Addressing the fallacy of sport's 'abandoned' past

It's a pleasant drive up U.S. Highway 220 from the Triad area of North Carolina to Martinsville Speedway, 44 miles of bending hillsides and twisty curves that tempt you to mash the gas pedal to the floor. Oh sure, there's probably a county mountie hiding in the bushes, and race traffic waiting up ahead. But you can almost imagine what it must have been like decades ago, when moonshiners used to careen down from the foothills on little roads just like this one, the beginnings of a craze that would eventually manifest itself in the form of NASCAR races like the one scheduled for Sunday on the little half-mile track.

Constant since '49

As NASCAR has grown, so has Martinsville Speedway. The track played host to its first NASCAR race on July 4, 1948. In 1949, Martinsville ran the sixth race in the series that eventually became the Sprint Cup Series. While it opened in 1947 with 750 seats, the facility has grown continuously through the years. But other than being paved in 1955, the track configuration has not changed since Red Byron won the inaugural event.

• More

Martinsville is a time capsule all its own. They've paved some parking lots and added some seats and made some other improvements, but it's as easy to stare at that race track and picture Curtis Turner navigating the corners as it is Jimmie Johnson. There's a sense of constancy at the south Virginia speedway, maybe because the Wood Brothers have been racing here since 1953 (although that streak will end this year; their home track isn't part of their reduced schedule), maybe because the place has been standing since 1949. It's weekends like this one that make you look at all those fans hammering NASCAR for abandoning its past, and wonder -- what exactly are they thinking?

No question, NASCAR and its race track operators have made some missteps along the way when it comes to traditional venues. To see North Carolina Speedway, with its above-average facilities and great racing action, pawned off as part of a lawsuit was saddening. People still get angry about the way North Wilkesboro Speedway was carved up. Although that track would certainly be gone by now even if Bruton Smith and Bob Bahre hadn't purchased it and divvied up the dates -- there's no denying the place was on the verge of becoming obsolete -- a track dear to so many people could have been euthanized a bit more humanely.

Yet situations like those tend to obscure the bigger picture. Yes, North Wilkesboro is gathering dust, Rockingham now hosts ARCA races, and Darlington Raceway is down to one Sprint Cup event. Those facts are undeniable. But when you examine the broad spectrum of sports, NASCAR hardly looks like a league that's forsaken its roots. In fact, when compared with the NFL, NBA, and Major League Baseball, the stock-car racing series comes across as a strident preservationist. Just look at Martinsville, a facility that, had it hosted any other sport, would likely have long ago been abandoned for a newer stadium in a bigger market. Not many NFL franchises play in arenas built in the years immediately following World War II. (Continued)