NASCAR still a Martinsville staple, just like the hot dog

MARTINSVILLE, Va. -- Junior Johnson has seen firsthand the benefits what most folks would call a small-time community can reap from a big-time racetrack.

And he has seen the economic devastation that can occur in such communities when big-time races are suddenly ripped from such a racetrack's schedule. Johnson, the legendary former NASCAR driver and car owner, witnessed the demise of the old North Wilkesboro Speedway in North Carolina and what happened to that area after NASCAR stopped running races there.

He said he doesn't want to see the same thing happen to Martinsville Speedway, the short track that held its first race in September 1949 and therefore has been around as long as NASCAR itself. Like most very old things, it just isn't as shiny as it used to be.

"Losing the speedway hurt us very, very, very bad," said Johnson, who still lives near the silent North Wilkesboro track. "It would hurt Martinsville, too. Martinsville would be devastated if they took one race away -- just like it would [be to] Bristol.

"That racetrack was North Wilkesboro and Wilkes County. It's hard to believe it because we had all kinds of manufacturing facilities there for everything. But when the racetrack left, a lot of them left, too."

Unlike most of the other racetracks where the top three NASCAR series race, Martinsville is not easily accessible by the Interstate -- in fact, it's not directly accessible by any Interstate at all; it does not seat 100,000 fans or more; and it still offers hot dogs as its most famous item on the concession menu.

The grandstands seat only 65,000. Even the traditional Grandfather clocks given to race winners seem a little outdated and out of place in today's fast-paced, corporate-driven sport.

Located on U.S. Highway 220 South, 2 miles south from the heart of Martinsville, halfway between Roanoke, Va., and Greensboro, N.C. -- bigger cities that are more or less an hour away in each direction -- Martinsville Speedway seems to be a place that time forgot.

Johnson and others are hoping racing doesn't forget it somewhere down the line. As the sport has grown, so has speculation that NASCAR may eventually take one of Martinsville's two race dates for Nextel Cup and give them to another track -- which is to say a bigger, newer, fancier track in a larger market.

Driver Jeff Gordon, who has won at Martinsville a remarkable seven times, said that he naturally would despair to see the track lose one of its dates.

"I think the history of this track means a lot to the sport. This track has been around for so long and seen so much great racing," Gordon said. "But for me personally, I've just liked this track from early on in my career and had success here. So anytime you run good at a track like we do here, you're going to like it -- and we've got a lot of Grandfather clocks to show for it."

Car of Tomorrow reflects upon past

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Gordon said what makes Martinsville special is that there is no other track exactly like it. It is a mere .526 miles around, with only 12-degree banking in the corners.

"It's a short track. I like all the short tracks," Gordon said. "You have to finesse this track. You can't overdrive into the corners and you've got to smooth on the gas. You've to got to really work hard with the team to get the car to roll through the center of the corner.

"I like short-track racing in general. This is a tough place to get around, but I guess I like the challenge of that."

It's a tough place to get to for competitors, fans and media alike, and sometimes the challenge of that leads to an economic equation that becomes less appealing all the time to the numbers-crunchers involved in NASCAR. Bruton Smith of Speedway Motorsports Inc. and Bob Bahre of New Hampshire International Speedway bought North Wilkesboro Speedway and shipped one race date to Smith's Texas Motor Speedway and one to Bahre's track in Loudon, N.H.

North Wilkesboro's last Cup race was in 1996. For a while, Johnson was part of a group that planned to buy the old track and keep it open with other events. But without the lure of the top NASCAR series, even the legendary Johnson could not help pull it off.

"It's too expensive to do anything with it," Johnson said. "You can't generate enough money to keep the doors open. Anybody who buys it is going to be somebody who has so much money that he doesn't have respect for nothin'. It could be used for testing and tire testing, maybe the Hooters series or something like that. But to make it a profitable thing? It ain't gonna happen."

Johnson also said that he doesn't think it is possible for anyone to build a short track today comparable in character to Bristol or Martinsville.

"I don't think they could build a short track today," Johnson said. "Take (Bristol). If it didn't have the grandstand capacity it has now, it couldn't support a race. The races [there] take place basically in a hole."

That sounds much like Martinsville, but minus two-thirds of the seats. And that makes it seem obvious that it could eventually spell extinction.

Yet Johnson insisted that it would be a huge mistake for NASCAR to ever turn its back on Martinsville.

"It's a very, very, very unique racetrack," said Johnson, who registered 12 victories at Martinsville as a car owner between 1974 and 1990. "Plus it has a lot of history and it puts on a good show. It would be a shame if they ever took even one race away from there. [NASCAR] would lose part of its heritage, part of what it's supposed to stand for."

Johnson said he understands the notion of progress in NASCAR, as in life. But he said he still thinks there is room for both in this world.

"Things change. Now fans eat steaks and that kind of stuff in the suites at races," he said. Then he grinned and added of Martinsville: "But those who want a hot dog can still get that, too."