Bobby Hillin, Jr. - Early Career

Early Career

With the help of sponsorship from his Grandfather, Hillin teamed with legendary crew chief Harry Hyde and entered his first Winston Cup race in 1982. This would give Hillin the distinction of becoming the youngest driver in 25 years to enter and compete in a Winston Cup event since Cale Yarbrough. Hillin competed in 5 events that year and then returned to finish his senior year at Midland High School.

The next year, before High School Graduation, Hillin moved to North Carolina full time to pursue his career. "I would knock on doors and dial for dollars until I could get enough money to race the next race." quoted Hillin. That year Hillin would meet Bill Stavola which would launch his career with the formation of Stavola Brothers Racing.

In 1985, Hillin became the youngest driver to ever qualify any type car on a closed course circuit over 200 mph. The next year, Hillin became the youngest driver to win a Modern Era NASCAR event, and the youngest driver to win on a Superspeedway with his win at Talladega at the age of 22. This is a record that would stand for over 19 years.

Hillin would later make the statement about his win, "I really needed more help and coaching from other drivers, but after my win, I was cocky and did not want any help, and the other drivers really did not want to help me beat them anyway, so I kind of fell out on a little island all by myself." Hillin went on to race for the Stavola Brothers for the next six years with little success. During his tenure with this team, Hillin and a friend, Ted Conder, convinced Felix Sabates to start a Busch Grand National Team. They won races in each of their first two-years with wins at Dover and Nazareth, PA. Having justified his existence, Hillin put his full focus back in Winston Cup trying to become a winner again at the top level. In spite of almost winning the Daytona 500 and three other races in 1990, Hillin and the Stavola Brothers decided to split ways at seasons end. Hillin had become discouraged with owners who lived and worked so far from the race team. The sport was becoming so popular and competitive, you could not compete with owners who were on-site every day making decisions that would move their team forward while you were waiting on third hand information and trying to discern what to do. Hillin gave the Stavola Brothers an ultimatum; one of the brothers would have to move to North Carolina from New Jersey and run the race team, or Hillin was moving on. The Stavolas did not budge and that ended a driver-owner relationship that most believed would never end.

Hillin made 3 starts in the Brickyard 400. His best finish was 21st in the 1994 inaugural Brickyard 400.

In the years that followed Hillin would race for Dick Moroso (giving Moroso his best Daytona 500 finish of 7th in a backup car), Junie Donleavy, Bill Elliott, Mark Melling, and Jasper Motorsports. After being released from Jasper, Hillin started his own Busch Grand National team with partners including five (5) major league baseball players. This team was marginally successful with a few top 5 finishes before Hillin made the decision to retire early and move back to his home state of Texas to go into business. Hillin quoted his reason for retiring, I was becoming frustrated with not winning, and I knew I did not want to hang on and race for several more years and then have nothing to show for it, I was ready to move on and have a chance to start another life in business."He has three children, one of which is Luke Hillin, a student at Texas A&M University, and Stephanie Hillin, a track star at Memorial High School in Houston.