Around the Track: Martinsville

Martinsville Speedway is the shortest track contested by the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series, a .526-mile oval with 12-degree banking in its concrete turns and asphalt on its 800-foot straightaways. The frontstretch is bisected at its midpoint by the start/finish line.

The track formerly had separate front and backstretch pit areas but they have been joined into one long pit road that is entered in Turn 3 and exited in Turn 2 -- leading to a lot of close calls and outright collisions on pit road.

The track is part of the International Speedway Corporation family of facilities and is one of three "short tracks" in Nextel Cup -- or venues that are less than one mile in length.

When I think of Martinsville, the first thing that comes to mind is patience. It's a racetrack that during the race requires a great deal of patience because it's very difficult to pass on.

	JEFF BURTON •   Driver Page •   2005 Stats •   Article Archive

It's a one-groove racetrack that's real small, and real tight. It's one of the most physically demanding racetracks we run on based on the heat and the carbon monoxide exposure and those kinds of things.

You've really got to go into that race feeling good and being really hydrated -- and you've got to go into that race understanding that you really have to be smart and take your time.

When there's a hole you have to take it, but don't try to create holes. It's a very long race and physically and mentally I think it's one of the toughest races we do all year.

I know that NASCAR.COM did a poll and Martinsville led among competitors as being their least favorite racetrack, but I think that's because it's so much easier to race at Michigan and California where it's big and wide and you can run three-wide and you have a lot of options.

At Martinsville, your options are limited, which is why it's one of my favorite racetracks. I enjoy it because it's a huge challenge. To me it's so different than running at a Michigan or a place like that, and it's such a challenge that that's why I like it.

It's unlike any short track in the country. We did all grow up racing on short tracks -- but not that kind of short track, where you had two real long straightaways and two really, really tight corners.

Most short tracks have more radius in the corners with some banking. It's just so different, and I think that's probably why a lot of people don't like it.

When you talk about qualifying at Martinsville, first of all, qualifying at Martinsville is one of the hardest places to qualify that we go to. You really need to get heat in the tires as quickly as you can, and the only way to do that is to run hard.

We actually run three timed laps at Martinsville, but only the last two count. When you leave pit road you have to understand you're coming around to get -- not the green -- it's whatever. You're going to run a full, timed lap before you actually get on the clock.

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So it's real important to try to get into a rhythm. And that first lap, that they're not timing, is what I use for that. I'm trying to get as much heat in the tires as I can, but I'm also trying to create the rhythm that I want for the next two laps.

And also, you need to assess what the car is going to do so if I need to change my driving style I can know what's coming.

You've got to be really careful getting into the corners. If you get in too deep it messes the whole lap up because if you're dragging the brakes or you do anything like that it can mess the lap up.

The way the track is now you just really need to get on that bottom. The thing about Martinsville is you've got to be aggressive but you've got to be smooth -- and in qualifying, it's so hard because you actually run faster after running 20 laps at Martinsville than you do after running two laps.

It's unlike most racetracks so you really got to go in there with a good mental outlook. You have to say "we're going to have a good lap -- it's going to be hard -- it's not going to be an easy two laps."

Knowing that is really important.

When it comes to race mode, the way I approach Martinsville, which may be different than what other people do -- is that we've got to run 499 laps to get to the one that counts.

With the sequence of pit stops and all those kinds of things, you find yourself running everywhere from the lead to last.

You just really have to assess where you are, at what point of race you're there and understand that in the early part of the race, there's a whole lot of racing left to go -- and a lot is going to change.

You've got to try to not be one of the cars that get in a wreck. You have to be one of the cars that doesn't have mechanical problems -- a lot of people have mechanicals at Martinsville and a there are a lot of wrecks there that damage the cars.

People think that aero doesn't matter at Martinsville, but it does. You have to have good aerodynamics and also when you start knocking the nose off the car, you no longer have good brake cooling.

When you start messing the car up it affects things other than just aero, especially at a place like Martinsville. So you need to do your best to keep the fenders on your car, you need to keep the front end lined up on it and the only way to do that is to not run into people.

Martinsville is one of those racetracks where you can go a lap down doing a normal pit stop, based on where you're running when you come in. It's real important for your spotter to be watching the pace car and to tell the crew where the pace car is so you don't go a lap down.

And you've got to be careful on pit road at Martinsville because there are people out there, and it's so tight and it's so narrow that you've really got to be careful. It's a terrible thing to say -- but it's easy to hit somebody, there.

We just can't do that -- we can't endanger our pit crew guys. So you've got to be cautious. It's very easy to get blocked in because the pits are so small.

If you overshoot your pits by any amount at all and the next guy comes in after you, now you're blocked in your pits, so you have to get in your pits really, really well.

You have to understand if the guy in front of you is in his pit when you come in, you have to position yourself differently. So there are a lot of thought processes that go on when you're pitting at Martinsville, because it is so tight.

I won at Martinsville in the fall of 1997. That was one of those days. It was actually, like the second race after coming back after a pretty serious illness. I had not been able to run the whole race at New Hampshire because I'd had a serious case of vertigo.

Martinsville was our second race back after that, and we were able to win. I still claim that what gave me vertigo was three weeks prior to that race, we tested and we ran over 1,500 laps in two days.

Actually, on the second day of the test, we ran a simulated 500-lap race. We worked all morning on chassis stuff and qualifying set-ups and those kinds of things -- and then at 1 o'clock we started the race.

We had mapped out a typical race, based on statistics on when the cautions came out, how long the cautions were, and we pitted and ran a 500-lap race.

I learned everything I could possibly learn about that car -- how much brakes I could use, how hard I could run the car. That was the most effective test I've ever been part of.

We were able to put all those things together, and I actually passed Rusty Wallace with about 40 to go, on the outside -- which was unheard of at that time -- for the lead.

The caution came out and he beat us out of the pits. He was leading and I was running second. We had a restart and he restarted really early. He restarted in the middle of Turns 3 and 4.

NASCAR told him, "Don't do that again." Well the next restart he did it again and they black-flagged him and I got in the lead. On the next restart, Bobby Hamilton got underneath me and we ran side-by-side for probably five laps before I finally cleared him -- and I was on the outside.

So we had an awesome car and I was able to pass two really, really good cars on the outside to win that race. It was a really gratifying win because I had been really sick and came back from being that.

I was still sick in Victory Lane -- I was really dizzy -- but it was a really gratifying win because all the hard work had paid off.

Jeff Burton, driver of the No. 31 Cingular Chevrolet, will take fans Around the Track each race week during the 2005 Nextel Cup season.