Martinsville Speedway's pit road roared to life Thursday morning, but not with the usual equipment.

Instead of race cars, air guns and pit crews, it was heavy equipment and dump trucks as work began on a resurfacing project that will see a concrete pit road in place by the October 19th running of the TUMS QuikPak 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup race.

A layer of asphalt about six inches deep is being removed from pit road and will be replaced by concrete.

"In the long run, the concrete is going to be better," said Martinsville Speedway president Clay Campbell. "We know from the concrete that we have in the turns (of the racing surface) that it can withstand a lot of wear and tear. We won't have some of the issues with concrete that we have with asphalt. It should stay smooth and shouldn't develop cracks."

It is the first time in recent history that pit road has been resurfaced.

The refurbishing of pit road is one of several capital improvement projects set to be finished before the TUMS QuikPak 500.

A new, 120-foot tall scoreboard with three 30-foot video display screens will be in place by the fall. The video screens will be utilized for everything from scoring rundowns to instant replays. It will be visible to all seats.

Plans also call for about 100 feet of SAFER barrier to be installed on the fourth-turn pit gate and the exit of the fourth turn. It is the most challenging of the summer projects. Presently the gate opens inward, but with the addition of the SAFER barrier, it must open outward. And that means the roadway outside of the gate will have to be cut down, leveled and resurfaced.