Martinsville, Va. 
The only short track in the Chase for the Championship. Hell, it is just about the only short track left on the schedule. It has narrow, flat and tight corners. The front and backstretchs take about 4 seconds on the throttle before getting hard on the brakes. Pit road entry is at the end of the backstretch just before turn 3. It is narrow and and the pit boxes are the smallest on the circuit. Contact between cars getting in or out of the pits is common.
So why would this track be so important to NA$CAR fans? It is full contact, run every lap hard as you can racing. Track position is everything. Get too far back in the field and you are in danger of going a lap down early and you may never get it back. Instead, you are at risk of the fender banging, bumper to bumper traffic jam that can get you wrecked in a hurry. If all that is not going to get a fan excited, well Grumpy would recommend you check for a pulse. BTW, Martinsville is famous for those red hot dogs. I don’t get that one. they are awful! If you have a pocket full of TUMS, try the dogs. Just to show you that Grumpy don’t know dogs, the story has it that I$C dropped the hot dogs when they took over management of the track a couple of years ago. The roar of the crowd and the complaints of the crews and drivers demanded the return of the hot dogs. The dogs are back at Martinsville.
Grumpy’s advice to all the race fans who watch every week for the comfort of your home: If you can attend one race, make it Martinsville. It represents the true roots of NA$CAR racing. It puts the fans up close and on top of the action. Great views of pit road and all the action. Unfortunately, Martinsville may be in danger of losing its spring race to (yawn) Kansas Speedway. I$C wants to give Kansas a spring race. Something about a casino and big $$. Grumpy is planning a rant on that subject any day now.
Now, a comment to all the regular readers of anglerred. Grumpy has a day job. There has been nothing new to read here for several days. A combination of work and writer’s block have kept the keyboard quiet this week. My sincere apologies. We have lost our Mojo, (a temporary slump). Reader comments help keep the keyboards going. Let us know what you think.
This was the weekend that anglerred and Grumpy were planning to be in Las Vegas for Barrett-Jackson. Sadly, we were unable to pull it off. The reasons are unimportant now. I watched some of the doins on SPEED last night. Ok, perhaps next year. Anyone who loves and cherishes the beauty and art of the automobile would want to attend a B-J auction.
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