Bobby Isaac

Did You Know?

• Isaac finished school after the sixth grade, which led to the incorrect rumor that he could neither read nor write.
• In September 1971, Isaac went to the Bonneville Salt Flats and set 28 world speed records, some of which still stand.

NASCAR career

It took Bobby Isaac seven years of full-time racing, which he began in 1956, before he finally broke into the Grand National division. He claimed the championship in 1970 driving the No. 71 Dodge Charger Daytona sponsored by K&K Insurance, with Harry Hyde as his crew chief. That same year, Isaac and Hyde took the car to Talladega in November and set a closed-course speed record. Over his career, Isaac won 37 races in NASCAR's top series, including 11 in his championship season, and started from the pole position 49 times. He currently holds the NASCAR record for most poles in a single season, with 20 in 1969. In 1970, he turned a 201.104 mph lap at Talladega, a record that stood until 1983. During the 1973 Talladega 500, Isaac dropped out mid-race in an impulsive decision that surprised his pit crew and team owner. 'I wasn't afraid I was going to wreck...I don't have anything to prove to myself or to anybody else. I know how it feels to win and lose. I know how it feels to be a champion. And now I know how it feels to quit. It just entered my mind at that moment,' Isaac said. 'I decided to quit and that was that. (Team owner) Bud Moore didn't know I had quit until after the race. I didn't know about (Larry) Smith at that time.' Isaac did not participate in any further 1973 NASCAR Winston Cup races after Talladega, and the presumption by sports commentators in late 1973 was that he was retiring from the sport. Ultimately, Isaac did return to NASCAR racing as a driver from 1974 through 1976, on a reduced schedule.

Death

On Saturday night, August 13, 1977, while running fourth, Isaac pulled out of the Winston 200 late model sportsman race at Hickory Motor Speedway with 40 laps left, and called for a relief driver, collapsing on pit road of heat exhaustion. Weather reports for the area that day showed temperatures which had reached 91 F at mid-afternoon, and were still around 80 F at the time of Isaac's collapse. Though Isaac was revived briefly at the hospital and was conversing with friends, he later died from a heart attack caused by heat exhaustion, at 12:45 a.m. on August 14, 13 days after his 45th birthday. Details of Isaac's pit lane collapse on the night of his death were given to reporters by friend and former racing driver Ned Jarrett. Jarrett asserted at that time that the reason Isaac left the 1973 Talladega 500 was because he 'had heard a voice that told him to quit'.