FIVE LAPS: Martinsville mid-week
Oh, I love me some Martinsville. Let me count the ways:
Lap One: That little paper clip about 45 minutes north of here produces some good, good racing. It rewards the patient and the resourceful and punishes the rash and the foolish. Take care of your stuff, and your stuff will get you to victory lane.
Lap Two: The Lost Martinsville Date issues rears its predictable head again. (I wrote it on my calendar back in January: March 25 -- "Someone will write that Martinsville might lose its second date.") So why does Martinsville have two dates anyway? That's one too many, IMO.
More after the jump ...
Lap Three: Yeah, I know the previous two posts reveal some deep racin' schizophrenia. But consider the context: The Cup season is too long by six and probably eight races. If you cut the season to a more manageable (and meaningful) 28 to 30 races, Martinsville should lose one date. (Ideally, VIR would get a piece of the Cup action, even if the schedule got cut all to heck. But that's the subject of another post.) That said, it's not like the locals really seem to care: Martinsville stubbornly refuses to sell out ahead of time, and I suspect the ones who would scream the loudest about the lost date wouldn't pay to go see 'em race at VIR either.
Lap Four: Martinsville Week means that Dustin Long will again break out his "In Their Words" feature, one of the best things he does all season. He shamelessly ripped off the concept from Esquire and made it work for a newspaper and NASCAR. One of this year's subjects is Kyle Petty, who riffs on "The Flintstones." Good stuff. Look for it the first one in Thursday's paper.
Lap Five: Speaking of short tracks, here's a non-NASCAR video treat courtesy of The Garage Blog: footage from the Rally in the 100 Acre Wood. No, Winnie the Pooh didn't drive it, but I can definitely see Shrub behind the wheel of one of these things. I think he'd do great.
Video highlights here.
Some very hairy in-car video is here.
And don't forget your weekly dose of Formula One highlights. Do my eyes deceive me, or is that really some three-wide racin'?
Comments (3)
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Any alterations to the schedule involving Martinsville would be a big mistake. It's one of my favorite tracks based on the racing history for a variety of series. Look in the stands at any of the tracks other than Daytona and tell me if you see completely filled grandstands.
A steady diet of the concession stands at any of the southern VA tracks including South Boston and VIR will take years off your life. Apparently only E. Sadler can live on a steady diet of Jesse Jone hot dogs and bologna burgers.
Kind of a sad day, I learned that my hometown track, Wall Stadium closed last week after being open for 57 years.
Posted on March 26, 2008 8:54 PM
Just so I'm clear ...
If NASCAR sticks with 36 races, no, I don't think Martinsville should surrender a date just so we can see a second race at Chicagoland or Kansasland or Anywhere-elseland.
But if we could convince NASCAR to cut the Cup season to 28-30 races and try some different tracks, yeah, I could see sacrificing Martinsville. I'd argue that California, Kansas, Chicagoland, New Hampshire, Pocono, Dover and Watkins Glen should unload at least one date each and in some cases *cough* Fontucky *cough* all of 'em.
Posted on March 27, 2008 2:00 PM
28 - 30 races would put things back to the way they were from about '75 to somewhere in the 90's. Would probably allow for 1 off week per month, which isn't a bad thing for the teams and the families.
When all of the dropped tracks come from Speedway Motorsports tracks vs. ISC's tracks the lawsuits will fly.
Posted on March 27, 2008 4:15 PM