How to handle Martinsville’s half-mile paper clip

Martinsville Speedway is a challenging racetrack, and one of the few remaining that has been around as long as NASCAR. As we travel week to week and race track to race track, I think it’s important to focus on the racing obstacles ahead but also, when appropriate, the heritage of the venue. Indulge me in a little history lesson…

Dating back to 1947, Martinsville Speedway’s founder H. Clay Earles created the half-mile dirt oval with only 750 seats. By comparison, Martinsville now has more than 60,000 seats!

In 1949, what is now known as the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series raced the sixth race in the series. Red Byron, NASCAR's first Modified Champion in 1948 and its first Strictly Stock (predecessor to Sprint Cup) Champion in 1949, won that first event! Six years later, Martinsville Speedway was paved and the track configuration has changed very little since.

Today, Martinsville is the shortest track on the circuit and for some the most difficult.

My first race at Martinsville was in March 2004 in the Camping World Truck Series and racing for Darrell Waltrip, a man with substantial experience at this race track. With Darrell’s advice, I was able to garner an eighth-place finish, the best career finish racing trucks at Martinsville.

Oddly enough, I raced six times in trucks and now six times in Sprint Cup races. My best Sprint Cup finish was 16th which was this past fall. Martinsville is truly a challenging track and as we drivers like to say, a drivers track. Here it’s about the feel of the car and really driving cautiously aggressive.

Here’s a quick guide to racing here:

- Relatively flat track with only 11 degrees of banking in the corners. After reaching 9500 RPMs down the front stretch, you’ll use a lot of brakes getting into the corners;

- It’s also easy to overdrive the corners. You have to be very aware of your position on the track and braking points;

- With 43 cars on a half-mile oval, passing is DIFFICULT (but fun);

- Pit road is a race in itself. The pit stalls are tight, so getting in and out of the pits can be tough. A lot of teams have lost the race on pit road due to running into another car or being delayed getting into or out of their pit;

- Keeping your temper and emotions in check is a priority. With all the beating and banging that goes on, it’s easy to get upset with another driver and take your frustration out on the competition. It’s a shame we can’t have a TUMS dispenser in all 43 cars;

- Martinsville also is a long race, close to four hours. You have to remain focused and take quality care of your equipment. Imagine driving in a blizzard for four hours…how hard is it to remain focused and on your game for that long?;

- Lap traffic is always an issue. To keep in mind who you are racing against and maneuver around lap traffic is a priority, not only for the driver but also the crew chief and spotter;

- And last but not least, your car needs to be flexible…able to drive high or low on the race track. Throughout the race, you’ll be in both grooves at one point and need the ability to drive it without putting your car in danger.

Although not a form of on-track competition, you may find it interesting to know that the crews have a competition that starts Friday morning as the garage opens. This is the famous hot dog eating contest! The crews compete on who can eat the most hot dogs and mark the number inside the garage bays to compare to the other teams. This competition heats up as much as the actual racing!

For the No. 00 TUMS Toyota team, we are lucky to have TUMS on board. We’ll likely run through several bottles during Martinsville weekend.

For more information on David, please visit DavidReutimann.com, tums.com/racing, martinsvillespeedway.com and MichaelWaltrip.com.