Buck Baker

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.