Buck Baker personified the term ‘old school.” Elzie Wylie ‘Buck” Baker, winner of 46 NASCAR Sprint Cup races and the series first back-to-back champion, personified the phrase ‘no quarter asked and none given.” Baker, whose NASCAR career spanned portions of four decades beginning in 1949, had one goal: to win. How he got there, well, that was up to Baker. ‘He was the perfect example of how a (stock car) driver used to be; the typical Scotch-Irish driver of the past’ said H.A. ‘Humpy” Wheeler, the former president and general manager of Charlotte Motor Speedway and one-time sportswriter. ‘If you were in a corner and (it was) someplace he wanted to go, hed be there. Either youd be in the wall or he would. However fast the car would go, hed get there in a fairly spectacular fashion. He was one of the best and certainly one of the toughest.” Bakers son, Elzie Wylie ‘Buddy” Baker Jr., puts it this way. ‘He was not a bully. He wasnt out to create problems’ said Baker, who counts the 1980 Daytona 500 and 1972-73 Coca-Cola 600s among 19 NASCAR premier series victories. ‘But he didnt run from them either. If you were racing against him, you didnt like him very much. But you had to be tough back then.” Buck Baker, who died in 2002 at age 83, is among five being inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame on Feb. 8. His fellow members of the class of 2013 the halls fourth are NASCAR premier series champions Herb Thomas and Rusty Wallace; championship car owner Cotton Owens and innovative engine builder, mechanic and crew chief Leonard Wood. For the full story, stats and more on Buck Baker and the Class of 2013, see my NASCAR Hall of Fame Class of 2013 page .
