Like many people deeply involved in auto racing, Clay Campbell grew up in the sport. But like very few, Campbell, as president of Martinsville Speedway, is in a position to really make a positive impact in the sport.

Campbell literally grew up around NASCAR racing as his grandfather, the late H. Clay Earles, founded Martinsville as one of "Big Bill" France's inaugural venues in the late 1940s.

In 2008, Campbell is not only the guiding force behind one of NASCAR's strongest short tracks, he's also a community-minded individual with race driving, as well as race promoting in his background, who diversified into team ownership in the Craftsman Truck Series this season.

Upcoming races

Truck	Oct. 18
Cup	Oct. 19

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While attending NASCAR's race weekend recently at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Campbell sat down to discuss several aspects of the 2008 season.

Q: Before we get to Martinsville's race weekend, what's life been like as an owner in the Truck Series?

Campbell: It's been good so far. You know, I'm a racer at heart, so it gives me another opportunity to view this sport from a different side than I'm used to doing it from, which can be good, and it can be bad.

But so far I like it -- but ask me in 10 months, and I'll give you an answer at that point, too -- but I've enjoyed it, because it's something different for me. Of course, it doesn't replace my day job, but I can tell you this: The [Truck Series] race that I watched in Daytona, I've never watched a race with the intensity that I watched that truck race.

I've always just watched races. I didn't have any vested interest in it [previously], but that was the first time I had a real, real keen interest in how things went.

Q: Why get involved in the Truck Series, why now and with this group?

Campbell: I've always liked the Truck Series, because they're so doggoned exciting. But now the flip side of that, as a truck owner, is that it really increases the anxiety.

Absolutely, a big part of it is how neat it is to work with these people. I think we've got good people in the right places, with Joey [Arrington], obviously. Our careers kind of parallel each other's, Joey and myself; and Stacy [Compton] and I go way back to when both of us were racing go-karts, when he was right out of high school and I wasn't too far out of it, myself.

But I've known him for a long time. And Dennis Setzer, you won't find a more likeable guy than Dennis -- a top-notch individual and a great driver. So those people, and our support crew members -- it's fun and we've got a good bunch of people.

So far we've had mixed results [ninth and 16th in the driver standings with Setzer and Compton, respectively], but we're still doing OK, and we look forward to a good year -- and especially our Kroger 250 on Saturday.

Q: How have preparations gone for the spring Martinsville weekend, a combination Sprint Cup and Craftsman Truck doubleheader?

Campbell: It's going good. Last year we were the first weekend in April and this year, we're the last weekend in March, and it's only a day or so different -- it just sounds a lot sooner when you say 'March 30th' versus a date in April.

Basically, once Daytona [Speedweeks] rolls around, it's boom-boom-boom; one right after the other and you turn the wick up and go flat-out. But things are looking good and everything's pointing for a good weekend, with Goody's Cool Orange back again as our sponsor; who are some good people to work with.

So we're looking forward to it. Last year we ran the [new car] both races at Martinsville, so this will be the third race for them coming back, and obviously with two of the closest finishes in our history and NASCAR's history, for that matter, last year; we're expecting a great race.

Q: There's been a lot of talk about weather so far this season, so with your date and your facility, what kind of challenges do you see with the weather?

Campbell: Obviously, you don't know what you're going to get in March, and on up into April, for that matter. It's still basically winter-time. I remember one year when it was 70-something degrees -- last year for our April race, it was.

So it's possible it could be that and it's possible it could be in the 30s -- you just never know. So it's a challenge and it's something you've got to live with because everybody can't be in May, June or July when you get on up into the warmer months.

So it is what it is and we make the best of it. Operationally it's a challenge because you don't know what kinks the weather's going to throw into you. People don't realize when you've got a facility and you open it up, and you might have sub-freezing weather, you've got all these water pipes and everything else that you've got to protect; otherwise you've really got a problem on race day, if those things go south on you.

Q: As a track operator have you ever had discussions with either NASCAR, or other tracks about exploring anything else with your race dates, or are you comfortable with where Martinsville fits in the schedule?

Campbell: I'm comfortable. If you go back 10 years and even past that, our spring race was always in the latter part of April and our [fall] race was always the latter part of September. Then, the schedules got shuffled around and we got moved back, earlier and earlier.

There are pros and cons to it, but there's not a lot that we could do about it. NASCAR has their challenges in fitting everybody where they think they need to be in the schedule, so it is what it is and we just make do with what we can.

Q: Martinsville's got a pretty good reputation as a fan-friendly facility, so for the 2008 spring weekend, is there anything new on tap for the fans?

Campbell: It's pretty much business as usual, but one thing that I think is pretty neat; is for those fans sitting in the South Terrace Tower, which is the grandstand above the suites in Turns 1 and 2 -- and we still have some of those available -- if you want to get your food right there at your seat, we'll have somebody bring it to you and you don't have to go to the concession stand.

Everybody talks about the world-famous Martinsville Speedway hot dog -- by sitting there you can get it right at your seat and you don't have to miss a lap of the action. So that's just one other way that we're trying to cater to the fans and make their experience a memorable and positive one.

We'll have vendors working that grandstand and you don't even have to leave your seat to get served. If that works out successfully we'll expand that to other sections of the grandstand, but that one was an obvious no-brainer with the amount of people we have up there and the ease of doing it, so I think those fans will appreciate that.

There are numerous things we're working on after this race; that we'll be doing for our weekend in the fall, Oct. 18-19, so we're always looking for ways to enhance the experience for the fan, the competitors and the media.

Anybody that comes on our property is a guest, and the way we look at is; when you buy a ticket to Martinsville, you're buying a memory. It's either going to be a good one or a bad one, and if it's a bad one, somewhere along the line we failed, so we're always trying to tweak what we have and make it a positive experience.

