Of all NASCAR's national touring series, the Camping World Truck Series is leading the way in international expansion and veteran driver Stacy Compton -- a relative newcomer to series ownership -- is doing his part.

But last weekend, Compton got a real lesson in restraint at his home track, Martinsville Speedway.

Narain Karthikeyan made history at Martinsville as he became the first driver born in India to make a NASCAR national series start.

Karthikeyan was on the lead lap until Lap 200, when contact with Clay Greenfield sent the No. 60 around and Karthikeyan was unable to get it re-fired, dropping him a lap.

Karthikeyan was the benefactor of the free pass, returned to the lead lap and finished 13th.

-- Sporting News Wire Service

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And rather than succumbing to sheer frustration and jumping off the roof of Martinsville's frontstretch tower, which serves as the competitors' spotters' stand, Compton calmly called the shots for Indian newcomer Narain Karthikeyan's stunning lead-lap, 13th-place Truck Series debut run.

It was Compton's latest lesson in big-picture thinking that began last year when his Turn One Racing, LLC entity purchased Wyler Racing's truck team. Compton gets back behind the wheel of the Wyler/Turn One No. 60 Chevrolet on Friday at Nashville Superspeedway, thoroughly satisfied with how last weekend worked out.

"Of course, as a driver it's incredibly frustrating to get out of the seat -- especially at Martinsville, of all places," Compton said. "But looking down the road, it was definitely the right thing to do. If things go the way we want them to, we want to run two full-time trucks next season, for Narain and myself."

Martinsville was the latest step as NASCAR expands its international footprint. This season, drivers from Colombia, Tasmania and Italy are racing full time in Sprint Cup. Drivers from six countries including Brazil, Canada, India, Italy, Mexico and New Zealand have competed in the Truck Series.

And last weekend Karthikeyan's participation opened the door for Neo Sports, a national Indian network, to broadcast the Martinsville race live -- albeit in the middle of the night. But according to Yohann Setna, who after the race said he'd worked with Karthikeyan's Narain Racing group for years, said "we can't help that the earth is round, and it's a different time in India.

"But the race was going to be re-broadcast in prime-time on Sunday [March 28], so that was a really big deal."

Araceli Villegas, NASCAR Media Group's international director, said the Indian broadcast was a continuation of the Truck Series' history of being broadcast internationally "for many years. The series is broadcast internationally throughout Latin America, Australia and the Middle East. NASCAR races are currently being broadcast in over 175 countries."

If Karthikeyan's plan to compete in more Truck Series events, plus some Nationwide races, comes through "we look forward to working with broadcasters in India for coverage of these events," Villegas said.

"The opportunity to compete in a NASCAR series is a dream come true for me," Karthikeyan said before Martinsville. "I have raced all over the world, but this is a different kind of challenge for me and I look forward to learning everything I can about racing in this environment. NASCAR is known for its passionate fans. I am excited to be introducing India to this sport and hope to help develop an equally passionate fan base there."

Kendrick and Karthikeyan

“

... to get a 13th on the leap lap at Martinsville to have never been in a stock car is almost unbelievable.

”

-- CHAD KENDRICK

Karthikeyan's only other "stock car" experience included a limited number of laps at an ARCA Series test this past December at Daytona, and a one-day test at Motor Mile Speedway in Radford, Va., the week before Martinsville. But even in his opening laps at Motor Mile, Compton and crew chief Chad Kendrick were impressed.

If Karthikeyan's first result is any indication, there's a future in it.

"I think it was completely different than what I'm used to -- a lot of wheel-banging and stuff," Karthikeyan said. "Once I started running, it was good, but the team, Starbeast and everyone did a good job and Stacy was a great spotter for me -- I'm learning a lot from him. I'm very happy to finish the race and I'm lucky 13, I think [laughing]."

Setna said the relationship Karthikeyan has quickly forged with Compton and Kendrick was vital, as well as unusual for the Indian, 33.

"Narain said he was going to do 'exactly what Stacy tells me, no matter what,' and that's something that, in single-seater racing, he's not used to someone being in his ear all the time, and he's always been the kind of driver who doesn't like a lot of chit-chat on the radio," Setna said, laughing. "There have been times when he's been quite vociferous with his engineer for talking too much on the radio, so it was a lot for him to accept the differences in this atmosphere."

Karthikeyan experienced a broad spectrum of incidents in the 250-lap race. He started 11th when qualifying was rained out, and as he slowly got up to speed, rocketed backwards, almost to 30th. Late in the race, Karthikeyan was spun out by a truck that dove under his into Turn 3, and he failed to immediately restart and lost a lap.

But he raced past two trucks to get back into position to get a free pass onto the lead lap when the next caution came out, and he was racing forward at the end. At the mid-point of the race, he got maybe his biggest lesson when another truck rapidly slowed on the backstretch, which accordioned the field and caused former champion Todd Bodine to quickly switch lanes and ram Karthikeyan's truck into the inside wall.

