Another Martinsville Speedway race weekend has come and gone leaving us all once again with a series of unforgettable moments.
Martinsville Speedway is the Super Bowl and World Series for Late Model Stock Car teams. It’s a race teams spend months preparing for and, when the weekend finally arrives, it’s met with anticipation, joy but also with anxiety. Everybody knows that, when they get there, half the teams will be watching the race in the stands. This year was no different.
The Valley Star Credit Union 300 is more than just a race, it’s an event. It is an Olympic like atmosphere for the teams where the entire community comes together to take part in the event. For us at RACE22.com, it’s the race we look forward to the most as most of our RACE22.com team spends the weekend under the same roof. As is always the case, Clay Campbell and the staff at Martinsville Speedway were inviting to the teams and to the media, treating everyone with only the utmost respect – even if they, at times, don’t get it in return.
Despite having some glitches along the way, NASCAR and Martinsville Speedway put forth tireless effort to run a clean and fair race. It would have been easy for both NASCAR and the track to make knee jerk reactions when situations arose and cancel the race or limit track time for the competitors who spent tens of thousands of dollars preparing for the race – but they did not. While some issues can be debated, NASCAR should be commended for their efforts.
Spending time at the track isn’t the only part of Martinsville race weekend. There is another type of racing that can be seen on the eve of the 300 – Go-Kart racing. Within walking distance from the delicious Jerry’s Pizza and Pasta Grill (which I highly recommend) sits a tiny go-kart track which allowed many of us not competing in the 300 to satisfy our need for speed. Or, in my case, the need to find the slowest go-kart around and be in everybody’s way. Thanks for the bump drafts, Corey Latham and Travis Sharpe.
As for the race itself, the Valley Star Credit Union 300 is always one of the best races you will see all year. Thrilling, side-by-side racing was the theme for much of the day in a spectacle highlighted by a thrilling green-white-checkered finish and one of the nice guys winning the race for a second time. Timothy Peters gave it his best effort on the final lap but Tommy Lemons, Jr., using the outside line in three and four, would not be denied his second grandfather clock. Peters’ race ended with a horrifying looking crash at the start-finish line, one he was able to walk away from without injury thanks to the SAFER barriers installed at Martinsville Speedway as well as the cars themselves, built to NASCAR’s always high safety standards.
It’s hard to talk about the race and not feel bad for Todd Gilliland though. As I stated many times throughout the weekend, it’s either been feast or famine for the 15-year-old this season. He won the inaugural CARS Late Model Stock Tour race and became the youngest winner in ARCA history at Toledo during the spring. But, since then, he just has not been able to escape bad luck. Bad luck that again bit him at Martinsville.
Gilliland led much of the race but found himself sent to eighth place during the invert at 50 to go. Gilliland raced his way back to second but, on a restart, would be on the receiving end of another car’s front bumper which shuffled him back and out of contention in the race. Gilliland could have been sad or angry, but he handled his postrace interviews with poise and with dignity – the type of poise and dignity a future NASCAR superstar would show. This kid is going places.
It is always a blast to work with the RACE22.com team, which consists of a small army at Martinsville Speedway. It’s been great working with Zach Evans, Corey Latham, Mark Rogers and The Weekly Racer’s Justin Kern all year long and always fun working for Langley Austin and Kimberly Austin. This year, we had the addition of Trisha Westfall who handled features this weekend. Tony Stevens is simply the best there is when it comes to video recording for short track races. We also had the help of Scott Rakes, Charlie Alexander, the always enthusiastic Wesley Outland as well as Shane Green and Tim Abelseth from ShortTrack247.com.
We hope you enjoyed our coverage at Martinsville this weekend, as I think we once again delivered a quality product that was informative, educational and entertaining.
The only word that can sum up October in Martinsville is magic. The magic of friendship, unity, passion and speed which all culminates every October in the Valley Star Credit Union 300. And, when we leave Martinsville on Sunday night, it’s never goodbye or farewell, it’s just the beginning of the countdown to the next Valley Star Credit Union 300.
See you in 2016, Martinsville Speedway.
