A LOOK BACK: Old Dominion
Tough Oval A Proving Ground For Stars Of The Commonwealth
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Old Dominion Speedway in Manassas, Va., has a rich 63-year history in NASCAR short-track racing. The .375-mile paved oval has produced some great racing talent. The track also helped change the face of stock car racing in the late 1970s.
Old Dominion’s oval operates on Saturday nights and is located in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. An eighth-mile SBRA sanctioned Old Dominion Dragway on the same 42-acre property operates on Friday nights.
Originally opened as a .250-mile dirt track called Longview Speedway in 1948, promoter Al Gore purchased and enlarged the track to its present paved configuration in 1952. The top divisions at the track were Roadsters followed by Modifieds and then early generations of Stock Cars. Eventually NASCAR Sportsmen – a class that evolved into the modern era’s NASCAR Nationwide Series – became the top weekly division. Later, the track was the birthplace of the modern era Late Model Stock Car.
Since becoming a founding member of the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series in 1982, the track and its participants have been a driving force in short track racing.
Danny Fair, Charlie Ford and Eddie Johnson were the dominant Late Model drivers during the first 10 years of the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series. But it was 1984-85 division champion Curtis Markham who demonstrated NASCAR’s ladder system to its upper divisions began with weekly racing.
2011_NWAAS_30_Years_Running_Old_Dominion_Curtis_Markham_VL_200Markham, now 51, of Fredericksburg, Va., has been the only spotter NASCAR Sprint Cup Series star Denny Hamlin, 30, of Midlothian, Va., has known since joining NASCAR’s big leagues with Joe Gibbs Racing in 2004. Markham also works full-time in JGR’s NASCAR Nationwide Series race shop. Like Markham, Hamlin is former driver at Old Dominion. Hamlin was selected as one of the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series’ 25 greatest drivers in 2006.
Markham says Old Dominion Speedway, last paved in the mid-1980s, challenges drivers like no other track. The result is a refined driving style and lessons learned in car control.
“Old Dominion Speedway is one of the toughest tracks to race on, and each corner is different,” Markham said. “On top of that, you race against really good drivers and car owners. I learned a lot by racing with Danny Fair, Charlie Ford, Dickie Boswell, Sonny Simmons and other guys back then. You had to run hard, but you had to run smart. You had to learn the right set up.”
Markham gained strong NASCAR racing credentials at Old Dominion.
In addition to his track championships there, Markham placed in the top 10 of his NASCAR Whelen All-American Series regional point standings for five consecutive years from 1982-86. He finished second in his region’s standings in 1985 and ’86. He won a special NASCAR Late Model Stock Car invitational race at Volusia County Speedway near Daytona International Speedway during Speedweeks in 1989 and 1990, and nearly won again in 1991.
In 1992, he was the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East rookie of the year. He eventually gained a full-time NASCAR Nationwide Series ride with Hubert Hensley’s potent team in 1995-96. He produced point finishes of 15th and 11th respectively. Before his driving career ended in 2000, Markham had competed in all three of NASCAR’s national series.
In 1996, Wes Troup became the first Old Dominion Speedway Late Model champion to win a NASCAR Whelen All-American Series regional championship.
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Mark McFarland won 16 races at Old Dominion Speedway in 2003 and captured the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series national championship. NASCAR Archives
The next star to emerge from Old Dominion Speedway was two-time track champion Mark McFarland of Winchester, Va. At age 25, McFarland won the 2003 NASCAR Whelen All-American Series national championship with 16 wins in 18 starts. McFarland was named as one of the series’ 25 greatest drivers in 2006.
Also in 2006, McFarland signed on as the first full-time driver for fledgling JR Motorsports, the NASCAR Nationwide Series team owned by Dale Earnhardt Jr. Although his season was shortened by injury, McFarland proved his mettle with a seventh-place finish at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway. McFarland has also competed in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and NASCAR K&N Pro Series East.
Now 33, McFarland is crew chief for X Team Racing and driver Matt DiBenedetto in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East. McFarland believes his experience at Old Dominion made him a better driver and a better crew chief.
“That track has so much character,” McFarland said. “The surface is worn and bumpy and that’s what makes it so fun and challenging. You can’t show up there for the first time and expect to do well. The experience you have driving at Old Dominion will prepare a driver for anything.
