Martinsville Speedway

After attending local stock car races in the Salisbury, North Carolina, area, businessman Henry Clay Earles partnered with Sam Rice and Henry Lawrence to build a racing facility, eventually finding a 30-acre (12-hectare) plot of land in Ridgeway, Virginia. The three agreed to invest $10,000 each for a total of $30,000, with original plans including seating capacity for 5,000; however, after building the red clay track and a surrounding guard rail, the project had gone twice over the original budget.

Earles and Rice agreed to stage the track's first race on September 7, 1947, featuring a modified program. The race ran as scheduled, with Red Byron winning the event in front of a paying crowd of 6,013. The race was marred by heavy dust and an influx of non-paying spectators; Earles later stated in a 1967 interview that "it turned out to be the dustiest place I've ever seen. Had an H-bomb dropped there, it wouldn't have been any dustier. After the race, you couldn't recognize the people leaving. They looked like 6,013 Indians."

A new surrounding fence was constructed in March 1948 to keep out non-paying spectators, and a 43-acre farm was acquired to expand parking. By the track's first race of the 1948 season in July, a new concrete grandstand with seating capacity of approximately 4,000 was completed. The following year, Martinsville Speedway ran its first NASCAR Strictly Stock Series race on September 26, with Red Byron winning the event. In 1950, NASCAR founder Bill France Sr. bought out Rice and Lawrence's shares in the track, having previously agreed to a business partnership with Earles in July 1947.

In 1953, the first talks about a potential paving of the track were raised by Earles in the Martinsville Bulletin. In June 1955, Earles officially announced the paving of the track alongside the additions of a concrete retaining wall and the expansion of seating capacity. Work began in July and was completed in September; with the expansion, seating capacity in the grandstand increased to 8,670 according to a 1956 advertisement. A new grandstand containing 7,000 seats named the East Grandstand was completed the following year, expanding capacity to approximately 16,000.

In 1960, a scaffold was erected over the West Grandstand. A new air-conditioned press box was constructed in 1962 over the track's fourth turn. In 1963, the track surface in the turns was widened by 2 in (5.1 cm). Seating capacity reached 21,000 in 1965. In 1969, the track length was revised from 0.5 mi (0.80 km) to 0.526 mi (0.847 km) after NASCAR implemented a new track length measurement system.

In 1972, a $25,000 beautification project included the repaving of the track's turns. A further $100,000 project in 1973 repaved the entire track, and seating capacity reached "just over 30,000" by 1974.

In 1976, the lower lanes of the corners were repaved with concrete instead of the usual asphalt; Earles chose concrete because he thought it would last longer than an asphalt surface. A new $100,000, 105-seat press box over the track's first and second turns was completed in 1979.

On October 24, 1985, the first fatality in the track's history occurred when modified driver Richie Evans crashed in the track's third and fourth turns, dying from multiple trauma. A 2,000-seat tower over the first turn was completed in 1987, increasing seating capacity to 32,000. On March 22, 1987, modified driver Charlie Jarzombek sustained a stuck throttle and crashed into the first and second turns, resulting in the track's second fatality.

Beginning in 1989, the track underwent a period of extensive expansion. Additions included new retaining catchfences and a new 2,500-seat tower. Seating additions in the following five years added 2,500, 3,000, 5,000, 1,200, and 3,000 seats respectively. In 1996, a new 7,000-seat tower named after Bill France Sr. was constructed over the third and fourth turns, expanded by 5,000 seats the following year. A tower on the frontstretch added 8,000 seats in 1998.

In April 1999, the backstretch pit road was removed from the track layout, with all pit stalls condensed onto one singular pit road. On November 16, 1999, Earles died from illness, with his grandson Clay Campbell taking over control of the facility.

In 2000, a 5,000-seat grandstand on the first and second turns, eight suites, and a new press box were constructed. Multiple renovations in 2001 included a new infield garage building for Cup Series teams, the resurfacing of the concrete sections, and a widened pit road. The concrete portions were resurfaced again in 2002, initially causing concerns of higher than usual tire falloff before the running of the 2002 Old Dominion 500 dispelled the concern.

In 2004, both the concrete and asphalt portions of the track surface were repaved after parts of the concrete were dislodged in the 2004 Advance Auto Parts 500. SAFER barriers were also added in 2004 around the outside perimeter of the track.

On May 14, 2004, the France family-owned International Speedway Corporation (ISC) announced their purchase of Martinsville Speedway for $192 million. Martinsville Speedway ran its first night race in 2005, using temporary lights to host a modified race. A new scoreboard, media center, and additional SAFER barriers were constructed in 2008 at a cost of around $2 million. Another $3 million was spent in 2011 on a new speaker system and the widening of grandstand seats.

In 2013, Martinsville Speedway decreased its capacity by 8,000, resetting its seating capacity to 55,000. A permanent lighting system for hosting night races was constructed in 2017, with the system costing approximately $5 million to install. Two years later, seating capacity decreased further to 44,000. In the same year, control of the facility was bought out by NASCAR after the sanctioning body purchased ISC. In 2022, additional seats in the first and second turns were removed and replaced with grass.

Martinsville Speedway in its current configuration is measured at 0.526 mi (0.847 km), with 12° of banking in each of the track's four turns and no banking on the track's straights. The track is currently paved with both asphalt and concrete. The former is used for the straights and upper lanes of the corners while the latter is used for the lower lanes of the corners.

The track hosts two annual NASCAR weekends, highlighted by NASCAR Cup Series races known as the Cook Out 400 and the Xfinity 500. It also hosts support races from the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series and the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series.

Martinsville Speedway was used as a filming location for The Last American Hero, a 1973 film inspired by NASCAR driver and team owner Junior Johnson.

Martinsville Speedway is known for selling $2 "Martinsville hot dogs" at its concession stands, often served with mustard, chili, cole slaw, and onions. The speedway started selling hot dogs during the track's infancy and they became a staple over the course of decades. As of 2023, the hot dogs are supplied by Jesse Jones, which has been the same supplier since the track started selling hot dogs, with the exception of a brief period between 2015 and 2018 when they were supplied by Valleydale Foods.

This article is based solely on the supplied corpus. No external sources were consulted; claims that could not be substantiated against the corpus were omitted under the drop-the-claim rule.