NASCAR WCUP: Baldwin’s History at Martinsville Could Be A Plus For Burton, Dodge
Posted By Terry CallahanMotorsports Editor, The Auto Channel
MARTINSVILLE, VA – Winston Cup crew chiefs don’t ever like to look past the Daytona 500. That has been especially true this winter for crew chiefs of the Dodge teams who will bring the manufacturer back into the sport after an absence of more than 20 years.
But Tommy Baldwin, crew chief for Ward Burton’s No. 22 Caterpillar team, admits he has occasionally peeked past Daytona during this especially tough winter of transition.
“I always look forward to going to Martinsville. It’s one of my favorite tracks to go to,” said Baldwin. “Hopefully I can get into the winner’s circle there one day with a Cup car like we did in the Modifieds. Everybody looks toward the Daytona 500, but Martinsville pays just as many points as Daytona.”
Baldwin has a strong, but unusual tie to the difficult .526-mile oval, a tie that could help Burton and the Cat crew when they roll into town for the Virginia 500 Winston Cup race on April 8.
His father, Tom Baldwin, has driven in Featherlite Modified Tour events at Martinsville for more than 20 years. Twice he has won the prestigious Martinsville Modified races. And most every time the elder Baldwin has raced at Martinsville, the younger Baldwin has been by his side, working with his team in some capacity.
Even now that he’s a Winston Cup crew chief, he still shows up in his dad’s pits from time to time.
“The last race we had up there in October when the Modifieds ran on Saturday, I crew chiefed my dad’s car,” recalled Baldwin. “I put some of the Cup stuff under his car and he wound up leading a lot of the race and he finished third.”
While Baldwin doesn’t think his Martinsville Modified knowledge will carry back over to his team’s new Dodges, he believes he might have at least a small advantage at Martinsville.
“I’ve got so much history there, I’m just a little more comfortable there. Martinsville has been pretty good to me,” said Baldwin.
Depending on what story you read, the Dodge test sessions at Daytona were either bad or at best mediocre. Baldwin doesn’t think too much stock should be put into those tests, though.
“We were pretty satisfied with the results down there. You have to remember all three manufacturers were testing at different times. We really don’t know what everybody has until we qualify,” said Baldwin. “There’s a lot of drama headed into Daytona. It’s gonna be exciting.”
While recent Dodge headlines have concerned its performance in Daytona testing, Baldwin said the short tracks have not been forgotten by the new Dodge teams.
“Our Martinsville car is just about done. The body is getting completed on it now,” Baldwin said Thursday morning. “We actually spent a lot of time working on those cars before we even started on the superspeedway stuff. We spent a lot of time working on downforce for the shorter tracks.”
Baldwin, Burton and all of Bill Davis Racing understand the importance of performance on the short tracks. “The first year we were all together, we lost a lot of points on short tracks and last year we worked hard to get better on short tracks and we did,” said Baldwin.
Baldwin expects at least one of Bill Davis Racing’s three teams to test at Martinsville once the Daytona 500 is history. And he selfishly hopes the call goes out for his Ward Burton crew to make the trip to Martinsville.
“I think Martinsville is such a unique track, I don’t think we’ll see many changes aerodynamically as you would at Charlotte or Atlanta. What we learned there last year should give us a pretty good handle on this year. But we hope we get a test there because I like the place so much.”
The next racing action at Martinsville Speedway is the Virginia 500 NASCAR Winston Cup Series race on Sunday, April 8. Tickets are $40-$70 and are available by calling toll free at (877) 722-3849.
Text provided by M. Smith
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