TNN "The Great Drivers" - Buddy Baker

we might be out doing some fishing in this boat hi I'm Brock Yates and this happens to be one of the fastest bass boats on the lake and its owner one of the fastest drivers in Grand National stock car racing today it's also a very intriguing individual and I think you're going to enjoy meeting them because today the man we meet is Buddy Baker number 21 on the great drivers [Music] to Buddy Baker second place is no place known for his prowess on highbank superspeedways Baker is a relentless competitor who refuses to settle for anything less than outright victory his win in the 1980 Daytona 500 in which he averaged over a hundred and seventy seven miles an hour fans is the fastest 500-mile race in history the son of retired grand national Starbuck Baker buddy now limits is racing to about 20 Super Speedway races a year he has 19 grand national wins to his credit and spends most of his leisure time bass fishing near his feet front home at Lake Norman North Carolina Baker is also an amateur painter and has two sons Brian and Brandon who aspire to racing career buddy I'll tell you something this looks like a grand national version of a best boat well buck it's one of the best folks I've ever had I mean for fishing and everything it's equipped with everything that side craft and everybody could put on it and it's just a super boat it runs right around 70 miles an hour we've got power trim for the motor if you get into a shower water area you got foot controls and all and button it just actually raises the engine up so you can go into a foot and a half of water and just keep going right along and it's a lake good for fishing is it a good bass bass like I think it's very good it's got a lot of stripes striping bass in here a lot of crappie and a lot of largemouth and it just depends on the time of the year just I was really hoping for good weather today because we have located the stripers right there and last week I caught about 7:00 right off to the end of my boathouse out here you know buddy you're a guy that's got a reputation as being one of the very fastest race drivers in history it would seem kind of odd contrast that you'd like fishing that's so quiet and kind of peaceful and away from all that speed I'm not really that's that's the whole point of getting out on the lake with a good friend I did oh you know I guess it's come up for the weekend or something and going out on the lake and getting away from racing you live it every day like I do when you get a chance to get out and do something that's totally away from it you know going to the spot this boats pretty quick but when you really get there and shut everything down put the electric motor in the water and begin to fish then you start talking about fishing your mind gets away from your business and when you go back to it you gotta first approach how many days here can you get out and fish well unfortunately I was really looking forward to taking the fishing today but whether it's just too bad it just it freezing now and it's raining pretty hard but it's not typical around here we get the fish about four days out of the week or in our seats and then post-invasion foods and I'm lucky to get a day out of the week and when we come back we're gonna kick back with Buddy Baker and spend a little time talking about some other aspects of his very intriguing life so stay with us on the great drivers [Music] mr. breaker I got to tell you something this is a fantastic lake house I just I never would have imagined that a guy like yourself who'd spent most of his life I presume sitting in race cars would have the time to put together a little kind of sanctuary out here by the lake like this well then there's actually been a project just something to really put a lot of time into and the good part about it I didn't have to hurry because it's like he said it's the lake house and something to really enjoy so if I wanted to do a wall today I did a wall today if I wanted to design a bathroom and and and build it that's what I did and it's just then I think as far as relaxing it's been as the relaxing is going fishing or anything that you do in leisure because it is a project that I'm not hurrying on and I'll go to little flea markets and things you know when I'm at the racetrack at Pocono or either in Michigan or places like that I'll go to flea markets and I'll find a little dish or a little coffee table or a little chair or something and maybe not buy anything spend an hour so after a practice some days and uh it's rather been a lot of fun you know you mentioned a word relaxed I can remember when I first ran into you by I suppose probably back in the middle sixties and you know you are a lot more relaxed now you you were under a lot of pressure when you first started this business do I think you had a harder apprenticeship than a lot of guys don't you I mean the first few years were tough on you well you know it was a situation I guess that you create for yourself but I am from a racing family my father was quite successful and I know myself if I have been a failure it would have been the end of me because I wanted to succeed so so much that had dominated my life and uh in turn when I was young I did some crazy things on the racetrack I was like he said in a hurry I missed a lot of good friends on the way up because of I am patience as far as I wanted to be a top driver the first year and they you know you have to say you did and our sport and as I got a little bit older and started winning races and had better car owners and and I really had the top ride I started slowing down and realizing that there's a lot more to life than just being at race track a little self satisfaction of doing a job around here a lot of times there's a reward similar to achievements on the racetrack but he started out you were that Ryu and Richard Petty were really the first of the second generation of