Martinsville Speedway

Martinsville Speedway

"The Paperclip"
View from turn three and four bleachers
Location	Henry County, at 340 Speedway Road Ridgeway, Virginia, 24148
Time zone	GMT-5
Capacity	65,000
Owner	International Speedway Corporation
Operator	International Speedway Corporation
Broke ground	1947
Opened	1947
Architect	H. Clay Earles
Major events	NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Goody's Fast Pain Relief 500 TUMS Fast Relief 500 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Kroger 250 Kroger 200 NASCAR Whelen All-American Series Virginia is for Racing Lovers 300
Oval
Surface	Asphalt/Concrete
Length	.526 mi (.847 km)
Turns	4
Banking	Turns 12° Straights 0°
Lap record	0:18.746 (Greg Sacks, , 1986, NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour)

Martinsville Speedway is an International Speedway Corporation-owned NASCAR stock car racing track located in Henry County, near Ridgeway, Virginia, just to the south of Martinsville. At 0.526 miles (0.847 km) in length, it is the shortest track in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. The track was also one of the first paved oval tracks in NASCAR, being built in 1947 by H. Clay Earles. It is also the only racetrack that has been on the NASCAR circuit from its beginning in 1948.

Layout

The track's back stretch in 2011

The track is often referred to as paper clip-shaped and is banked only 12° in the turns. The combination of long straightaways and flat, narrow turns makes hard braking going into turns and smooth acceleration exiting turns a must. Martinsville's surface is unique, as it is paved with a combination of asphalt (straightaways) and concrete (corners). The track was paved in 1955 and in 1956 it hosted its first 500 lap event. By the 1970s, a combination of high-traction slick tires and high speed were putting excessive wear on the asphalt surface. In 1976 the turns were repaved with concrete (a rare concept in the 1970s). [1] By 2004, the then 28-year-old concrete had shown significant wear. On April 18, 2004 a large chunk of concrete had become dislodged from the track's surface and caused severe damage to the body of Jeff Gordon's car. In reaction to this, the track was fully repaved with new concrete and asphalt. [2]

Until 1999, Martinsville was notorious for having two pit roads. The backstretch pit road was generally avoided because if a team had to pit there during a caution period, any car pitting on the frontstretch had the advantage of pitting first and not having to adhere to pace car speed upon exiting their pit road. This was rectified when pit road was reconfigured to extend from the entrance of turn 3 to the exit of turn 2. [3]

History

The first NASCAR sanctioned event was held on July 4, 1948. In 1951, only 4 cars were running at the finish, the fewest of any race held at the speedway. In 1960, Richard Petty became the youngest winner at Martinsville, at &1000000000000002200000022 years, &10000000000000283000000283 days; to date Petty has the most wins (15). In 1991, Harry Gant became the oldest winner at &1000000000000005100000051 years, &10000000000000255000000255 days. It was Gant's fourth win in a row, earning him the nickname Mr. September.

Ownership of the track was a joint venture of brothers Jim and Bill France, Jr., and H. Clay Earles, the majority owner, along with daughters Dorothy Campbell and Mary Weatherford, and Dorothy Campbell's children, Sarah Fain and Clay Campbell. In 2004, the track was sold exclusively to the France family for $192 million as a result of an estate sale following the death of Weatherford.

The tower above the finish line at the speedway.

Plans had existed to add an additional 20,000 seats along the back stretch, boosting capacity to over 85,000 seats. In 2005-2006 the Norfolk Southern Railway behind the track was moved 200 feet to make way for the added seats, but nothing more has been officially mentioned regarding this by track management since the sale of the track to ISC.

From 1982 until 1994, and again in 2006, the speedway hosted Busch Series events. This occurred first with 200- and 150-lap features (200 laps for the two races with Whelen Modifieds, 150 laps with the September Winston/Nextel Cup race), then 300 laps from 1992 until 1994 as part of a Late Model/Busch Series doubleheader, and 250 laps in the one-off in 2006. The venue was dropped from the Busch Series schedule for 2007 and a race at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal was run on the open date.

Currently, Martinsville hosts two Sprint Cup Series races - the Goody's Cool Orange 500 in April and the TUMS QuikPak 500 (race six in the Chase for the Sprint Cup) in October - along with Camping World Truck Series, Whelen Modified Tour which is held on Labor Day weekend under the lights, and Late Model races.

Winners of the Sprint Cup, Truck Series, and Whelen Modified events receive a longcase clock as a trophy, a nod to Martinsville's famous furniture industry. This tradition started in 1964, when Earles decided he wanted to present a trophy that would reflect the Martinsville area. He chose clocks made by a local company, Ridgeway Clocks (now a subsidiary of Michigan-based Howard Miller). The clocks presented as trophies are currently (2009) valued at around $10,000.^[1]

Future

The two NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races at Martinsville seem to be on solid footing, despite the somewhat frequent rumblings of the track losing one of its race dates. As recently as December 2008, Track President Clay Campbell said that no one, either from NASCAR, or track owner ISC, has hinted at taking a race from Martinsville and he plans on the sport being there in the long-term future.

Something else that does not appear to be in the cards for the speedway is permanent lighting (the Labor Day weekend races take place under temporary lighting). Although once a proponent to the idea, Campbell says the NASCAR race dates do not justify running a race at night, as temperatures in the mountains of Virginia in March can often dip below freezing, and October is fairly cool as well at night.

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Records

(As of 4/3/11)

Most Wins	15	Richard Petty
Most Top 5s	30	Richard Petty
Most Top 10s	37	Richard Petty
Most Starts	67	Richard Petty
Most Poles	8	Darrell Waltrip
Most Laps Completed	27891	Richard Petty
Most Laps Led	3784	Cale Yarborough
Best Avg. Start*	4.3	Fred Lorenzen
Best Avg. Finish*	5.5	Lee Petty

* from minimum 10 starts.

Records

2006 DirecTV 500 Finish

• NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Qualifying: Tony Stewart, 19.306 sec. (98.084 mph), October 21, 2005

• NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Race: Jeff Gordon, 3 hrs. 11 min. 54 sec. (82.223 mph), September 22, 1996
• NASCAR Nationwide Series Qualifying: Clint Bowyer, 19.735 sec. (95.951 mph), 2006
• NASCAR Nationwide Series Race: Jack Ingram, 1 hr. 42 min. 16 sec. (77.751 mph), March 25, 1984 (250 laps)
• NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Qualifying: Matt Crafton, 19.653 sec. (96.352 mph), October 29, 2011
• NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Race: Rich Bickle, 1 hr. 47 min. 18 sec. (75.296 mph), September 27, 1997
• NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour Qualifying: Greg Sacks, 18.746 sec. (101.014 mph), 1986.
• NASCAR Combined Modified Race: Ted Christopher, 55.773 mph, 2005 (combination races only with 250-lap format)

Notes and references

1. ^ McGee, Ryan (2009-03-24). "The Timeless Victory". ESPN.com. http://sports.espn.go.com/espnmag/story?id=4011608. Retrieved 2009-03-25. 

External links

• Martinsville Speedway Official Site
• Martinsville Speedway Page on NASCAR.com
• RacewayReport.com: Martinsville Speedway Page - Local area information, track specs, mapping, news and more.

Coordinates: 36°38′02″N 79°51′04″W / 36.63389°N 79.85111°W / 36.63389; -79.85111