1on1: Clay Campbell

Clay Campbell literally grew up at Martinsville Speedway, which was founded by his grandfather, H. Clay Earles, 61 years ago.

Now the president of the facility, Campbell admittedly gets more than a little defensive when folks start talking about the possibility of his racy short track losing one of its two Sprint Cup Series dates, and points proudly to more than $3 million in capital improvements that have been made to the place since it hosted the Goody's Cool Orange 500 in March. Among the significant and impressive upgrades: a three-sided Sprint Vision replay scoreboard; a renovated media center that has doubled in size and now -- believe it or not -- can be accurately described as a "state of the art" center; a revamped pit road (the asphalt was torn out and replaced by concrete); new permanent grandstand seating (replacing portable folding chairs in some places); and safety improvements on the outside wall in Turn 4.

Campbell talked about the state of the track and a variety of other subjects.

Q: In recent years especially, there always seem to be some rumblings about your track possibly losing one of your dates to another track. But you don't see that happening, do you?

Campbell: I do believe the brand of racing we have here is unlike any other place you'll see. There are other short tracks, but all of the short tracks are different in the form of racing that they produce. Us and Richmond are totally different; us and Bristol are totally different. I think we are totally unique. I think fans like it; I think drivers like it. That's all we can do: keep doing what we've been doing for 60-some years and let the chips fall where they may. But the fans ultimately speak out on it, and I think this has been a fan favorite for a number of years. I don't see that changing.

Q: Your place seats 63,000 and you are expecting a crowd somewhere between 55,000 and 58,000 for this Sunday's race. Are you a little envious when you look at a short track like Bristol Motor Speedway that has expanded since 1996 from 71,000 seats to a capacity of 160,000 and continues to sell out races?

Campbell: I think the potential has always been there to do that kind of thing here, too. But you have several things at Bristol that you don't have here and can't have here. First, let me say that they've done an outstanding job there. It's a first-class place, and the growth that they've managed over the years has just been phenomenal. From what they came from to what they are now is just great. You can't take anything away from them on that.

But I think a lot of that has to do with just the area that it's in [Bristol, Tenn.]. Since that thing went to night racing [for their second annual event each August], it's just kept going and going and going. It has become as much of a happening as a race -- and that's good. There are other facilities and other races where it's a happening, it's an experience. (Continued)