"I had a big knock and I thought that was it, because in open-wheel racing, when you hit somebody, that's it," Karthikeyan said, with a smile. "But they told me to keep driving, so here I am.

"The best advice I got was to just stay on the track and don't get involved with other people, and that's what I did -- and it worked. The biggest surprise was there was so much contact with everybody, for sure. But I guess that's the way it is on a small track like this. But we're kind of happy with what we did. For sure I learned a lot and Chad did a great job. All in all, it was fun."

Kendrick, who six months ago was in Martinsville's Victory Lane with first-time winner Timothy Peters, was almost as satisfied with Karthikeyan's debut.

"I told his guys, I'm almost speechless, because I never saw this coming," Kendrick said. "We threw this thing together, and switched to Chevrolet and went and tested one day at Motor Mile and the way the test started, I just thought 'this is gonna be a long day at Martinsville.'

"But he stayed with it, he never gave up and every lap, from the start at Motor Mile, in practice here and in the race he's steadily gotten better. He listens well, his feedbacks decent though he's still learning the terminology, but with what he went through, to get a 13th on the leap lap at Martinsville to have never been in a stock car is almost unbelievable."

Setna said Martinsville was a huge step for Karthikeyan, who's competed 22 years in open-wheelers and sports cars.

"This is the most mentally controlled he's ever been -- he's always super-aggressive," Setna said. "That's his nature, his style -- his driving style is very aggressive.

"He really had to put a lot of mental thought into this race. He said 'I'm going to finish this race and I'm going to be smart' -- because his instinct is he wants to pass every single car that's in front of him, and if there's a safety [pace] car in front of him, he wants to pass that, too. So holding back on that was important."

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"You have to have passion," Karthikeyan said. "Sometimes in open-wheel racing, I've done a lot of big moves and they pay off. But I didn't want to come here and get a bad [reputation] from the first race. Once you know these guys -- and you respect them and they respect you, hopefully -- and that's how you need to start in America.

"It was easy to concentrate and do your own thing, but once you started racing and the trucks are slow, then you want to push more and try to pass. And that's when it gets tricky because you can lose your mind a bit and try to go for it. But I kept it calm this weekend. This is my start, so I have to be that way."

Among the people who sought Karthikeyan out to congratulate him, none were fellow drivers who were irate at anything he did on the track. In fact, Karthikeyan impressed at least one of his competitors, Martinsville race winner Kevin Harvick, whose history has shown isn't an easy guy to please -- particularly at Martinsville.

"A lot of people, the first time they're here, they don't really know where they're at on the race track, but it seemed like, for [Karthikeyan], he knew [what was going on]," Harvick said. "When people were coming that were faster, he gave them a good, clear lane and it looked like he was doing what he was supposed to do.

"He was making laps and he was very aware of where he was at on the race track, so that, to me, seemed like it was a very good start. It didn't seem like he was completely in the way, for sure, so I think he did a pretty good job and has got something to build on, going forward.

"Obviously, somebody was in his ear [who was] pretty good, but he was the one holding the wheel, and he did a good job."

Karthikeyan's next event is unknown, though the team appears to be leaning toward Kansas on May 2, the series' next event in its on-again, off-again early season schedule. He couldn't compete in Nashville due to having to travel to India to receive a Padma Shri Award on April 7.

According to an Indian government Web site, "Padma Awards are given for exceptional and distinguished service in any field, including service rendered by Government servants." Recommendations for the awards are received from a variety of government agencies and "on the basis of the recommendations of the Awards Committee, and after approval of the Home Minister, Prime Minister and President, the Padma Awards are announced on the eve of the Republic Day."

The awards are presented in three categories and in the past decade, very few sporting figures have been recognized.

"It's a very, very special award and it's the first time the government in India has recognized any form of motorsport," Karthikeyan said. "Since it's the first of its kind, hopefully motorsport will be recognized more in India by the government. It's been a long time coming and I've done a lot of winning for India, but finally the government is recognizing the sport and I'm very pleased and happy about that."

So now Karthikeyan waits for his next American outing. And while his performance on the track was notable, and far out-stripped anyone's expectations for the former open-wheeler in Martinsville's close quarters, a little vignette that occurred on pit road long after the checkers showed just how far from the typical NASCAR mentality the Indian is.

The swarm of congratulatory handshakes had diminished, Karthikeyan had debriefed with his spotter and crew chief, and virtually all his media responsibilities had been satisfied -- so all that was left was to walk around his truck, eyeballing every tire, every fender, every minor ding and scratch.

And maybe eight feet away from the front of the truck, over near the inside wall of his team's pit box, Karthikeyan found a stray, yellow-sprayed lug nut that had apparently flown there after a pit stop and been abandoned. He picked it up, walked around to the right-front tire of his truck and gently placed the lug nut next to it.

There's no way of telling what he was thinking but for sure you know that Compton and Kendrick hope Karthikeyan never gets over his thoughtful, care-taking way of getting around the race track -- and his race truck -- wherever and whenever that next event happens.