When the 1970 season began, the big-winged Dodge Daytonas were joined by a Plymouth cousin, the Superbird. Petty Enterprises returned to Mother Mopar after a season campaigning Fords, with Richard Petty and Pete Hamilton handling the driving chores. The Dodge racing roster, led by Bobby Isaac and the K&K Insurance team, also included Bobby Allison, Buddy Baker, and Charlie Glotzbach. Ford had slashed it's racing budget following the 1969 season, so David Pearson would not be defending his NASCAR title. The top Ford and Mercury drivers, such as Pearson, Cale Yarborough, Donnie Allison and Lee Roy Yarbrough, would only run superspeedway races for 1970. Independent drivers attempting the full schedule would include James Hylton, Neil Castles, Elmo Langley, Benny Parsons, Jabe Thomas, Dave Marcis and Frank Warren. The K&K Insurance racing team had a fleet of Daytonas and Chargers at it's disposal, ready to take on the best NASCAR had to offer. 

The K&K Insurance Racing Team, ready for battle. The team had four
 Daytonas and three Chargers in their arsenal when the season began.
(Photo courtesy of Aerowarriors.com)

The twisting road course in Riverside, CA. would host the first event on the 1970 NASCAR Grand National schedule. Bobby Isaac had a tough day in the sun, bringing the Daytona home in 29th place, the victim of a blown engine. From California, the teams converged a month later at the Daytona International Speedway for the 12th Annual Daytona 500. Isaac started fifth in his 125-mile qualifying heat, and finished second after leading 21 laps of the event. His performance netted a third-place starting position in the Daytona 500, where he finished fifth, two laps down to winner Pete Hamilton. Isaac ran strong in the race, leading 30 laps, but tire problems dropped him from contention. Richmond Fairgrounds Raceway would host the next event, where Isaac brought his Charger home fourth after starting second. James Hylton took the win at Richmond, his first in NASCAR competition since joining the circuit in 1966. On to Rockingham, where Isaac started third, but finished 14th after an altercation with Richard Petty sent Bobby to the pits for lengthy repairs. Petty went on to win that race, as well as the next one in Savannah, GA, where Isaac started and finished in second place. Blown engines in the next two events at Bristol and Atlanta were followed by a strong performance at Talladega. Isaac captured his first pole of the season, with a speed of 199.658 MPH. Though he only led three laps, Isaac finished a close second to Pete Hamilton's Plymouth Superbird. At North Wilkesboro, the orange K&K Insurance Dodge was again the pole sitter, and Isaac eventually finished second to Petty. The next event was held on the half-mile dirt track in Columbia, SC, where Isaac had won once in 1968 and swept both races there in 1969. This time, Isaac came home a respectable third, and the series would hold it's next race at Darlington.

 

Bobby Isaac in the winged wonder, the Dodge Daytona. The Daytona was used
only on superspeedways and on the road course at Riverside.

The Rebel 400 at Darlington proved to be a pivotal race in the quest for the NASCAR Grand National trophy. During practice for the event, Richard Petty demolished his Superbird in a frontstretch crash. In the race, Petty again lost control of his Road Runner in the same place as he did during practice, and the car flipped down the frontstretch several times before coming to a stop. Petty suffered a dislocated shoulder and other injuries that would cause him to sit out the next five events. Isaac finished third at Darlington, and trailed Petty by nine points in the season standings. Bobby would take over the points lead on the strength of a hot streak in which he won four of the next five events, races that Petty had to miss. Isaac dominated the short-track races at Beltsville, Hampton, Maryville, and Martinsville, and squeezed in a seventh-place run in the World 600 at Charlotte. With Petty out of the championship picture, it looked like Isaac would coast his way to the Grand National title.
But it wouldn't be that easy.

Bobby Isaac slingin' mud. Isaac won six dirt track races from
1968-1970,  besting both Richard Petty and David Pearson.

Petty returned to action at Michigan, where Isaac finished fifth. Back at Riverside, Isaac had differential problems which led to a 16th place finish. Meanwhile, James Hylton finished third and closed to within one point of Isaac in the championship run. In the next event at Hickory, Bobby gained some breathing room by winning the event from the pole. Isaac had won both events at the track in 1969. At Kingsport, Isaac suffered damage in a brush with the wall and finished eighth, while Hylton finished second to Petty. Then, at Greenville-Pickens Speedway, Isaac again won from the pole and now held a slight lead in the points chase over Hylton and Bobby Allison as the season reached the half-way mark.

In the pits at Thompson, CT. Isaac won the race from the pole.

