Background
Isaac grew up on a farm near Catawba, North Carolina, the second youngest of nine children.
Isaac grew up on a farm near Catawba, North Carolina, the second youngest of nine children.
He finished school after the sixth grade, which led to the incorrect rumor that he could neither read nor write.
He began racing full-time in 1956, but it took him seven years to break into the Grand National division. His crew chief was legendary Harry Hyde. Isaac & Hyde took the car to Talladega in November and set a closed-course speed record.
Isaac currently holds the National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing record for most poles in a single season, with 20 in 1969.
In 1970 he turned a 201.104 mph lap at Talladega that stood until 1983. Isaac dropped out of the 1973 Talledega 500 mid-race in an impulsive decision which surprised his pit crew and the team owner.
"I wasn"t afraid I was going to wreck..I don"t have anything to prove to myself or to anybody else. And now I know how it feels to quit.
lieutenant 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." (Larry Smith was the first fatality at Talledega Speedway, which happened earlier in the race).
Isaac did not participate in any further 1973 National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing Winston Cup races after Talladega, and the presumption by sports commentators in late 1973 is that he was retiring from the sport.
Ultimately, Isaac did return to National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing racing as a driver from 1974 through 1976, on a reduced schedule. Isaac also made his mark outside of National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing. In September 1971, he went to the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah and set 28 world speed records, some of which still stand to this day.
On Saturday night, August 13, 1977, while running 4th, 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 (33 °C) at mid-afternoon, and were still around 80 °F (27 °C) around 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., August 14.
Jarrett asserted at that time that the reason Isaac left the 1973 Talladega 500 was because (Isaac) "had heard a voice that told him to quit".
Bobby Isaac was inducted into the National Motorsports Press Association Hall of Fame in 1979, and the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1996. In 1998 National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing honored Isaac as one of its National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing"s 50 Greatest Drivers of all time. On May 20, 2015, Isaac was announced as a member of the 2016 Class of the National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing Hall of Fame.
