Q - Aside from the expected beating and banging how hard is Martinsville Speedway on the car itself?

“At Martinsville Speedway you’ll see a lot of brake problems, and next is the rear-end gear. You turn so many RPMs that the rear-end gear ratio heats up real fast. It’s such a short track and you have to get up to speed real fast.

“Tempers, brakes and rear-end gears, those are the three things that can fail at Martinsville. On top of that, the fenders get beat in, the sides of the doors get beat up and tire marks end up all over the car.”

Q – How hard is the 500-lap race at Martinsville on a driver?

“The 500-lap race at Martinsville Speedway is very hard on a driver. It seems like the race is never going to end. The drivers get very fatigued; the cars get hot; the engine and brakes produce a lot of heat and all of that radiates up into the car and causes the drivers to be pretty worn out when the race is over.”

Q - What should ESPN on ABC viewers watch for that is unique to Martinsville?

“Viewers will see a lot of physical contact between cars this weekend at Martinsville. It is one of the oldest and prettiest racetracks on the circuit. You will literally see fire coming out of the brakes and expect a lot of wrecks. One thing unique to Martinsville is a curb, like what you find on a regular street, running along the inside of the track. When a driver hits that curb, he will typically shoot up the racetrack. It is one of the oldest, all-American short tracks, and neither drivers nor race fans will get bored there at all.”

[ESPN]

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