Back at Daytona for the Firecracker 400, Bobby Isaac qualified second but finished ninth, and saw his lead over James Hylton shrink to four points. And at the Albany-Saratoga Speedway in Malta, NY, Isaac lost his point lead to Hylton after mechanical problems left Isaac with a 17th place finish. In the next event at the Thompson Speedway, Isaac won from the pole to tie Hylton in the standings. But Hylton gained the point once again after the race at Trenton, finishing fifth while Isaac lost an engine late in the race to finish 19th. After a week off, the teams returned to Bristol, where Isaac finished third. At the Smoky Mountain Raceway, Isaac's second-place run closed him to within ten points of Hylton, and Isaac recaptured the points lead after winning big at Nashville. The see-saw battle for the Grand National championship continued over the next several events, as neither Isaac or Hylton could put together a consistent string of good finishes. It was an interesting fight pitting the factory-backed, muliti-car K&K Insurance Dodge team against Hylton's unsponsored Ford effort. Both teams had come close to the championship before; Isaac was runner up to Pearson in 1968, while Hylton had been the bridesmaid in 1966 and 1967. The first team to "get it's act together" would clearly be crowned as the champion. Who would it be?

Contrary to popular belief,  Bobby Isaac did not win a single superspeedway
event with the winged Dodge Daytona during his championship season.
All eleven of his wins in 1970 came on short tracks in the Dodge Charger.

The K&K Insurance crew goes to work.
(Photo courtesy of Aerowarriors.com)

In the Dixie 500 at Atlanta, the orange Daytona of Bobby Isaac puked it's motor early in the race, leaving Isaac with a 35th-place finish and dropping him to second in the series standings. A win the following week on the dirt at Columbia helped Isaac close in a bit, but James Hylton's second place run in the next race at the West Virginia International Speedway left Bobby 31 points behind James as the series returned to Michigan. Before the race in the Motor State, NASCAR announced new engine rules designed to slow the cars on the circuit's fastest tracks. The carburetor restrictor plates dropped the pole speed at Michigan by five miles per hour over the previous event there in the spring. Isaac finished fourth at MIS, and his second place finish in the next event at Talladega allowed him to reagin the points lead in the chase for the championship. In fact, Isaac would never again relinquish the points lead, as the K&K Insurance team finally took command of the series with a string of thirteen consecutive top-six finishes. Included in the autumn hot streak was a win at the Hickory Speedway, Isaac's fouth-straight victory on his home track. Isaac also tasted victory at North Wilkesboro, taking the lead from Richard Petty with 13 laps left in the event. James Hylton, meanwhile, stumbled upon a string of bad luck which would leave him in third place in the final point standings, behind Bobby Allison. Isaac wrapped up the championship with a seventh-place finish at Rockingham, and closed the 1970 season with a 23rd place run at Langley Field.

"The car was workin' real good today. I'd like to thank all my sponsors..."
(Photo courtesy of Aerowarriors.com)

Daytona at Talladega.

Daytona at Daytona.

They had done it! Bobby Isaac and the K&K Insurance Racing Team had captured the 1970 NASCAR Grand National title. The key to the championship was consistency. Though Isaac won six more races in 1969 than he did in 1970,  the team also failed to finish 19 races in '69. In 1970, the K&K Dodge was able to finish all but nine events. Isaac had finished 22 points ahead of Bobby Allison, the closest margin of victory in NASCAR's 22-year history. To the victor go the spoils, and  the K&K Insurance Racing Team netted over $200,000 on the season. Bobby Isaac had been named "Driver of the Year" by the National Motorsports Press Association, and Harry Hyde gained recognition in being named "Mechanic of the Year." It was sweet victory for the driver, mechanic, and owner who had worked so hard to beat the best racers in the nation. And as if the championship weren't enough, the K&K Dodge team headed to Talladega, intending to make Isaac the fastest stock car racer in the world. Back in March, the Chrysler Corporation had backed a world record speed attempt by Buddy Baker, in which Baker set a closed-course record of 200.447 MPH at Talladega. On Tuesday, November 24, 1970, Bobby Isaac indeed edged Baker's record, setting a new world record speed of 201.104 MPH. The speed run put an extra exclamation point on an already incredible season.

Click the picture to see Bobby Isaac discuss
his finish in the National 500 at Charlotte.

Unfortunately, the euphoria wouldn't last for long. Just days after the 1970 season concluded, the Chrysler Corporation dropped a bomb on the NASCAR world when they announced that they were cutting funding for their racing operations. Only one team would receive factory backing in 1971, a two-car effort led by Petty Enterprises. Isaac, Hyde, and team owner Nord Krauskopf were furious that they were left out in the cold, while Petty had not won a championship for Chrysler since 1967. Petty had even turned "traitor" by running Fords in 1969! Still, nothing could take the success of the 1970 season away from the team. Krauskopf's five-year championship plan had been realized sooner than expected. Christmas had indeed come early.

 

Ladies and Gentlemen, your 1970 NASCAR Grand National Champion, Robert Vance "Bobby" Isaac.
(Photo courtesy of Aerowarriors.com)

 
 
 
 

YEAR	DRIVER	STARTS	WINS	TOP 5	TOP 10	POLES	RANK
1970	Bobby Isaac	47	11	32	6	13	1