by Kayla B Maxwell

Created on: August 01, 2008   Last Updated: November 24, 2008

Former NASCAR Grand National Series Champion, Bobby Isaac was born August 1, 1932, in Catawba, North Carolina, to Jerry and Kathy Isaac. The Isaac family lived on 12 acres of land that provided the family's income from cotton and corn crops. Isaac was the second youngest out of nine children and finished school after the sixth grade. Because he finished school so early, an incorrect rumor went around saying that he could neither read nor write.

When Bobby was six years old his father died, and his mother took a job in a furniture store in order to be able to provide for the family. When Bobby turned 16 his mother passed away, leaving Bobby and his brothers and sisters all alone. Bobby then decided to take a job in the sawmill to help his family. This knocked off a year doing very little; he was then hired on as a helper on an ice truck. He eventually got tired of hopping from job to job and decided to hitch hike his way out of the farm country of North Carolina.

In 1956 he began racing full time, but it took him seven years to get into the Grand National division. In 1970 Isaac won the championship driving the #71 Dodge Charger Daytona which was sponsored by K&K Insurance. With this car he won 11 races, and his car accounted for nearly 54 percent of the total point which earned Dodge the manufacturers championship, which broke the seven year stranglehold by Ford.

He along with crew chief Harry Hyde took Isaac's car to Talladega in November and set a closed course speed record. On November 24, he circled the track at 201.104 mph to overtake Buddy Baker's old record of 200.447 mph.

During his career he ended up winning 37 races in NASCAR's top series, which included 11 during his championship season, and he started from the pole position 50 times. In his single season in 1969 Isaac took 20 poles, and since there are 36 races on schedule that NASCAR record will be hard to beat.

In 1971 Isaac also made his mark outside of NASCAR. In September 1971 he went to the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah and set 28 speed world records. To this day some of them still stand.

In 1979 Isaac was inducted into the National Motorsports Press Association Hall of Fame, and also into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1996. NASCAR honored Isaac in 1998 as one of its NASCAR's 50 Greatest Drivers of all time.

However, Isaac did not live to enjoy any of his accomplishments. In 1977 he pulled out of a Late Model Sportsman race at Hickory Motor Speedway with 25 laps left to go, and died of a heart attack on August 14, 1977.

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