by Lee Spencer

Like many of us, the Wood Brothers' director of competition has a deep appreciation for the way that racing used to be. Fathers, sons, brothers, cousins, friends, all tweaking on race cars after school and work in anticipation of racing on the weekends.

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At short tracks, fans in the stands sit so close to the action that it's necessary to comb the debris and marbles out of their hair before leaving the track. But getting dirty is part of the experience of side-by-side, photo-finish racing.

That's why Martinsville is Fatback's Daytona 500.

"I would rather go to Martinsville then Daytona," McSwain said. "It's always been my Super Bowl and always will be. Where else can you stand dead ass next to the cars as they drive by? You can't do that at Bristol. And you're just a few car lengths away from the action in the pits.

"I love that you can stand five feet from the cars like you could when you were growing up at your local track. I love this place. I love what it stands for. This is a racer's racetrack. And if I could win just one race before I die, it would be at Martinsville Speedway."

If McSwain wrote a book about Martinsville Speedway, it would be titled: The One that Got Away. Sure, Fatback logged a second and third-place finish during his glory days with Ricky Rudd and during an abbreviated run with Bobby Labonte. But he's endured his share of heartbreakers — blown tires and expired engines — as well.

"I have been so close to winning at this place, and then something stupid happens," McSwain said. "It almost seems like I'm cursed here. I hate to think that way. I hate to think I will never win it because I run good here. It's like the racing gods let me get close and then pull it from my reach."

And those very gods are teasing Fatback again. On Friday, Ken Schrader, driver of the No. 21 Little Debbie Snack Cake Ford, qualified fourth. Had it not been for a hiccup between Turns 3 and 4, Schrader could have captured the pole. Imagine that. In the backyard of where the Wood Brothers set up shop for nearly 50 years, the locals would have gone wild. But the fans' response could hardly compare to the sheer emotion McSwain would experience to have one Martinsville grandfather clock — the historic track trophy — among his racing mementos.

After more than 20 years of racing, McSwain has earned the right to skip a weekend at the racetrack. With a two-year-old Mikayla and home and a son on the way, his priorities have changed over the years. The Car of Tomorrow has also made McSwain's time at the shop more valuable than being on the road. But before he agreed to relinquish his seat on top of the pitbox on Sundays, his successor, Ernie Cope, had agree to let McSwain return to call the shots at both Martinsville events.

"This is his place," Cope said. "It's his Daytona. Before the season started I knew he'd call this race. He wants to win here more than anywhere. Me? I'd like to win them all. But I understand how special this place is to him."

Martinsville still ignites McSwain's racing spark, but there's not much to attract him to returning to the Nextel Cup tour full-time. Despite rumors circulating of a Fatback-Rudd reunion, that's not on the top of McSwain's wish list.

Sure, not winning the title "still eats" at him. He came close with Rudd in 2000 and 2001 and felt the potential was there with Labonte. Yet during his tenure at Joe Gibbs Racing, McSwain learned the difficult lesson that not everyone shared his intense passion for winning.

"When I was growing up, I would have never missed a football game — I don't care how bad I was hurt," McSwain said. "I played with broke fingers. I cracked my wrist when I fell off my skateboard, and I still played my whole eighth grade season. I don't think my own father knew. I don't know what it means to quit."

As long as the Wood Brothers team continues to grow, McSwain will stay put. Crew chief jobs for drivers like Tony Stewart, Jeff Gordon and Kevin Harvick don't appear in the local want ads. Opportunities like those just don't come along. And today's drivers are more pampered than the hardnosed competitors of the past. That's not to say that if Ford or the Wood Brothers discovered a young racer with the same drive and desire that McSwain couldn't be coaxed back on the pitbox, but that's not likely to happen.

"It's a different generation," McSwain said. "The world is changing. I don't have a lot of tolerance for people who don't want to win. You either want it or you don't. I lived my whole career thinking performance at any cost, but not everyone shares that opinion. And I don't care how incredible you are as an athlete — the most you can expect to get out of yourself is 95 percent. That's all anyone is capable of. It's my job as a crew chief to find the other five or 10 percent. I haven't really had that shot at winning the championship. It doesn't eat at me terribly, but if I was ever going to be a crew chief again, I'd want to be in a position to win races."

Lee Spencer is a senior NASCAR writer for FOXSports.com. Talk racing with Lee at her NASCAR blog.