I watched a great race at Martinsville Raceway.

Lots of lead changes. Great racing throughout the field. A race winner that made me question whether or not Jimmie Johnson will win championship number five. Hell, Dale Earnhardt Jr. looked something other than inept for a stretch on Sunday.

It was everything that NASCAR could have hoped from its oldest active track and a race that falls in the last month of the season.

The only problem is that no one showed up to watch.

You know NASCAR and International Speedway Corporation (ISC), which owns Martinsville, are not in the business of releasing attendance figures for races, but by my totally unscientific measure, I would guess that the track was no more than 60 percent full. A number that is very telling for what fans are thinking about NASCAR racing.

For most of the race fans that I talk to, Martinsville is one of the best products that NASCAR puts together. It’s always exciting on-track action and last weekend saw Chamber of Commerce weather for Southern Virginia. But still, the fans stayed away — 40,000 would be a stretch for a track that holds 65,000.

The question that NASCAR has to answer pronto is, why? Why, in the midst of one of the tightest points battles in the history of the Chase and one of your most popular tracks, did you have such paltry attendance?

It can be argued that the economy being in the tank has a lot to do with it. There isn’t as much disposable income to go around so people aren’t able to go to the race. It happens and it is going to hurt your numbers.

But this one is just deeper than a product of the bad economy. NASCAR is broken and it’s hemorrhaging fans. Most race fans have known this for a while, but Martinsville was a stark manifestation of the fact.

Brian France, with your Chase and your new car and your schedule realignments, you have put NASCAR on a path to ruin from which I am not confident it will return.

I spent some time this week talking to a guy who, while not a life-long race fan, has been a fan for about 15 years, and one of the trips that he and his buddies have traditionally made was the one to Martinsville. In fact, he was wearing a Subway 500 shirt that he got at the 2005 fall race at the track. They didn’t make the trip this past week.

As we talked, phrases like “too much money” and “only difference is the decals” were said more than once each.

Of course, there was some umbrage at the fact that Rockingham has no NASCAR races and Darlington only has one race.

But those things didn’t keep him and his buddies from Martinsville twice a year. Until now.

Race fans have had enough of NASCAR and all the changes and they sent that message loud and clear by leaving Martinsville’s seats empty last Sunday.

Contact Andy Cagle at andycagle @earthlink.net.