Head2Head: Short tracks

Every spring, two short tracks are the center attention on back-to-back weekends as Bristol Motor Speedway and Martinsville Speedway host Cup Series races. Separated by a mere 170 miles, both tracks are entrenched in NASCAR history with memories abound of great victories and on-track drama that no other track can rival.

I've been fortunate to attend races at both tracks, and while Martinsville will always a hold a special place in my heart as the location of my first Cup race, Bristol takes the cake as the better short track of the two.

Yes, Martinsville has the history and the grandfather clock, but when you want to see the best short-track racing, you head to the track off Highway 11E in Tennessee.

The atmosphere at Bristol is unbelievable. The .533-mile short track holds 160,000 people for every Cup race, and these fans love their NASCAR. The most passionate fans in the world congregate to Bristol twice a year, and it makes the race that much more enjoyable.

Then there is the venue itself. Dario Franchitti described it as "a modern-day coliseum" and he is absolutely right. The place is enormous, but it doesn't feel like it. You can see all the action on the track from any seat in the place, if you're fortunate enough to get in -- in case you hadn't heard, those 160,000 tickets are tough to come by.

Speaking of action, there is nothing else on the schedule like a Bristol race. The track is known for beatin' and bangin' and that's what you get each and every race. Before they repaved the track, there was a single line drivers could race, meaning if you wanted to advance a position, you bump the guy in front of you out of the way.

Well after the repaving last year, the track became even better. Not only are there two, and sometimes three, lines a driver can race on, they can't stay out there too long or they will fall back in a hurry.

What that means is you get some exciting side-by-side action, but when it comes down to the end, a driver better be able to push and shove his way up front if he hopes to win. Throw in the drama that comes with 30 degrees of banking and Bristol offers some of the best action money can buy.

In my opinion, short-track racing is the most exciting in the sport. No, you don't get the amazing speeds that you have at places like Talladega, Daytona, Atlanta and Texas, but you get non-stop drama at every turn and on every straightaway. Setups aren't as important as driver skill -- and when it comes to showing off that skill, Bristol is the No. 1 short track.

The fans, the atmosphere, the track, the action -- give me Bristol every weekend.

There were eight tracks on the schedule for NASCAR's first Strictly Stock season in 1949. Only one of those remains: Martinsville Speedway. And let's hope the little paved half-mile on Highway 220 just across the North Carolina border, with its neon pink hot dogs and its backstretch train track and its slammin'-frammin'-bammin' style of racing, always has a place on the NASCAR schedule.

Unlike any other track in Sprint Cup, Martinsville Speedway is the way racing was meant to be.

Martinsville is a throwback to an earlier age, which is why it seems somewhat quaint and old-fashioned when compared to the giant superspeedways of Daytona and Talladega, the cookie-cutter tri-ovals and even its high-banked, short-track relative to the west, Bristol Motor Speedway.

Martinsville can be described as a pair of two-lane highways connected by U-turns at either end. Perhaps that's why fans can identify with the place -- because it's the one track on the circuit that they could almost dream of taking a passenger car, smoking the brakes and lighting up the tires for a lap or two. You couldn't do that at Bristol.

If you took away the grandstands and added a couple of traffic lights, you could swear it would make a perfect street for cruising on a Friday night. Just put a hamburger place at one end and an ice cream stand at other. Bristol looks somebody decided to put a racetrack inside a football stadium.

Want to see the entire race unfold before your eyes? It's hard to do at most tracks, unless you sit high enough to see over all the transporters and motorhomes in the infield -- and then you better bring binoculars. But Martinsville is different. From a corner grandstand seat, you're close enough to the cars to feel the heat from the glowing brake pads and smell the exhaust fumes. Is there a prettier place to watch a race than Martinsville, with the mountains in the distance?

There's something amazing about watching 43 of NASCAR's best run bumper-to-bumper for 500 laps there, gouging and digging for every inch of available track position. If Bristol is frenetic and high-strung, Martinsville is all about staying patient and persevering.

And it's not just the fans who reminisce about what this sport was like back in the "good old days." The drivers love the place, too, because it reminds most of them of where they started racing. Martinsville has the feel of any small-town speedway in America. You'd almost expect to see them run street stocks and a Figure Eight race before the feature.

Bristol may be bigger and better in some ways, but for sheer entertainment value, Martinsville gets my money.