Richard Petty swept both races at Martinsville Speedway in 1967. In all, Petty scored 15 wins at the Virginia half mile, the most of any driver in NASCAR history. Photo: Richard Petty Private Collection
If there’s anyone who should know just how much racing at Martinsville has changed over the years, the man with all the answers is the King.
The unparalleled master of short track racing in NASCAR’s premier series, Richard Petty accumulated the most wins (15), most top fives (30) and most top 10s (37) at the .526-mile speedway.
But in Petty’s day, success at Martinsville — site of Sunday’s STP 500 — was as much about running at the end as it was about racing at the end of the event.
“It used to be that we had all kinds of brake problems and rear end problems and all that, and half of the cars fell out of the race,” Petty said on Saturday morning before the first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series practice at the track nicknamed the ‘Paper Clip.’ “Now they start the race, and if they don’t crash, nobody has a problem.
“The cars are so much better as far as being able to run a whole race. It used to be survival, but now they race each other. Even though we raced each other then, a lot of us didn’t survive. Now, they don’t worry that much about surviving. For the long part of the deal, it makes a better race out of it because you’ve got more cars running at the end of the race racing against each other.”
In Petty’s heyday, taking care of the brakes was the number one assignment, and the ability do so was crucial to Petty’s short-track success.
“We knew what it took to run 500 laps, and back in the day you had drum brakes, and when the race was over there probably wasn’t but two or three cars on the track that had brakes.
“We would just idle around and run half the race and when everybody wore their brakes out, then we would start racing. That was our advantage up here, I think. It wasn’t that we ran that much better, but we could just race at the end of the race where a lot of people couldn’t.”
Denny Hamlin Is His Own Worst Enemy
Who provides Denny Hamlin his most formidable competition at Martinsville?
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Denny Hamlin’s stiffest competition at the .526-mile speedway is Denny Hamlin, because, all too often, the driver of the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota has beaten himself.
“I don’t know how many pit road penalties I’ve had here at this race track, or why I choose to push it on pit road knowing that I have the speed on the race track that we’ve shown,” Hamlin said before qualifying on Friday.
“I think I’ve had two in the last bunch of races, just consecutively. That’s been a challenge, and last year in the fall race I beat up my car pretty good trying to come back through the pack the second time or maybe it was the first time I had a penalty.”
Hamlin will try to be more cautious on pit road in Sunday’s STP 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race, because he feels he can’t afford another penalty.
“You can’t if you’re going to win, especially the bonehead things that I’ve done,” said Hamlin, a five-time winner in 20 Martinsville starts. “I’ve had my penalties in the race where what does it really matter on lap 80 if you gain a spot on pit road, since you have so many more laps.
“Luckily, most of my penalties have been early in the race, but still it takes its toll on the car to have to come through the pack multiple times.”
Short Strokes
Kyle Larson opted to run the Saturday’s Alpha Energy Solutions 250 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Martinsville because hadn’t enjoyed much success at the track. The strategy must have worked. After qualifying fifth for the truck race on Saturday morning, Larson topped the speed chart in the final NASCAR Sprint Cup Series practice, posting a lap at 95.468 mph. …
Jimmie Johnson finally found some speed. His No. 48 Chevrolet was 24th fastest in both the first and second rounds of Friday’s knockout qualifying. In Saturday’s morning practice, he was 13th. And in Happy Hour on Saturday afternoon, Johnson finally cracked the top 10, posting the sixth fastest speed during the session at 95.252 mph. Johnson also posted the fastest average speed for a 10-lap run in final practice, running an impressive 94.866 mph from lap 3 through lap 12 of the session.
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