Bobby McCarty was prepared to watch the ValleyStar Credit Union 300 as a fan for the first time in 13 years.
The three-time CARS Tour champion wasn’t entirely at peace with it, but the decision had been made, and he was going to live with it somewhere in the grandstands at Martinsville Speedway on Saturday night.
That decision was the byproduct of McCarty putting together a new Forrest Reynolds chassis this summer, one that wasn’t ready because his family business is expanding into a second location, and simply running out of time.
In previous seasons, McCarty had driven for R&S Race Cars and Nelson Motorsports, but everything is in-house right now and the 32-year-old has to do it himself alongside his personal volunteers. So more or less, McCarty was just going to have to sit this one out, knowing that his program would be better in the years to come as a result.
Enter Jay Hedgecock of Hedgecock Race Cars.
“It’s kind of crazy how this came together,” McCarty told Short Track Scene by phone on Wednesday. “We’re putting together this Reynolds chassis but our shop (Greensboro) is right down the road from Jay (in High Point) so I’m always stopping by to pick stuff up and we just got to talking about how my car wasn’t ready yet.
“It’s kind of a full-circle thing because the first car I ever put together and raced was a Hedgecock.”
This car is kind of a Frankenstein car in that Hedgecock had a fully assembled chassis ready to go but needed an engine, drivetrain and various parts that McCarty pulled from his shop just so they could make this weekend work out.
The crew is a mix of McCarty and Hedgecock people.
“It’s really cool how this worked out,” McCarty said. “I had some offers to run with some other teams but this is just getting so expensive and we just couldn’t find a deal that worked out for everyone. And really, when I started my own team, it was never about trophies.
“I have more trophies than I know what to do with. We’ve had some really good runs but I just want to go to the track and have a good time.”
McCarty was prepared to have a good time in the stands — and continue some driver coaching work that he’s done this year with Andrew Grady — but he knew that watching the race start without him would be hard.
“I would have been madder than hell,” McCarty said with a laugh.
McCarty and Hedgecock tested at Ace Speedway last Thursday but they only turned 12 laps. It was set-up for Martinsville and not Ace, so this was more about getting the Late Model mainstay comfortable in this particular car.
“I just wanted to get acclimated,” McCarty said. “Jay’s pedals are a little different than what I’ve gotten uses to so I wanted to get familiar before we unloaded. We made a spring change halfway through but nothing major.
“We all know what we’re doing and what we need to do during practice.”
“I have made like 13 attempts in this race, and I’ve only finished three of them (2019, 2021 and 2024) and have never scratched a car here once,” McCarty said. “We’ve had all kinds of issues but never crashed out of a race here.
“I love this track. It’s smooth and technical. It’s fast but it’s not a teenager’s iRacing track. You have to have finesse and I know what I need to have a good car. So I do feel confident if we can get some good luck to go our way.
“I love Martinsville but the thing is figuring out how to make Martinsville love me back. It doesn’t seem to for whatever reason. I just can’t finish a race. I have been close to winning when we do finish.”
Each of those actual finishes have coming racing around the top-5.
“One thing I haven’t done enough is appreciate Martinsville,” McCarty said. “We get so wrapped up in trying to win it that we don’t appreciate, all of us, how cool it is that we get to race here. We get to race where all the legends of the sport raced.
“It’s a very special place and I just want to enjoy being here this year.”
Matt Weaver is the owner and founder of Short Track Scene. Weaver grew up in the sport, having raced himself before becoming a reporter in college at the University of South Alabama. He also has extensive experience covering NASCAR, IndyCar and Dirt Sprint Cars.
