Hembree: Snow at Martinsville rekindles memories of how it caused epic havoc 25 years ago

Mike Hembree | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption NASCAR: Tight quarters will make for a bumpy ride in Martinsville USA TODAY Sports' Mike Hembree previews the upcoming race in Martinsville.

MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Snow piled high on the grandstand seats at Martinsville Speedway early Sunday morning, creating a surreal scene on a day in which race cars were supposed to be flying around the track at ridiculous speeds.

A snowplow would have been a better conveyance.

It was an odd spring weekend in south central Virginia and a rarity for NASCAR, which often has trouble with rain but typically doesn’t have to address snow issues. Sunday’s issues forced the STP 500 to be postponed to Monday.

For a sport whose schedule stretches from February to November, wacky weather occasionally throws a wild front or two into the mix.

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The best — or maybe worst — example of this phenomenon occurred in March 1993 when Atlanta Motor Speedway was scheduled to host the Motorcraft 500.

Instead, it hosted the so-called “Storm of the Century.”

Late in the week, forecasters began warning of a significant snow event in the Southeast, but NASCAR teams were already on site for the weekend. Practice and qualifying rolled along as scheduled, and Rusty Wallace won the pole position for the Sunday race.

As matters developed, Wallace would stay on that pole for a week.

Snow began falling in the Southeast early Saturday morning, and soon the ground at AMS was covered. Wind gusts approaching 50 miles per hour pushed snow into drifts in the speedway’s turns. The predicted blizzard was well underway.

It quickly became evident that morning that there would be no racing at AMS that weekend, and most teams stayed in their hotels north and east of the track, avoiding the possibility of being trapped in the snow on highways that were rapidly becoming impassable.

One team provided the exception, however. Those who actually made it to the track that morning were surprised to find driver Alan Kulwicki and a few members of his team working on his car, snow steadily climbing toward their knees and high winds pounding the sides and roof of the garage.

Kulwicki was wearing his driver’s helmet, perhaps as a shield against the wind.

That was Kulwicki. Few drivers in the history of the sport were more dedicated to the craft. He had proven himself the year before, driving to the Cup Series championship in cars he owned, challenging — and beating — teams that were much larger and had bigger financial backing.

Tragically, Kulwicki would be killed the next month in an airplane crash on the way to a race in Bristol, Tenn.

The snowstorm dropped more than three feet of snow in the mountains north of Atlanta and spread misery across several states. Temperature gauges at the speedway hit the teens on Sunday — the scheduled race day. Wind and snow caused more than $300,000 in damages to the track, and trees were blown over across the facility, blocking roads.

By the time teams returned to the speedway the next weekend for the rescheduled race, everything was race-ready.

Morgan Shepherd, then 51 years old, won the race. Perhaps surprisingly, Shepherd, now 76, is the only competitor from that 40-driver starting field who continues to race today.

The snow in Martinsville brought back memories of that strange Atlanta weekend.

It was March madness, for sure.