Q: Full seats versus empty seats is a big debate, or a big challenge; with a supposedly weak economy, high gas prices, etc.; so as a race promoter have you found any solutions to that?

Campbell: I wish I had a solution to it for everybody in this business, because I'd be a wealthy man. Right now, you're faced with a lot of things that we don't have control over. The economy is not in the best shape it's ever been in, gas prices don't help matters any so in one way or another, it's probably the toughest year we've had in a long time.

Clay Campbell

And most of it is not something we can control. So the best thing that we can do for those that come to our events is to make it where they want to come back. But it's tough times right now.

Q: There's a lot of talk about messing with the schedule and messing with racetracks -- either dropping or adding them. But you've got a classic facility that's been a part of NASCAR for as long as it's existed; so as far as you're concerned, is there always going to be a place for short track racing in the Sprint Cup Series?

Campbell: I think so, and I've always felt that. If you look at what I think made NASCAR so popular, it's that you've got something to suit everybody's tastes.

Everybody doesn't like short track racing, everybody doesn't like superspeedway racing, nor does everybody like road courses. But, for those that do, you've got short tracks, you've got intermediates, you've got the superspeedways and you've got road courses.

I think that's one thing we have over other forms of motorsports, and that's something to please everybody. Now, that being said, we are the shortest track [in Sprint Cup racing], but everything we have done outside the confines of that racetrack, we've grown with the times.

We've expanded our seating, we've done suites, we've done new roads, tunnels and garages -- the whole works and everything that you need to do to maintain current standards, and I think we've achieved that.

People love short track racing. It's a form of racing you can't get anywhere else and I'm not concerned about the future and a lack of Martinsville on the schedule. Sure, I think we have a place on it and I think we always will.

We have the cheapest ticket prices of any track on the circuit -- standard ticket prices and not slashing prices for specials; but our standard ticket prices. In fact, our highest ticket price is probably lower than some places' lowest ticket prices.

That's something my grandfather always did when he was at the helm because he wanted it to be a family-type atmosphere where a man could bring his wife and kids and not have to worry about anything; and go away and still have some money in his pocket.

I think we still accomplish that and I think that's important and I think the fans recognize that.

Q: In this day and time, and considering what you and Bristol and Richmond -- and even Iowa have done with short tracks -- are you surprised that more people have not considered building short tracks when they contemplate new facilities?

Campbell: I am, and I think that it shows, with our company, International Speedway Corporation, that the track that they were going to build, if they ever got everything in order to do it in New York [City] is going to be a short track -- three-quarters [of a mile], seven-eighths, whatever.

I don't think the size of the track is ever critical, but at one point everybody was building mile-and-a-halves -- bigger was better -- and that's not necessarily true. If we had the opportunity to build Martinsville from scratch -- you've seen what we've done, building it piecemeal -- but if you started from scratch, you could easily put 100,000 seats around the track, and Bristol has proved that.

Q: Speaking of the fans, how do you deal with fan feedback at Martinsville?

Campbell: We send out e-mails to our ticket holders, pretty much a questionnaire, asking them the good, the bad and things of that nature. Every letter or every phone call that comes into our office, if it's addressed to me or it's directed to me -- I answer it.

Every piece of mail I get, I answer it at some point in time. It may take a little while, but I respond to it because their feedback is of the utmost importance to us. There are some things that may have gone on for years and they may not have been the best, mainly because we didn't know that the fans didn't like it.

So if they let us know something, we try to address it, if we feel they have a valid point. That's the way I've always felt about it, because they're the reason we all have the jobs that we do.

Q: Do you find that events, such as Dale Earnhardt Jr. winning a race, or a couple drivers getting into a brawl somewhere else on the circuit, spike your ticket sales?

Campbell: Yeah, absolutely it does. Obviously, the momentum we found at Daytona, which was probably the most positive Speedweeks I've seen in a long time, everybody who followed Daytona tried to build on and follow that momentum.

Sure, selfishly, I would have liked to have seen a big brawl -- or somebody get out of their car and go after someone else. I think close, on-track racing, first and foremost excites people, because that's what this whole sport is built on -- competitive racing.

So you want to see good racing, and it would have suited me fine if either at Atlanta or Bristol somebody had gotten out of their car and just beaten somebody up, or gotten emotional. That gains attention and people like to see that, they like to follow it.

You know, we need rivalries. We used to have big rivalries in this sport: Petty, Pearson and Yarborough, and things like that. So that's good, you need that and I like NASCAR's thinking, now, that we need to let them show some of their emotions.

Q: Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon went at it last spring at Martinsville, with Jimmie winning by a few feet. To your mind, how much better would it have been if Jeff would have spun Jimmie out?

Campbell: Well, it would have probably sold us some tickets for the next one -- so yeah, stuff like that is what the fans love; and a close race, no matter who wins it, enhances the future.

Q: Martinsville is a community-oriented facility, so what's going on with the July Fourth celebration that you've held, in the past, at the racetrack?

Campbell: This will be our 10th year of hosting that. It started, actually, with Henry County doing it for years at the administration building; but you can't put but so many people into something like that -- and that was just fireworks, it wasn't a show.

Then we had two local industries that celebrated their 75th anniversaries, and they wanted to do something special, and they did it at our track. Well, after that we realized it was a pretty good deal for the people of Martinsville and Henry County, so we put the thing on with funding from numerous local industries.

It's gone over really well. It's a free concert for the community, it doesn't cost anybody a penny, we have top-name entertainment, a half-hour fireworks show and amusement rides for the kids.

We're a good corporate citizen and it's just something that we can give back to the community in which we all reside; because a lot of those people have a lot to do with our race weekends; so it's a pretty neat deal that we can give something back, like that.