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March 29, 2007

We All Lose If We Ever Lose Martinsville
By Dennis Michelsen
Do you remember that first time as a kid that your Dad took you to your first baseball game? If you attended a game at one of the classic ballparks such as Fenway Park or Wrigley Field that moment is etched in time. I get that same feeling when I walk into one of our classic racetracks. It is almost as if the ghosts of races past still haunt the grounds of the old tracks. They might have been fixed up with grandstands built to the sky but if that track still carries any of its old character listen close and you will hear those old time races.

More Than Great Hot Dogs
Most of the new tracks are smartly placed alongside major highways. You exit the interstate and get in a massive line to a parking lot with no sign of civilization. But at Martinsville you feel like you are just at some county fair. I remember that first time walking through the dark-dingy tunnel into the old track. Practice was already taking place for the Craftsman Truck series but for just a moment I thought I saw cars from the 60s instead. The mind plays amazing tricks on the soul sometimes but there was a chill up my spine and my eyes were as wide as saucers! The spell broke and I was transported back to the present day. If you don't understand that feeling I just described then you have never been to Martinsville!

Sterile Palaces
Walk into Kansas or Chicagoland Speedway and everything is so beautiful! The bathrooms all work and there is no peeling paint anywhere. The tracks look fantastic and the surroundings are perfect for fans, media, and competitors alike. But the new tracks lack that special feeling. Maybe at the classic tracks the places are really haunted with thoughts of the past! Even if the racing is fantastic the other missing ingredients make the new tracks a place to see once and then move on. After one trip to Martinsville I had to return over and over again. That same draw is so strong that last season I stopped by The Rock just to pay my respects. If you don't understand that feeling you never saw a race at Rockingham either!

Short Track Dreams
Now I am blessed to have the best job in the world! In addition to keeping you updated with my latest rants and ramblings on NASCAR via this website and www.racetalkradio.com, I also get to hit the road almost every weekend to travel with some of the up and coming stars in the minor leagues of the sport. Many friends and family ask how many Nextel Cup events I will get to cover this year. When I tell them that maybe I won't attend a single one they tell me that's too bad. The reality is that it is the best assignment I could have chosen! Last season I got to visit classic tracks such as Hickory and the Nashville Fairgrounds. Walk across the track and you can feel its pulse! Just before the engines fire you can almost hear the old timers squabbling! If you don't understand that feeling you have never been to Hickory!

Times change and the zoo that is NASCAR feels it is time to move on. How anyone who grew up around the sport could even think of closing down places like Rockingham or taking races from Darlington is beyond me. These old tracks have a heart and soul that still lives on even if they are closed down and overgrown with weeds! Perhaps the answer is that current leadership only sees the bottom line and lacks a racing soul. That perhaps is the cost of progress but race fans can still head out to support these old tracks. Maybe NASCAR has grown too big to be sentimental but race fans can get their fix every time the ASALMS comes to town at a place such as Nashville this weekend! But we will all lose part of our NASCAR soul if they ever close Martinsville.