In the globe of Due north American motorsports, two races stand apart from the rest: The Indianapolis 500 in the IndyCar Serial and NASCAR'southward Daytona 500. Most sports stop the flavour with a blockbuster effect, but the season-opening Great American Race is the crown jewel for NASCAR.

Electric current star drivers such as the feud-loving Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick, and Joey Logano accept Daytona 500 victories on their resumes. So do recent all-time greats such as Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. Nevertheless none of them came close to setting the record for fastest speed at Daytona International Speedway.

Buddy Baker's Gray Ghost yet has the Daytona 500 speed record

Buddy Bakery's racing resume may non appear to be anything special, at least when compared to his contemporaries — his number of Cup victories couldn't impact Richard Piddling, Cale Yarbrough, and Bobby Allison. Just he managed nineteen career wins, 202 top-5 finishes, and v seasons with multiple wins, according to Racing Reference.

Baker'south defining moment as a commuter was the 1980 Daytona 500. Racing in the No. 28 NAPA/Regal Ride Shocks Oldsmobile nicknamed the Greyness Ghost, Bakery paced a 42-car field for 143 of the 200 laps to take the checky flag. He finished ahead of NASCAR legends such equally three-time Daytona 500 gnaw Bobby Allison, Neil Bonnet, and Dale Earnhardt Sr.

And Baker nonetheless holds the tape for fastest Daytona 500 speed with an average of 177.602 mph. Bill Elliott is the only driver to come close to Baker'southward record. Elliott won the 1987 race with an average speed of 176.263 mph two years afterwards taking the title at 172.265 mph.

Bakery didn't stop there, though.

Baker was back at it afterwards that flavour

Buddy Baker recorded the fastest Daytona 500 speed in 1980, and even NASCAR legends like Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Richard Petty, and Bobby Allison haven't come close to matching it.
Buddy Baker's average speed in his 1980 Daytona 500 win remains a NASCAR tape | ISC Images Archives via Getty Images

Even so, Baker and the Gray Ghost weren't done speeding through the NASCAR field. At the Winston 500 at Talladega Superspeedway in May 1980, Bakery took the checkered flag with an average speed of 170.481 mph, which was the third-fastest boilerplate winning speed that season, per Racing Reference.

Speedway racing suited Baker perfectly. While possibly non the most polished or technically skilled driver in NASCAR history, he had a knack for navigating crowded tracks at high speeds.

"[H]e wasn't the best at finessing a race car, just … you take him to Daytona or Talladega, where you could go flat-footed, you couldn't inquire for a better driver," Waddell Wilson, Bakery's coiffure chief and architect of the Grayness Ghost, told Richard Jensen of the NASCAR Hall of Fame. "He was as good equally I ever worked with."

The "flat-footed" Baker might have the same massive proper noun recognition as NASCAR legends, but his record stands ahead of several all-timers.

NASCAR legends like Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon never came shut

Baker's speed record at the Daytona 500 has stood for more than than 40 years, and fifty-fifty modern-day legends oasis't come close to besting it.

Though Jeff Gordon doesn't care for the Daytona 500 winner'south bays, he won three Daytona 500s during his storied career. Yet fifty-fifty with newer engineering and better data available, his best speed was 161.551 mph.

Unless Jimmie Johnson decides to return to NASCAR, the 2-time winner of the Great American Race will accept to settle for a 159.250 mph top speed. Logano approached 162 mph in his Daytona 500 win, but Harvick, Hamlin, and Earnhardt Jr. never cracked 160.

Hamlin'southward fastest boilerplate speed in his victories was 157.549 mph in 2016. Harvick recorded 149.333 mph in 2007, and Earnhardt Jr. 156.345 mph in 2004.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. helps the Grey Ghost ride again

The Gray Ghost rode over again in 2016 cheers to Dale Earnhardt Jr. — sort of.

It was a Chevy instead of an Oldsmobile, only Earnhardt'south No. 88 received a Grey Ghost-inspired black and silver pigment scheme for the 2016 Southern 500. The results weren't quite reminiscent of the original Gray Ghost.
Driving in place of Earnhardt Jr., who sat out the race following a concussion, co-ordinate to SB Nation, Jeff Gordon never led a lap, and the No. 88 had to settle for a 14th-place finish.

All mph figures courtesy of Racing Reference.