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MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Get through the numbers, formulas and prose and you get the point of the report: Racing is good. Good for cities, states, jobs and tourism.

That's the message the parent company of three NASCAR tracks is trying to send to residents, fans and even politicians.

International Speedway Corp., which owns Martinsville Speedway, Richmond International Raceway and Darlington Raceway, launched a three-day public relations trip — starting in Martinsville on Tuesday — to trumpet the tracks' value to their communities based on reports commissioned by ISC.

Martinsville's economic impact in Virginia is valued at $170 million (The study did not include the Greensboro area). The track, according to the report, provides 2,824 jobs either directly or indirectly. Darlington's figures will be released today and Richmond's on Thursday. Martinsville's figures will rank second to Richmond.

"It's a way,'' said Lenny Santiago, an ISC spokesman, of the studies, "for us to show our communities how large a partner we are locally. It demonstrates the power of motorsports and NASCAR in stimulating an economy.''

The company has had such studies done since 2007. The results have led to mind-boggling totals. Daytona International Speedway has an overall economic impact of more than $1 billion. Talladega Superspeedway's impact in Alabama is more than $400 million. Kansas Speedway, which has only one Cup race, has an economic impact of $243 million. All those studies were done by the same group, The Washington Economics Group, that did the reports for Martinsville, Darlington and Richmond. More such studies are being done with results likely coming next year.

Such numbers could lead one to believe the roads in those communities should be paved with gold. While 60,000 or so fans coming to Martinsville for a race are beneficial, some skeptics remain.

Dennis Coates, an economics professor at the University of Maryland-Baltimore County, has done similar economic impact studies and questions studies not academically driven.

"The first thing I would do is caution them to think about who did this study,'' he says of what to take from such reports. "You have to be a little bit suspicious of the numbers because they have an interest in the number being big.''

Coates and another colleague looked at how either a NASCAR track or NASCAR-sanctioned event influenced monthly rents on residential units from 1993-2005.

His report found that the "mere presence of a (NASCAR-sanctioned) track is statistically significant and positive in several specifications. This impact, however, may be limited'' based on a track's location.

While the elements of the economic impact studies can be debated, any money flowing into Martinsville could be meaningful. Martinsville's unemployment rate for January was 18 percent, among the state's highest.

Virginia State Delegate Ward Armstrong and Virginia State Senator Roscoe Reynolds, who both attended Tuesday's announcement at Martinsville Speedway, say that such reports should remind those in the capitol about the speedway's value. While International Speedway Corp., officials have never said that they would take away a race date from Martinsville, such a move often has been speculated because the track has among the smallest seating capacities on the circuit.

Armstrong suggested that the Virginia Department of Tourism could play a greater role in elevating the track's status.

"I do think it's appropriate to promote racing in Virginia,'' Armstrong said. "Cleary, that's the best way to assure we have two Sprint Cup races here each year. I think Senator Reynolds and I both will make certain that's done.''

Contact Dustin Long at 373-7062 or dustin.long@news-record.com