great drivers to come out and ask our and grand national racing in you know Richard really was successful so much more quickly than you were did that add pressure to you I mean did was the press and fans and whatever constantly kind of implying they were what's the matter with Baker because here's Richard he came along and he's winner right away of course we knew that their tradition behind the petty family and the race cars that Richard was getting we're a whole lot different than you but it still must they added some personal pressure on you didn't it well what you're talking about he moved into this father's racing operation now in my own mind at that particular time I knew that I was driving cars that were what you call second-class race cars they were good cars but they were not winners and Richard moved in and and great equipment I was running sportsman modified I'd run in five and six times a week when Richard was running nothing but Grand National the pressure never bothered me I raced the Richard for two years and I never run a parallel in my life with Richard Petty because I've won races that I know that he couldn't won and I'm sure he's won a bunch that I couldn't have won but I never ever put myself as as an understudy to somebody that was going along fast there was a whole bunch of people in that particular time it was starting now the Richard Petty would overshadow dad they let it enter into their career but the good part is I've been in sport now for 25 years and I want it most of the major speed waves and a lot of them many times and as far as my own self-satisfaction of what I've done I feel like I've accomplished pretty much what I wanted to do I've never run for the point championship I'd like to do that sometime but all I know when the day comes that I have to put the helmet back in the in the back of the house here and say it's all over I feel like I've had a good career and met a lot of great people and you know I'm not shower enough that when I quit racing that's the end of everything I have other interests that that I feel like will be a part of my life when I do quit well it's you've not run a full schedule for a number of years to run the major speed ways and it must be that you already started to expand your interest then and thinking about other things and you've never been a guy that have been totally wired into the racing isn't the only thing in your life well you know I don't think you can do that it's like Cale Yarborough I gathered I really respect and I wouldn't tell him that you know we're competitors but no I respect him because he does have other interests he owns a car dealership he keeps itself very much in the flow of things and when he quits racing they'll just move into his business world and you know no matter how much you love racing then and of course I'll always be around it I have two sons right now they'd have an interest of again in racing and I would do anything that I could to help them but when it's over I will always relate to racing and go to them and enjoy the fun and excitement of the sport but I also will be able to walk away with the feeling that that I was a part of the sport and and one of the better drivers and that's all you can ask for well your your involvement in the sport has been it's really been growing you know and your you you've grown every year that you've been in the sport successfully I mean you've gotten to be you're more of a factor every time you come on the racetrack and it must be satisfying not to start out as a nickel rocket as a war and then go into decline you know you yeah you know just blow your wad right at the start as junior Thompson said about some of the guys that were starting out right now they're practicing medicine and never went to school you know and I did go to school I run short tracks and and modified since sportsman and I took a car that was ten miles an hour slower Daytona and led to race and and you know there's an accomplishment when you take something that's not supposed to be up front and going that way there's as much satisfaction of doing that is to take the best car and and go backwards two or three positions you may finish one position ahead of me but if I've come from 30th 30th spot to first and then slipped back to fourth that's not too bad let me go out on the racetrack and pray that nobody messed up in front of me and still I was running with the lead cars without any brakes and it's a racetrack that you must use brakes or at that time I thought she had have brakes to get in number three and number one corner and I ended that third place overall and you know the crew would have to catch me coming in the pits for five pits before mine and drag yourself till they got me stopped and one go back out and we would run really good and then of course caution laps was the problem you know trying to negotiate cars speeding up and slowing down under the caution to close up everything here I have no brakes at all and I'd go buy them all down on the left-hand side and everything and court NASCAR would get nervous about that because they thought I wouldn't stay in line they didn't know it in our brakes right I should have known now with dragging half the bed area down there but you know when the race was over I left there let's browse the man that won the race because I knew that I took a race car that most people would have parked and ended up in the top five and I was quite proud of that you fish as hard or play golf as hard as your race oh no no there's only in my opinion I think if you put on 110 percent in one area the fishing is nice and I enjoy and that's what it's for for the enjoyment I'll catch as many fish as most people though out here but you know I'm not one who gets up at two o'clock in the morning and wakes up half the neighborhood to go with me and stuff like that I'll get up to seven o'clock in the morning and half them coming in at that time