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PRESIDENT, MARTINSVILLE SPEEDWAY; PRESIDENT, MID-ATLANTIC REGION, NASCAR, MARTINSVILLE
PRESIDENT, MARTINSVILLE SPEEDWAY; PRESIDENT, MID-ATLANTIC REGION, NASCAR, MARTINSVILLE
Virginia Business// August 30, 2023//
For Campbell, the past year has been a chance to celebrate milestones — both NASCAR and Martinsville Speedway marked their 75th anniversaries in the second half of 2022.
Owned by NASCAR, Martinsville Speedway hosts NASCAR Cup Series races every spring and fall. Campbell’s grandfather, H. Clay Earles, built the paperclip-shaped speedway in 1947, and Campbell started working at the track in 1978, working his way up from maintenance to concessions to souvenirs before becoming vice president and general manager, and then being named president in 1988. The family sold the racetrack in 2004 to International Speedway, which later was absorbed by NASCAR, and Campbell, a key figure in Virginia motorsports, has stayed on as president throughout all the changes in ownership.
In an October 2022 interview with Sportscasting, Campbell recalled going fishing with late NASCAR racing legend Dale Earnhardt around 1987 at a lake since removed from the Martinsville track property. “He and I went out there to the lake and fished for an hour,” Campbell said. “It was wonderful.”
