Martinsville Speedway

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Martinsville Speedway
Location Martinsville, Virginia
Martinsville Speedway
Track length 0.526 miles (0.847 kilometres)
Track shape Oval
Banking Turns 12°
Straights - 0°
Major events NASCAR NEXTEL Cup, NASCAR Busch Series, NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, Whelen Modified Tour
Capacity 65,000
Address 340 Speedway Road, Martinsville, Virginia, 24112
Owner International Speedway Corporation

Martinsville Speedway is an International Speedway Corporation owned NASCAR stock car racing track located in Martinsville, Virginia. At 0.526 miles in length, it is the shortest track in the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series. The track was also one of the first paved "superspeedways" in NASCAR, being built in 1947 by H. Clay Earles. 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.

The track ownership 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.

Winners of Martinsville's Nextel Cup and Whelen Modified Tour events receive a longcase clock as a trophy instead of a regular trophy, a tip of the cap to the fame of the Martinsville furniture industry. One of the neat things one can see while watching a NASCAR race is a Norfolk Southern train running along the tracks outside the speedway, although the tracks were recently moved back 100 feet.

The track was sold for $192 million in 2004 as a result of an estate sale following the death of Weatherford exclusively to the France family. The track hosts two Nextel Cup races, currently the Goody's 500 in April and the Subway 500 (round six of the Chase) in October, along with Craftsman Truck, Whelen Modified, and Late Model Stock Car races. The track had plans to add an additional 20,000 seats along the backstretch, boosting capacity to over 85,000 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 a one-off in 2006, the Busch Series raced, first in 200 and 150 lap features (200 laps for the two races with the Modifieds, 150 laps with the September 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. A race on the Busch Series schedule in 2006 is off. The date will be replaced by Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal.

Contents

[edit] Current Events

[edit] Records


[edit] Past races

[edit] AAA Championship Car history

(races officially sanctioned by NASCAR)

  • 1952 Tex Keene
  • 1953 Wayne Alspaugh


[edit] Notable Races

  • After a crashing in the Martinsville fall race in 2001, Kevin LePage said "racing at Martinsville is not an anger managment seminar, in fact it would do you good attend one of those before a race".
  • In the 2001 Old Dominion 500, Bobby Hamilton had the race well in hand until the closing laps. Rookie Kevin Harvick spun Hamilton and he dropped to 13th in the runnning order and Harvick was penalized a lap for rough driving. After the race Hamilton said "He(Harvick) may be driving Dale Earnhardt's car but he isn't Dale Earnhardt, right now he wouldn't be a scab on Earnhardt's butt".
  • Harry Gant won the 1991 Goody's 500 after being spun out and even though Gant's car was damaged, he was able to overtake the field to win and this started a three race winning streak for Gant.
  • The winner of the race receives a special grandfather clock as a trophy for winning the races.
  • Junior Johnson won nine races as a teamowner at Martinsville with Darrell Waltrip(7 times) and Geoff Bodine(2 times).
  • Martinsville was the site of Rick Hendrick's first NASCAR Winston(Nextel) Cup win in 1984 with Geoff Bodine.


[edit] External links


Current NASCAR Nextel Cup Series racetracks

Atlanta - Bristol - Brooklyn, Michigan - Charlotte - Darlington - Daytona - Dover - Fontana, California - Fort Worth - Indianapolis - Joliet, Illinois - Kansas City - Las Vegas - Loudon - Martinsville - Miami - Pocono - Phoenix - Richmond - Sonoma, California - Talladega - Watkins Glen


Current NASCAR Busch Series racetracks
Atlanta, Bristol, Brooklyn, Michigan, Charlotte, Darlington, Daytona, Dover, Fontana, California, Fort Worth, Indianapolis, Joliet, Illinois, Kansas City, Las Vegas, Loudon, Madison, Illinois, Martinsville (1982–1994, 2006), Memphis, Mexico City, Miami, Milwaukee, Montreal (2007), Nashville, Phoenix, Richmond, Sparta, Kentucky, Talladega, Watkins Glen
Current NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series racetracks

Atlanta - Bristol - Brooklyn, Michigan - Charlotte - Daytona - Dover - Fontana, California - Fort Worth - Indianapolis - Kansas City - Las Vegas - Loudon - Madison, Illinois - Mansfield - Martinsville - Memphis - Miami - Milwaukee - Nashville - Phoenix - Talladega - Sparta, Kentucky
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