Passing Lane
by Mike Hembree
Martinsville: Tiny and intimate
March 30, 2008
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They'll race at Martinsville today, and this is what you'll see: really big race cars on a really small track.
It's the smallest track in NASCAR, of course, and it's as flat as a Coke left out in the sun.
The cars are really too big for the track, and the field is really too big for the race course. Martinsville isn't made for spectacular racing, but it has its attractions, and one of them is intimacy.
Now, intimacy isn't necessarily a good thing in stock car racing, particularly if the guy sitting next to you forgot to bathe and brought a tuna sandwich for a snack. But, at Martinsville, it's cool because the racing is right there in front of you, so close you can almost reach out and be grazed by Tony Stewart's beard as he rolls by.
You won't miss much. Everything that happens can be seen from virtually every grandstand seat, and the unique skills a driver must have to make repeated successful passes on a tight short-track are in full view, as if you were sitting on your couch and a parade was moving past your picture window.
The down side is that a dominant car can lead a ton of consecutive laps at Martinsville, keeping the upfront tension to a minimum. If that happens, though, you get up and escape the tuna sandwich for a while.
It's the smallest track in NASCAR, of course, and it's as flat as a Coke left out in the sun.
The cars are really too big for the track, and the field is really too big for the race course. Martinsville isn't made for spectacular racing, but it has its attractions, and one of them is intimacy.
Now, intimacy isn't necessarily a good thing in stock car racing, particularly if the guy sitting next to you forgot to bathe and brought a tuna sandwich for a snack. But, at Martinsville, it's cool because the racing is right there in front of you, so close you can almost reach out and be grazed by Tony Stewart's beard as he rolls by.
You won't miss much. Everything that happens can be seen from virtually every grandstand seat, and the unique skills a driver must have to make repeated successful passes on a tight short-track are in full view, as if you were sitting on your couch and a parade was moving past your picture window.
The down side is that a dominant car can lead a ton of consecutive laps at Martinsville, keeping the upfront tension to a minimum. If that happens, though, you get up and escape the tuna sandwich for a while.
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