MARTINSVILLE SPEEDWAY Goody's Fast Pain Releif 500 March 28th 2010

Track Details
Completed : 1947
Distance : .526 miles
Shape : Oval
Banking : 12° turns
0° straights
Frontstretch : 800 feet
Backstretch : 800 feet
Seating : 65,000

TRACK HISTORY
As NASCAR has grown, so has Martinsville Speedway.

Martinsville Speedway ran its first NASCAR race on July 4, 1948. In 1949, Martinsville ran the sixth race in the series that eventually became the Cup Series.

Martinsville Speedway opened in 1947 with 750 seats and has grown continuously over the years. But other than being paved in 1955, the track configuration has not changed since Red Byron won the inaugural event.

The speedway is located three miles south of Martinsville, Va., and is the only original NASCAR-sanctioned track still running Cup Series events.

Richard Petty remains the track's leading winner with 15 victories.

The speedway's founder, the late H. Clay Earles, and track president, W. Clay Campbell, have always insisted on beautification. "We like to think of our track as a family type facility," Earles said. "We like to see a man bring his wife and children to our events and be comfortable."

Campbell became track president in 1988, and since that time the speedway has more than doubled its seating capacity. Under Campbell's leadership, the track has constructed 25 corporate suites, a chalet village for hospitality entertainment, high-rise grandstands and twice as much free parking.

Some of the other improvements in the past several years include a new entrance for race-day traffic off the U.S. 58 Bypass, all pits are now on one pit road, an overhead walkway from the grandstand to the parking area, an infield media center, new scoreboard, infield tunnel and competitors' garage.

"Martinsville Speedway is constantly growing and we expect to continue that trend for many years to come."

Next: Cup Series raceTo say Jimmie Johnson is widely considered a favorite going into a race might be a bit of an understatement. But that is particularily true at Martinsville, where he has won five of the past seven races. The green flag is set for 1:13 p.m. ET.

As I am previewing the race real time @1:58 Eastern Time:Rain Out!!

Cup race postponedThe unhappy faces tell the story. There is no racing to be seen at Martinsville Speedway on Sunday. Rain has forced the postponement until noon ET Monday.

Somehow, HamlinDenny Hamlin had the lead inside 10 laps to go and gave it up to pit. But he charged from fourth on a green-white-checkered restart to pull out the victory at Martinsville.