel racing in Indiana to the NASCAR stardom he now
enjoys.

Baker is survived by his wife of 30 years, Susan Painter Baker; two
sons, Buddy of Sherrills Ford and Randy of Kannapolis; a daughter,
Susie Baker of Charlotte, a sister, two grandsons and two great
granddaughters.

The funeral will be held Thursday at the Calvary Church Chapel in
Charlotte.