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Thursday, April 5
Martinsville more driver friendly
Associated Press
MARTINSVILLE, Va. -- The improvements are numerous at
Martinsville Speedway: a wider pit road, a covered garage, and seat
backs for the fans.
But the track remains the same, and there lies the rub.
|  | | New garages and smooth pit roads may grace Martinsville Speedway, but the paper-clip shape remains the same. |
The oldest, shortest circuit in Winston Cup racing has long been
a dreaded stop for some drivers. With tight turns at both ends and
long straightaways on either side, it's a study in stop-and-go
racing.
So while fans can now sit back and watch the race and crew
members can seek shelter from the sun inside the new garage, Mark
Martin and 42 others will be bracing for the worst when the green
flag falls Sunday.
"The turns are so sharp and the straightaways are so long,"
Martin said of the paper-clip-shaped, .526-mile oval. "Those two
things, plus the turns on the inside, make it different from any
other track we run."
Martin and Tony Stewart, though, both return this year as proof
that it isn't necessary to like a track to win there. Martin used a
savvy late call by crew chief Jimmy Fenning to win a year ago, and
Stewart won here in the fall on the track he once described as a
"parking lot."
"I still wish that they'd just fill it up with water and put
bass in there," Stewart said, before allowing that his feelings
have softened somewhat since he outran Dale Earnhardt for the
victory last October.
"I don't dislike it as much as I used to."
Unlike Martin and Stewart, Rusty Wallace loves Martinsville. The
active career leader with six victories here, he led 343 laps from
the pole a year ago before a late pit stop cost him a chance at
victory.
After growing up racing on tracks shorter than a mile, Wallace
arrives here twice a year expecting to challenge for the pole and
the victory, even though he said strategy has changed as stock car
racing has grown.
"There was a time where maybe there was a little lull during a
500-lap race here," he said. "That's not the case these days.
It's flat out every lap from the drop of the green flag."
This year, all the drivers will like pit road better. The old
one, long and narrow, made for some dicey maneuvering heading into
and out of the pits, but 10 additional feet make it less likely to
be an issue.
"Ten feet might not sound like much, but it's a hundred miles
to these race cars," Sterling Marlin said during a test session at
the track.
"For one thing, it will help keep you from being blocked all
the time. For another, it gives you a little more room to drop the
jack and get out. That's going to make for a better race all the
way around."
The weekend begins Friday with pole qualifying for the Advance
Auto Parts 250 Craftsman Truck Series, followed by pole qualifying
for Sunday's Winston Cup event. The truck race will be run
Saturday.
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