Everett, Wash.
Published: Thursday, July 9, 2009

NASCAR legend Baker got it done at superspeedways

By Scott Adamson
Scripps Howard News Service

 With the Pepsi 400 in the books, three of the four restrictor-plate races on the NASCAR Sprint Cup schedule are done. The last of the season comes Nov.1 at Talladega when the Chase for the Cup should be hot and heavy.

Sometimes when you watch these races, it's hard to figure out how drivers are able to do what they do with a "governor" on their engines.

Stock car legend Buddy Baker knows. And he used to teach drivers just exactly how to get it done.

Now a co-host of "Live Shift" on Sirius Satellite Radio, Baker was also something of a restrictor-plate teacher. Although most of his advice is verbal these days, Baker was in the car and giving hands-on instruction as late as the early 2000s.

Baker, now 68, was the first driver to break the 200-mph barrier at Talladega, so he knows a thing or two about negotiating the fast tracks.

If you can't figure out the plate at Daytona or Talladega -- and figure out how to draft -- you can't win.

"When I worked on those superspeedway projects, it kept me up on what the race cars felt like," Baker said. "I felt like I could contribute to what makes the cars run fast at Talladega and Daytona because they were both my best tracks. Restrictor-plate racing is like grown-up chess. You have to make the right moves at the right times and stay with the company you're comfortable with.

"It's like the old saying about how you have to play the game with people at least as good or better than you to stay in the game. I think the biggest thing is getting with the right people. Get comfortable, get both feet on the floor then go after them." With 32 years of racing experience under his belt, Baker is good for more than just restrictor-plate advice. While superspeedways were his forte, Baker was a 19-time winner on the Winston Cup circuit and competitive everywhere he raced.

"I do a lot of work with (Buck Baker Driving School) and the biggest thing about racing as long as I did was that I learned a lot," he said. "Sometimes you notice even the greatest golfers will go up to a club pro and ask them to watch their swing and try to figure out what they're doing wrong.

"Sometimes just the verbal part that you can add to a certain place on the race track is important."

Baker still offers the best description of the draft I've ever heard.

"This is the best way I can explain it," Baker said. "You've run across a paper bag on the interstate, and you look back and the bag is actually coming towards the car. That's because when you take a racecar to Talladega or Daytona, it cuts a big hole in the air with the front end of the car and then the air going down the side splits.

"It starts to turbulate as it goes down over the sides and over the top. When it gets to the back of the car, it actually comes forward toward the car and that's what you call drag."

With the Car of Tomorrow, drafting is even harder than it used to be.

Too bad Baker can't be out there to show 'em how it's done.

Contact Scott Adamson of the Anderson Independent-Mail in Anderson, S.C., at adamsons(at)independentmail.com.
© 2009The Daily Herald Co., Everett, WA