This Saturday night at North Carolina’s Hickory Motor Speedway, a legend and pioneer of NASCAR and short track racing will be honored and remembered with the 46th running of the Bobby Isaac Memorial 150.

In order to understand the importance of this race to Hickory Motor Speedway, you must first understand who Isaac was. That story began just up the road from the now legendary 3/8-mile oval in Catawba, North Carolina where Isaac was born. Eventually, he began his racing career at Hickory and became one of the many NASCAR stars to be born at the Hickory Motor Speedway.

Isaac went on to win the 1970 NASCAR Grand National championship and score 37 NASCAR Cup Series race wins.

After Isaac abruptly retired from full-time NASCAR Cup Series competition in 1973, Isaac returned to the short tracks. On August 13, 1977, Isaac pulled out of the Winston 200 Late Model Sportsman race at Hickory, climbed out of his car and collapsed on pit road due to heat exhaustion. Isaac would tragically pass away later that day due to a heart attack caused by the heat exhaustion. Isaac was 45 years old.

Ever year since then, Hickory Motor Speedway has held the Bobby Isaac Memorial Late Model Stock Car race, and it’s become the biggest race of the season at Hickory for Late Model competitors.

This year’s race is a 150-lap race, and it is the penultimate race of the season. This race is also the third of four races in Hickory’s new “playoff” format to determine a champion.

Entering this week’s race, Landon Huffman holds the points lead over Annabeth Barnes-Crum and Isabella Robusto.

Recent winners of the Bobby Isaac Memorial include Ryan Millington, Sam Butler, Sam Mayer, Ryan Repko, Josh Berry (2014 and 2017), R.D. Smith, and Jake Crum dating back to 2014.

NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour Points Battle Gets Even Tighter

Jon McKennedy went down to Virginia’s Langley Speedway holding a slim five-point lead over nearest competitor Ron Silk, the 2011 champion. Amazingly, he left Langley Speedway with an even slimmer lead. His ap over Silk is now just three points with four races left in the 2022 season.

It’s fair to say that both drivers enjoyed smooth nights at Langley with Silk finishing second behind race winner Doug Coby, and McKennedy finishing two spots further back in fourth-place.

Now the Tour heads to Upstate New York to the 5/8-mile Oswego Speedway for the 150-lap Bud Mod Classic 150 where Silk is the defending race winner. Silk is still winless in 2022, and his remarkable consistency has been keeping him very much alive in the championship battle.

This Saturday’s race at Oswego is incredibly important, because the final three races of the year all have the potential to be wildcard events. Riverhead Raceway’s third and final race of the season on September 17 is now a 256-lap race with a live pit stop in the track’s infield, something that has never been done there. Then it’s off to Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park for the second time this season, and we all remember how wild the last race at Thompson was just a few weeks ago. And then finally the season concludes at Martinsville Speedway, which is known for its “Half-Mile of Mayhem” reputation.

And even though it looks like it’s just a two-horse race, Eric Goodale (24 back) and Justin Bonsignore (26 back) are still mathematically in this thing.

South Boston Title Battle Might Preview the National Championship

The 2022 season comes to and end this Saturday night at Virginia’s South Boston Speedway with two 65-lap showdowns for the Late Model Stock Cars. For much of the year it’s been a Layne Riggs runaway, but that’s changed in recent weeks as Peyton Sellers has closed the gap.

Sellers has cut Riggs’ track championship lead to just 20 points entering the final two races of the year as he looks for his seventh track championship. Riggs is in search of his first South Boston Speedway title.

What makes this all the more interesting, though, is that the South Boston championship is a microcosm of the NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series national championship.

Riggs has led that points battle for much of the season too, and a few weeks ago it looked like he would face no more charges from Sellers. But that’s all changed. Sellers has rattled off five wins in the month of August with four of them coming at Dominion Raceway and one at South Boston.

That has allowed Sellers to bring the gap down to just eight points with three weekends of points racing left in the season.

If Riggs holds on to win the South Boston championship, that most likely means he scored a win in at least one of Saturday’s two races. That would go a long way towards securing his first national championship as well.

Grandview Speedway Sold

It appears that the 60th anniversary season of racing at Pennsylvania’s Grandview Speedway will unfortunately be its last year of racing. News broke over the weekend that track owner Theresa Rogers has sold the facility to Copart, an online vehicle auction house based out of Dallas, Texas.

In a statement posted to the track’s Facebook page, the 80-year-old Rogers said, “I want everyone to know that this decision was solely and entirely mine. My late husband Bruce and I had discussions prior to his passing about this situation, and I thought long and hard about what Bruce had told me. He said you can do what you want after I go. It is totally up to you. For the time being there is no further information that we know. When there is more information, we will issue another release. We as a family certainly do appreciate all of the love and passion that everyone has been showing since this new broke, and we hope everyone will respect the decisions that I have to make for myself and my family.”

The racing season is set to conclude on September 17 with the running of the 52nd Annual Freedom 76 Modified championship. The final night of the 2022 season will take place on September 24 with the Outlaw Racing Series Enduro.

National Championship Points

NASCAR Roots On FloRacing This Week

Friday

6:30 p.m. ET – Modifieds at Autodrome Granby

Saturday

5:30 p.m. ET – NASCAR Modifieds at Riverhead Raceway

6 p.m. ET – Late Models and Modifieds at Jennerstown Speedway

6:30 p.m. ET – NASCAR Weekly Racing at Berlin Raceway

7 p.m. ET – Championship Night at South Boston Speedway

7 p.m. ET – Bobby Isaac Memorial at Hickory Motor Speedway

7 p.m. ET – Modifieds at Langley Speedway

7:30 p.m. ET – NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour at Oswego Speedway

7:30 p.m. ET – ARCA Menards Series West at Portland International Raceway

7:30 p.m. ET – NASCAR Weekly Racing at Florence Motor Speedway

8 p.m. ET – Weekly Racing at LaCrosse Fairgrounds Speedway

9 p.m. ET – Weekly Racing at Evergreen Speedway

10 p.m. ET – NASCAR Weekly Racing at Alaska Raceway Park

Sunday

1:30 p.m. ET – NASCAR Pinty’s Series at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park

8:30 p.m. ET – Pro Late Models at Meridian Speedway

9 p.m. ET – ARCA Menards Series at DuQuoin State Fairgrounds