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 "
Superspeedway s" 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.
The track was sold exclusively to the France family for $192 million in 2004 as a result of an estate sale following the death of Weatherford.
Plans existed to add an additional 20,000 seats along the back stretch, 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.
Currently, Martinsville hosts two
Nextel Cup races - the
Goody's Cool Orange 500 in April and the
Subway 500 (round six of the
Chase For The Cup ) in October - along with
Craftsman Truck Series ,
Whelen Modified Tour which is labor day weekend under the lights, and Late Model races.
From 1982 until 1994, and again in a one-off 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 will be run on the open date.
- , 19.306 sec. (98.084 mph), 2005
- , 3 hrs. 11 min. 54 sec. (82.223 mph), September 22 , 1996
- , 19.735 sec. (95.951 mph), 2006
- , 1 hr. 42 min. 16 sec. (77.751 mph), March 25 , 1984 (250 laps)
- , 19.728 sec. (95.985 mph), 2007
- , 1 hr. 47 min. 18 sec. (75.296 mph), September 27 , 1997
- , 18.746 sec. (101.014 mph), 1986.
- NASCAR Combined Modified Race: Ted Christopher, 55.773 mph, 2005 (combination races only with 250-lap format)
(races officially sanctioned by NASCAR)
- 1952 Tex Keene
- 1953 Wayne Alspaugh
- Winners of Martinsville's Nextel Cup and Whelen Modified Tour events receive a Longcase Clock as a trophy, a nod to Martinsville's famous furniture industry.
- While watching a NASCAR race, one can see a Norfolk Southern train running along the tracks outside the speedway, although the tracks were recently moved back 100 feet.
- After a crashing in the Martinsville fall race in 2001, Kevin Lepage said, "racing at Martinsville is not an anger management seminar; in fact it would do you good to 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 until he fell to 13th after being spun by rookie Kevin Harvick , who was penalized a lap for rough driving. After the race Hamilton said, "He {Link without Title} 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. This started a three-race winning streak for Gant.
- Junior Johnson won nine races as a team owner at Martinsville with Darrell Waltrip (seven times) and Geoff Bodine (twice).
- Martinsville was the site of Rick Hendrick 's first NASCAR Winston Cup win in 1984 with Geoff Bodine.
- During most of the time track founder H. Clay Earles was alive, only one brand of candy bar was sold at Martinsville Speedway, the 5th Avenue candy bar, which was Earles' favorite.