“Racing at Old Dominion Speedway and winning the national championship was the greatest accomplishment I’ve ever achieved,” McFarland said. “We worked on winning that for five or six years, and won our first track championship in 2000. We had an unbelievable year in 2003.”
Old Dominion Speedway became a NASCAR-sanctioned weekly track in 1979, and that sanction agreement blended in to the modern era of the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series starting in 1982.
Back in 1979, the headline division at Old Dominion Speedway – and ultimately short-track stock car racing around the country – changed. The track was ground zero for a race car design revolution that eventually swept across the county.
Dickie Gore, then the track’s owner and promoter, designed the first Late Model Stock Car.
2011_NWAAS_30_Seasons_Running_Features_200NASCAR Sportsmen cars were the top division at Old Dominion and other tracks until the late 1970s. With car counts decreasing due to rising costs and Sportsman drivers nomadically chasing NASCAR points across the south, second-generation promoter Gore conceived the Late Model Stock Car division. The cars were designed to be economical, stock appearing and regulated closely on engine and tire specifications. Gore is to NASCAR Late Model Stock Car racing what Stafford (Conn.) Motor Speedway’s Jack Arute Sr. was to SK Modified racing. Both men invented a new generation of car to preserve full fields at their tracks.
“We created the Late Model Stock Car out of necessity,” Gore said. “The Sportsman cars were leaving to go race on Superspeedways and NASCAR was building a series for them. We needed a division to race weekly at our track. We wanted an affordable car that guys could build themselves. We wanted a simple design with no gray area in the rules.”
Gore’s key points in his design of a Late Model Stock Car were clear and simple: small block Ford or Chevrolet engines with stock pistons, cranks and rods; a hard compound Hoosier Racing Tire that would last for weeks; and a chassis with no offset. Original Late Model Stock Cars were Chevy Camaros, Novas and Ford Fairlanes.
“Our goal was to create a car fans could associate with that were affordable to build and race,” Gore said. “People said it wouldn’t work and NASCAR wasn’t sold on it. For three years we were the only track with Late Model Stock Cars. Joe Carver at Langley was the first to add them, then Southside and South Boston and then they were everywhere. Promoters might add their own wrinkle, but it’s a formula that’s tried and proven. At one time there were 3,000-4,000 of them across the country. They were NASCAR’s biggest division in number of cars.”
Steve and Cari Britt, Steve’s brother Ted, and Charles Graybeal purchased the track from the Gore family in 2003. After some time off Dickie Gore and his brother Gary returned as race and competition directors.
“When we purchased the track we had a seamless transition thanks in large part to the good will the Gore family earned,” Steve Britt said. “Most of our employees stayed with us, and some of them have 30 or more years of service.”
During the 1976-77 seasons, Britt was crew member for a Street Stock race team with driver Karl Sanders and sponsor Interstate Moving and Storage. Sanders still races at the track on occasion. Virginia-based Interstate Moving and Storage returns this year for the first time since the mid-1970s to sponsor a Late Model at Old Dominion driven by Davey Callihan.
Britt had success in the construction and real estate industry when he began exploring automotive related business opportunities. At a time when he was considering becoming an auto dealership owner, a friend, Mike Balbauf introduced Britt to Gore. The two discussed the track and Britt became interested in the business. After a six-month dialogue the two reached an agreement and sealed it with a handshake. The legal documents followed and Britt and company became the track owners on February 23, 2003.
“Dickie is the kind of guy whose handshake means everything,” Britt said. The signed documents transferring ownership were the same agreements the two shook hands on.
“We opened the track without any real experience in speedway operation,” Britt said. “I was terrified on opening night. The first few years were quite a time for us as new owners. That was a critical time. Our GM Hayne Dominic and our employees did a great job. We had to work hard and work smart to survive. Today I enjoy it more with every passing year.”
Old Dominion Speedway’s relationship with NASCAR began with a 1957 NASCAR Convertible Division race won by Joe Weatherly. Seven NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races followed between 1958 and 1966. Richard Petty and Ned Jarrett each won two those events. Single race winners were Frankie Schneider, Junior Johnson and Elmo Langley.
Adam Brenner was the track’s 2010 NASCAR Late Model division champion. Old Dominion Speedway’s 2011 season opens April 9.
The track’s website is www.olddominionspeedway.com.
Sources: Paul Schaefer, NASCAR