The Sprint Cup Series returns this weekend to the picturesque, paper-clip-shaped Martinsville Speedway, which has hosted NASCAR’s top division since 1949.
Although the Cup Series once ran lots of short tracks similar to the ½-mile Martinsville, now the only short tracks on the schedule are Martinsville, Bristol Motor Speedway and Richmond International Raceway.
Ryan Newman is among those who think that’s a shame.
“I wish we had more tracks like Martinsville; not necessarily that shape,” said Newman, who won at Martinsville in the track’s first race of 2012. “Short track racing is one of the best things we have going for our sport with the racing we have there.”
He said racing at Martinsville is a different challenge for drivers and crew chiefs because aerodynamics doesn’t come into play like on the faster superspeedways.
“Martinsville is just so much of a factor of mechanical grip,” he said. “It all depends on what tire Goodyear brings there if you’re fighting forward drive or graining on the left sides. Things like that kind of manipulate your weekend and kind of get you off path at times.”
Hendrick Motorsports teammates Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson lead all active drivers with eight wins apiece at Martinsville, where the Cup series could see its sixth different winner this season or its first repeat winner. Neither Gordon nor Johnson has won a race this year.
The Camping World Truck Series runs its second race of 2014 on Saturday at Martinsville. Darrell Wallace Jr. is the most recent truck winner at Martinsville.
On the same afternoon that Kyle Larson was beating Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick to win the Nationwide Series race at Auto Club Speedway in California, another 21-year-old driver was kicking off his racing comeback with a win in the Rattler 250 Late Model race at South Alabama Speedway.
Casey Roderick, who once looked to be a sure-fire bet to advance up the NASCAR ladder, had been mostly on the sidelines since the July 2012 Nationwide Series race at Daytona International Speedway. In that event, Roderick, driving an unheralded Toyota, pushed Danica Patrick into the lead and was able to run with the leaders until Patrick changed lanes and left him with no drafting partner.
“I dropped back, and Clint Bowyer clipped me and sent me into the wall,” he said.
With no sponsorship dollars to bring to the table to continue his career, the Lawrenceville native and former Legends racing standout had to make other plans.
“I moved to Michigan and worked with my girlfriend’s father moving people with Atlas Van Lines,” he said.
Then he got a call from back home. The Graham family, father Dennis and son D.J., were looking for a driver for their Late Model team. Roderick returned to Georgia, and the team built a new car for the 38th annual Rattler, one of the South’s showcase short-track events and one that includes among its winner’s roster former Daytona 500 winner Pete Hamilton.
Roderick outran Anderson Bowen and Harrison Burton, son of Sprint Cup driver Jeff Burton, to get the victory.
“We didn’t have the best car, but it’s all about being there at the end,” Roderick said.
It was his first race victory in nearly four years, since he won an ARCA race at New Jersey Motorsports Park in 2010 driving a car fielded by Bill Elliott and long-time NASCAR owner James Finch.
