Martinsville Speedway has been a bit of an enigma since the beginning. NASCAR visited the speedway for the first time in 1949, making it the oldest track still on the circuit. You often hear the .526 mile oval described as paper clip-shaped, due to it’s long straightaways and tight corners. It is this unique design that puts the drivers’ use of the brake pedal to the test. Perhaps more than even at a road course, brakes often play a key role in the outcome of a Martinsville race.
Handling and Brakes
Speeds at Martinsville don’t seem that impressive at first glance. The average race speed for winners is around 75 miles an hour, and Jeff Gordon holds the record at 82.223 mph. These are speeds you probably reach in your street car regularly. On further inspection, though, these average speeds don’t tell the whole story.
Each lap around Martinsville takes about 20 seconds, and drivers will turn 500 laps during the event. Straightaway speeds will reach more than 100 mph, while the turns require the cars to slow to about 40 mph. This means hard braking 1,000 times during the three and a half hour race.
Drivers may be on the brakes 50 percent of the time or more at Martinsville, depending on their driving style and how the car is handling. Poor handling requires more brake to make the car turn in the corners. Braking this hard this frequently builds up quite a bit of heat, which wears the brakes out quickly. Teams help cool the brake rotors and pads by installing duct work that supplies cool air from the grill directly to the brakes.
Brake Pads and Rotors
Because of the near-constant braking necessary during the STP 500, teams use a different brake package than at most other tracks. While a brake rotor may be only 1.25 inches wide at an intermediate track such as Charlotte, Atlanta or Texas, they may be almost twice as wide at Martinsville. A typical Martinsville rotor weighs about 25 pounds, while the average weight for a rotor at other tracks is around 7 pounds.
The brake pads are also much larger. They can be as much as three times the size of the pads run at a superspeedway. They are made of a much grittier compound than the low bite pads run at Daytona and Talladega. This gives the driver a better feel in the pedal, as well as more stopping power.
Saving Brakes
While the teams do make a number of efforts to maximize the life of their brake packages at Martinsville, the way the driver uses the brakes is ultimately what wins or loses the race. We will probably hear a lot of talk about saving brakes this weekend, because saving brakes often wins the race. Wearing out the brake pads early prevents drivers from being aggressive later in the race, and passing when it matters most.
Kevin Harvick leads the points as the Sprint Cup teams head to Martinsville this week for the STP 500. The race will be televised on Fox Sports 1.