Dale Earnhardt Jr. knows all about growing up in the shadow of a legend. He knows where that path leads, where it ends and where the next one begins.
Buddy Baker did, too.
Both are the sons of famous racers. Both followed their fathers into the sport. It was a connection, a common thread leading away from two very uncommon individuals.
Baker, the son of two-time NASCAR premier series champion and NASCAR Hall of Fame member Buck Baker, passed away Monday following a brief battle with lung cancer.
The father, tough as an old boot, taught the son plenty.
A giant of a man inside and outside the car, Buddy won 19 times, including the 1980 Daytona 500. He’s been among the nominees for the Hall for the past two years.
Earnhardt Jr.’s father, Dale Earnhardt, was one of the inaugural members of the Hall selected in 2010. The elder Earnhardt won seven NASCAR premier series titles, tying Richard Petty’s formidable mark. He won 76 races.
For many, Earnhardt was NASCAR, helping to fill the void left by the departure of icons that had carried the sport on their shoulders through the 1960s and ’70s — men such as Petty, David Pearson, Bobby Allison and Cale Yarborough. And Buddy Baker.
The father-son connection question has been asked countless times of Earnhardt Jr. He is no longer surprised by it. His father’s shadow loomed large over the sport, even after his death on the race track in 2001.
The similarities to Baker’s own circumstances became more obvious to Earnhardt Jr. over time.
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“When I was really young, I grew aware of his situation and I hadn’t become a driver yet,” Earnhardt Jr. said Thursday during an appearance on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. “I didn’t feel like I could relate to him.
“I obviously knew just what growing up in household must have been like, the yearning to compete and get into the series and do what your father was doing and be a part of it to be more a part of his life.
“To be more of a part of your father’s life is one of the main reasons why you get involved. I maybe could understand that part of it.”
Baker’s on-track accomplishments, and later his move into broadcasting, helped him shed the “son-of” label. Just as Earnhardt Jr.’s eventual success — he’s won 25 races, including a pair of Daytona 500 titles — helped him blaze his own trail.
“You almost forgot about that scenario and how similar it may have been to your own (situation) because of what he was able to accomplish,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “He created his own identity outside of Buck (Baker). He did so many things on his own, added to his own identity and legacy that you totally really forgot about having those similarities down the road.”
NASCAR hasn’t lacked for father/son combinations through the years — Lee and Richard Petty; Richard and Kyle Petty; Bobby and Davey and Clifford Allison; Ned, Glenn and Dale Jarrett; David and Larry Pearson; and more recently Ward and Jeb Burton just to name a few.
There are a lot, Earnhardt Jr. said, “that I feel that connection to, that know what that connection is like.”
The situation isn’t specific to racing, but racing is where both Earnhardt Jr. and Baker found themselves. Following in their fathers’ footsteps.
“Wanting to be in that shadow when you’re young and wanting to be a part of his life when you’re young and then trying to get out from under that shadow all the rest of the years of your life is definitely, I wouldn’t call it a struggle, but it’s just a unique situation that only a few of us can say we’ve been through,” said Earnhardt Jr., “and we can relate to each other through that.”