"Martinsville is a symbol of the old days of racing, a reminder of the Saturday night, short-track races many of us have been thru," Crafton said.  "The track has been around for sixty years, and there's just so much history here."

Despite his fondness for the echoes of Martinsville, however, Crafton is plenty familiar with the brutish toll exacted by the half-mile menace.

"This track is extremely hard on equipment," he said.  "It's not about aero or horsepower here, it's about handling and track position.  And you have to take care of your brakes.  Track position is critical, because there's just no room to pass anybody.  If you aren't careful, you can get shuffled to the back of the pack pretty quickly, and it's awful hard to work your way back up front.  The difference from the fastest truck to the slowest may be a couple tenths of a second, so there's no margin for error.  The race can be won or lost by the smallest difference."

In 12 career NCTS starts at Martinsville, Crafton has 4 top-10 finishes, including a 3rd place finish in '06.  "Getting to the checkered flag here is tough, because the competition is so fierce," Crafton said.  "With all of the beating and banging going on, it's easy to get impatient, and you can get caught up in someone else's mess real easy.  If you're not patient, you can cost yourself a nice finish. We just need to stay patient and try to stay out of trouble, so we can be there at the end.