With a so-so practice session on the track just completed, professor Buddy Baker makes a beeline for Brendan Gaughan's Penske Racing team hauler. The headphones come off; the eyes narrow. For Gaughan, lunch, interviewers and friends can wait. When the instructor is 6-6, listening is recommended.

"We've got some issues here we'll have to work out, but that's why he's here," says Gaughan, not perturbed by the prospect of a blunt interchange. Besides, Gaughan used to get yelled at by 6-10 John Thompson during his basketball days at Georgetown. Looking up and saying "Yes, sir" is in his skill set.

"I'm not there to be their best friend, and when I come into the trailer, it's not going to be a joke session," says Baker, one of the sport's funnier storytellers. "I don't go pointing fingers, but if I see something definitely wrong, I speak up.... My job is to help turn a rock into a jewel. That Roger Penske trusts me with his gems is a good feeling."

Gaughan, who jumped from NASCAR's Craftsman Truck Series to Nextel Cup before this season, is the latest project for Baker; he has spent nearly a decade as Penske's coach, schooling Rusty Wallace, Ryan Newman and now Gaughan.

Don Miller, co-owner of Penske's NASCAR operation, started the coaching arrangement in the mid-1990s, inviting Baker to a test session as a way to try to end Wallace's superspeedway funk. Baker, whose last Cup race was in 1992, thought the coaching gig would help him stay current for his TV work.

"We were struggling something awful, and Buddy was so good on big tracks," Miller says, referring to Baker's two wins at Daytona and four at Talladega. "He showed Rusty lines and worked with him on drafting."

The idea of having a coach since has grown in popularity along with multicar teams and the aero push in NASCAR. With the Nextel Cup lineup getting younger and younger and learning-curve time miniscule, the role of a coach/mentor has become almost as vital as a good crew chief and spotter.