Know Your Track: Martinsville

Martinsville Speedway

Track Name: Martinsville Speedway

           

Nicknames: "The Paperclip"

Location: Ridgeway, Virginia

Capacity: 55,000

Date of First Race: September 25, 1949

Layout: Martinsville Speedway is a .526 mile track with asphalt straightaways and concrete turns, it is the only such multi-surface combination in NASCAR. The concrete turns are banked at 12 degrees. It is the shortest track in NASCAR and features a pit road that begins in turn 3 and wraps all the way around to exit from turn 2. 

Current Sprint Cup Races: 

• March 29, 2015 - STP 500, a 263 mile, 500 lap regular season points race. This is a Sunday afternoon event.
• November 1, 2015 - Goody's Headache Relief Shot 500, a 263 mile, 500 lap Chase race. This is the seventh out of ten Chase races and the first race of the Eliminator Round of the Chase. This is a Sunday afternoon event.

Most Wins:     

• All-Time: Richard Petty, 15 wins
• Active: Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson, 8 wins
• Latest Winner: 
• 2014 STP 500: Kurt Busch
• 2014 Goody's Headache Relief Shot 500: Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Description: One of the three true short tracks that occupy the NASCAR tour, Martinsville is the oldest track NASCAR continues to race on and has been featured on the schedule since NASCAR's inception in the late 1940s. This track is essentially two drag strips with hairpin turns at each end, requiring the cars to use excessive braking in order to make it through the turns at a mere 40 miles per hour. Bumping and banging between cars is common and one is lucky to make it out of a race at Martinsville without some sort of damage. One such example can be noted here in a battle for the win between Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson:

This track is not known to produce surprise or first time winners for the most part with typically the best of the best drivers being able to capture wins here. The prize for winning yields one of the most unique and iconic trophies in NASCAR, a grandfather clock.

Notable Races: Martinsville has a plethora of history, but none more so significant than the history that follows Rick Hendrick and his Hendrick Motorsports team here, ranging from great to heart breaking.

• 1984 Sovran Bank 500 - Starting with the great, Hendrick Motorsports may not exist today if it wasn't for the April 1984 race at Martinsville. At the time, HMS was a fledgling organization trying to stay afloat in NASCAR's top series and wasn't sure how much longer the team could survive. Known at the time as All-Star Racing, Geoff Bodine piloted the #1 car to victory in only the team's eighth start. That win propelled HMS forward and set forth one of if not the most successful racing team in NASCAR history, a team that now owns an astounding 231wins and 11 championships in NASCAR's top series.
• 2004 Subway 500 - Jimmie Johnson wins the race for Hendrick Motorsports, but is told not to celebrate. A plane had crashed in the mountains near Martinsville and killed all ten passengers on board. The passengers included Rick Hendrick's son Ricky, Hendrick's brother John and his daughters Kimberley and Jennifer, general manager Jeff Turner, chief engine builder Randy Dorton, DuPont executive Joe Jackson, Tony Stewart's pilot Scott Lathram, and pilots Richard Tracy and Elizabeth Morrison. Rick Hendrick nearly left racing after that accident, but the team continued on as Johnson won the race at Atlanta the following week and Gordon won the next Martinsville race in April of 2005.

Fun Facts: The speedway is known for its famous (or infamous depending on who you are) Martinsville hotdogs, which seem to be bigger and pinker than your usual hotdog. Sadly, the one time I attended a race here, I neglected to find out what the hype was about for myself.