Throwback: Hot Rod Power Tour 25th Anniversary

As soon as everything was arranged with my editor at Chilton DIY Manuals, I managed to snag the above 2019 Dodge Challenger R/T from my local Enterprise. It was only the second Dodge I rented from them, and the second black Dodge, as well.

Taking this down to Martinsville was a bit of an adventure, to say the least. The big Challenger wasn\’t meant for curvy two-lane roads, but for open highways and trips down the quarter-mile. Yet, we both made it to Martinsville Speedway in one piece.

It\’s not often one gets a chance to walk upon a track like Martinsville Speedway. \”The Paperclip\” is the shortest track on the NASCAR schedule, coming in at 0.526 miles. It\’s also the only track to have been on the schedule since the first season in 1948, and the only one to have asphalt straights and concrete turns. The straightaways have zero degrees of banking, the turns deliver 12 degrees.

Martinsville once had two pit lanes; those who wound up in the backstretch lane were in a disadvantage compared to those on the front. In 1999, the track was reconfigured to have a single pit lane, stretching from turn 3 to turn 2.

To walk around Martinsville is to walk upon the same ground as legends like Richard Petty, Dale Earnhardt Sr., Jeff Gordon, Darrell Waltrip, Fireball Roberts, Cale Yarborough, and so many more. You can hear the roar of big V8s sweeping across the corners, the squeal of air guns ripping off and screwing on tires, the scraping and banging of metal… even if this day would only see tons of new and classic machines rumbling into their parking spots.