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Bobby Isaac is one of the greatest Nascar champions of them all. Almost thirty years ago he was inducted into the National Motorsports Press Association Hall of Fame and his legend still permeates the sport. Children who are racing fans may not dream of being Bobby Isaac, but their father's certainly did.

He was born in Catawba, North Carolina in 1932. Growing up on a farm as the youngest of nine children, it would have been easy for Bobby Isaac to get lost in the mix. Nothing much was expected of him other than to do chores and tend to the animals. He quit school after sixth grade and seemed to be destined for a farmer's life. Little did they know it at the time, but he dreamed of other things beyond the rural sensibilities of his family and it was here that the seed of greatness was planted.

He would begin racing at the age of twenty four but would not make it to the Grand National Division, his lifelong dream, until age thirty one. His first career win was at the 1968 Columbia 200. After this he went on a historic run the likes of which the sport has not seen since.

1970 was his absolute banner year. He took an amazing twenty events twenty poles as well as the 1970 Winston Cup championship that same year. At the tail end of the year (even though many records count is technically 1972, which is incorrect) he set a closed course record that still stands to this day by running a 201.104 mph at Talladega Superspeedway.

The very next year Bobby Isaac decided to go to the Bonneville Salt Flats. Little did he know it at the time but this would be his crowning acheievement. He ended up settinga jaw-dropping twenty nine speed records, many of which still stand to this day!

Tragically his mammoth success was short lived. In the 1977 Late Model Sportsman race at Hickory Motor Speedway, he pulled out about a fourth of the way through and died of a heart attack right there on the track. He was only forty three years old.

Obviously such an event left the sport of NASCAR thunderstruck. It would be the equivalent of Brett Favre dying of a heart attack on the field next year to football fans. It was horrific. Wondering what could have been only compounds the pain. Isaac won an astounding thirty seven NASCAR Winston Cup Series events and had fifty pole positions in his career and many analysists felt like he could have easily broke these records as well, had he lived long enough to get a fair chance.

Bobby Isaac is a true racing legend, destined to be remember among the absolute greats of the sport. The sad thing about his story is that it feels incomplete. One wonders what other records he could have set had he lived even a few years longer. He was truly on a tear for the ages and he will never be forgotten. He probably could have put them all out of reach.

Learn more about this author, Royce Radcliffe.
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