Yes, Bristol has run and done. Technically Tennessee yet many Virginians call it one of their own. Richmond and Martinsville are, straight up, Virginia racing.

Richmond comes up in late April. Mark it.

Martinsville is next up and riding a big wave of racing to bring it home. Dale Jr. gave us a win at Daytona. Harvick has a new team win. Keselowski, Edwards and Kyle Busch have wins. Denny Hamlin had some pre-season success. All the manufacturers have had victories.

New teams, new numbers and the return of the iconic #3 have made marks on the NASCAR season and the whole show is coming to Martinsville.

Do I sound excited? Well, yes… Martinsville is just down the road. If I close my eyes I can smell the steam from the hot dogs.

There has already been one visit to the historic speedway. Matt Kenseth dropped by a couple of weeks ago (Bristol week) to talk racing and race a little bit. Virtual racing, as it was, with NASCAR ’14 on XBOX.

Concerning the game… The graphics and metrics are amazing. To feel like your favorite driver and see if you have the drive to win climb over the arm of your couch and go racing.

Concerning the race… Kenseth himself spoke about a learning curve to race the tight turns at Martinsville.

“Martinsville is kind of technical. It takes a lot of finesse, which probably isn’t always my strong suit… There are some unique things about it(Martinsville), about the car and the driving style, but the thing is, if the car won’t do what you want it to, it doesn’t matter how you drive it. There are a lot of things that have to happen. Certainly there are some drivers that are huge standouts here and they get what they need in their car and they are really, really good at driving it. Jeff (Gordon), Jimmie (Johnson) and Denny (Hamlin) are the first three that come to mind. Those three just seem like they are really good here no matter what.”

Kenseth mentioned Jeff Gordon, who got by him with 21 laps to the finish to take the win. Kenseth was 2nd and Clint Bowyer was 3rd.

Bowyer had made a stop in Raleigh, visiting the NHL game with the Carolina Hurricanes and the NY Rangers. The folks from Martinsville Speedway invited Bowyer to visit with hockey and race fans and talk a bit about his experiences at the track.

“It’s a driver’s race track. It’s old school. I love the setting right there in town. I mean literally there’s houses right there. It brings you back to your upbringing and why you got into this kind of racing in the first place,”

Both Bowyer and Kenseth made specific reference to fans and the atmosphere at Martinsville.

Five Hour Energy Bowyer: “I think it really is one of the coolest race tracks we go to. When I have fans ask me race tracks to go to, naturally the short tracks are on my list, but people always ask ‘is it Daytona, Indy … the Brickyard, is it Vegas, Kansas?’ No, it’s Martinsville.”

Dollar General Kenseth: “It’s really a neat track, no other track like it on the circuit. I’ve always said, even when I struggled here, it would probably be in my top three places if I was going to buy a ticket and go watch a race.”

For this 2014 season, the racing is bringing a lot of momentum into Martinsville which only makes this little track in Virginia a better place to be to see everything happen. The points race is tight. Matt Kenseth is coming back to Martinsville in 5th, which is only 7 points off current leader Carl Edwards. Bowyer may be down 72 points but was down 62 at this point last year and still made it into the Chase.

Johnson and Gordon are in the top 10. Ryan Newman has his new RCR ride in the top 10. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. is coming into Martinsville in 2nd place and has been showing some good runs in recent visits.

Consider also, currently 9th in Sprint Cup points, Austin Dillon. Dillon and Richard Childress Racing have brought the #3 back with a pole at Daytona and good enough runs to stay in the top 10.

Racing at Martinsville is going to bring a lot for fans through each of the 500 laps. There will be a lot of pre-race activities, too. The Party Plaza offers close contact with Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Matt Kenseth, Kasey Kahne and Marcos Ambrose. The Warbirds and their vintage aircraft are doing the flyover.

Consider also the Camping World Truck Series Kroger 250 on Saturday. It is the series first race following the season opener at Daytona. There will be lots of on track action as hometrack favorite Timothy Peters is challenged for the points lead. Peters is from the area and has raced at Martinsville in the trucks and the late model stocks with success. Other drivers ready to race include veteran Ron Hornaday, Jr. and the younger Jeb Burton. Both are in the top 5 out of Daytona with Johnny Sauter and Ryan Blaney. They are all running to win and get the points to pull Peters off the lead.

Friday there will also be the practice sessions and the Sprint Cup qualifying. The new rules on qualifying set up race-like sessions instead of the past one at a time run. At Martinsville, pole day will be sponsored by Alpha Energy Solutions.

Martinsville is a challenging place. A technical place. A bump and rub place. A place of tempers and tires. For racing fans, Martinsville is a viewer’s choice with easy sight lines over each and every lap.

It’s on and the time is now. Go racing.

Visit Martinsville Speedway online for news, info and ticket specials, track and party plaza passes and more!

PHOTOS! October 2013 at Martinsville!