More than 60 years ago, Clay Earles opened Martinsville (Va.) Speedway as a half-mile dirt oval.
Today, the tiny track, which was paved in 1955, will host a NASCAR Sprint Cup race for the 121st time. At the end of 500 laps, the winner will almost certainly owe a portion of his success to one of the country’s newest tracks – a speedway that doesn’t even host racing; not yet, anyway.
“Little Rock,” a virtual replica of Martinsville opened here in mid-October. Located outside the backstretch of Rockingham Speedway, a 1-mile oval that hosted Cup events through February 2004, Little Rock has become one of the busiest tracks in the country, with dozens of NASCAR Cup and Camping World Truck teams using it as a proving grounds for Martinsville.
The track is part of the long-range development plan for Rockingham Raceway Park, with the older speedway as the foundation. When former ARCA champion Andy Hillenburg bought the track at auction late in 2007, the addition of Little Rock was already in his mind. A road course and a dirt oval are in the long-range plans.