A native of Spartanburg, S.C., Moore won the NASCAR premier series title in 1957 as crew chief for Buck Baker and went on to claim car owner titles in 1962-63 with Joe Weatherly. Moore and Weatherly won eight times in 1961 and 12 times during their back-to-back championship seasons. Weatherly died in early 1964 during a race at the old Riverside (California) International Raceway, ending what could have been a dynasty rivaling that of Petty Enterprises and other top teams of the era.

Then in 1967, the Lincoln-Mercury Division of Ford tapped Moore as its hope for winning a Sports Car Club of America Trans-Am Championship. With Parnelli Jones, Dan Gurney and Peter Revson driving, the Bud Moore Cougar Team won four races and missed the series title by just two points.

He returned in 1969, this time with Ford, and notched three victories in 12 races with Jones and George Follmer. He continued with Jones and Follmer in 1970, scoring six wins and three second-place finishes in 11 races to give Ford its most convincing Trans-Am championship ever.

After his early success in NASCAR, Moore’s team would not win another title but came close with such top drivers as Earnhardt, Allison (runner-up in 1978 and third in 1979), Buddy Baker, Ricky Rudd, Benny Parsons, and Morgan Shephard. Each managed to finish among the top 10 in the championship standings at least once. His team last competed at the beginning of the 2000 season.