Arts | Entertainment | Sports 2025: CAMPBELL, CLAY

Campbell’s life has taken him off to the races for as long as he can remember. Grandson of Martinsville Speedway founder H. Clay Earles, who built the paperclip-shaped speedway in 1947, Campbell has worked at Martinsville since he was a child. He worked in maintenance, concessions and souvenirs before moving up to vice president and general manager, finally taking over as track president in 1988.

A longstanding fixture in Virginia motorsports, Campbell also has driven in some Late Model, K&N East and ARCA races. When the family racetrack was sold to International Speedway in 2004, and later absorbed by NASCAR, Campbell remained with the track as president, and in 2021 was named president of NASCAR’s mid-Atlantic region. Every spring and fall, Martinsville Speedway hosts NASCAR Cup Series races. It’s the only track on the circuit that has hosted NASCAR Cup Series races since 1949.

In June, NASCAR and FloSports announced a partnership adding $50,000 to the purse for the Virginia Triple Crown, composed of three races ending with the ValleyStar Credit Union 300 at Martinsville Speedway in September. The overall champion will now receive $20,000.

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