and go out and have myself a good day but no I'm an I'm not a die-hard outdoorsman like I once was I used to go to Santee Cooper and get up at 3 o'clock in the morning and have breakfast at 3:30 and and hit the lake and sit out there with ice tripping off the fishing line and you know I thought that was living but I take a little more time and stuff when I can I I just then go out there daylight and cast the line and see a raindrop or something fall off over night ice and and you know I do put a lot into my racing and I think of all things that kills my pride if I don't run up front you like to run up front you're one of those guys you don't like you'd like to put the car out front and stay there you don't like the pace sit back and if you possibly can you'd like to lead it right it's kind of like the fourth man that discovered America I mean you know it really don't matter if you don't win that's well logic of driving the racecar eyes - first of all make sure your sponsor gets his maximum out of it and a self pride and the crew you know they win the race for you as much as you win for yourself and if they give you a hundred percent and you can't retaliate with a hundred percent if you do that you're supposed to win and if you don't you leave there a little bit you know I've had a lot of people think you're a different person on race day than you are and everyday life oh I hope so mmm cuz I never get to the racetrack if I am like I am every day I have a natural tendency I'd do nothing better than anybody I think so you can shut it off like on a day when you're not racing you can pretty well come out here and do a little fishing or knock around with a lot of Grand National guys that live around like Norman I know a lot of any do you see a lot of them and you hang out with a lot of them well we don't hang out much you know we're competitors but I think it's like football players are boxers for anybody involved in sports when I do retire they'll be my best friends because we're no longer competitors and you have a certain well we're alike we have things to talk about and discuss but right now I gotta go to the racetrack with Dale Earnhardt and Tim Richmond and these guys that live up here and we're running $450,000 and Daytona well I'm I don't want them or myself to misinterpret friendship because I I want to win when I go and I don't I'll make any qualms about it they're good people and and I like them you know all but when it comes race day my plan of attack is to win would you race if they're won money wasn't as big as it is now I'd run for nothing if I could win what do you oh yeah that then in the fire still burning as hard as it was say 10 15 years ago oh no doubt about it you know as far as the economic part of my life I'm I'm not worried about tomorrow the next day or the next two years but you know I've been very fortunate I've had some awful good race cars and I've been able to save and and invest in things and you know I don't strictly Drive just for what I get out of it I still enjoy the sport and and somebody said today you can go to Canada and go fishing for a week or you Daytona I'm not ready to go to Daytona you know that to me it's my life and that's what I like but still I have to get away from it every once in a while and go boat riding and do a little fishing and stuff like that just to get away from it for a little while that kind of increases the old intensity when it comes back again huh well you know it's like being in a trance for five hours a lot of times you you live your your job and to be able to come home and take your shoes off and not in the boat and get away from it this that's pure medicine I don't mean to belabor this point but this is a fantastic house and I just the decoration in here is unbelievable and in the oriental theme I where'd you get interested in where you are that's it that's a very good question I guess about six seven years ago I went into a guys home out in California and it was all oriental antiques and the screens and the ivory-inlaid and the Pearl inlaid things and I was I was taken by it all really I mean just the simplest thing was so beautiful you know finished off like that and I got interested in it and as I travel around everywhere of course I I'll pick up a knick-knack here and another thing band all right you know you just run into extra good finds around the country and so let me pay dearly for and so let me absolutely still but the whole idea is to not go with our Dean you have to buy anything mm-hmm you know did pick a good thing up go with it you do a little painting too from time to time okay I mean house painting yeah well you can always tell one of my paintings they're half done I I'll start out in the phone will ring and somebody will say when agent and another town or we need to go test this or I think I better run up Stewart and see the Wood Brothers and you can always tell really yeah it's either half done or just a rough sketch if you ever get around to finishing who knows you may be hanging in museums I don't mean you personally yeah I'll be hanging in a museum that's what'll happen well I'll tell you we want to thank you for inviting us into your house and spending some time with so I'm sorry we couldn't get any fishing in today but maybe we'll come back and try that again summer Brock I tell you you have a standing invitation any time you're in a theory to come by and stay as long as you want to and it's the most beautiful place in the world the lake is I feel like and you're certainly welcome coming up we will do some fishing thanks home and I'll take you up on that and thank you for joining us today with Buddy Baker under great drivers I'm Brock Yates [Music] you

Channel: Calhoun98

Views: 9,475

Rating: 4.9506173 out of 5

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Id: oYSb9CKRTbk

Length: 19min 53sec (1193 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 26 2018