Back in February I had the opportunity to shoot three separate sports in three different cities in one day so of course I took it!
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It is finally time to bring my “Best of 2011″ series to an end with everyones favorite category (except those who appear in these pics) with my Best of Crash and Burn. Not many years ago many of the crashes you see in this post would have resulted in injuries for the drivers but thanks to todays safety technology every driver seen in this blog would walk away. The same can’t be said for their race cars!
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My last NASCAR race was back in March in Las Vegas so I had been itching for awhile to get back on the circuit to shoot some stock car action. For the fifth straight year I would be fortunate enough to cover the July Daytona race. Now most of my photographer friends despise this race due to the hot weather and high chance of rain but I honestly love this race. It always makes for great photos and this year would be no different!
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After nearly three months off of NASCAR (thats longer than their offseason) I found myself back at the track to shoot the Pricechopper 400 at the Kansas Speedway. While it is not a track known for much action (at all) at least its a gorgeous facility and more importantly, a short flight!
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With how busy I have been covering NASCAR during this years Chase for the Cup I gotta admit I was starting to get bored with the repetition of covering several races. I haven’t shot an NFL game in well over a month and really miss shooting it, however a weekend in Talladega was more than enough to help me realize why I love covering NASCAR so much. Continue reading to see exactly why I love restrictor plate racing!
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After a few years of not shooting NASCAR at Charlotte I decided I wanted to cover the fall chase race at the Lowes Motor Speedway. It is a great track to shoot at and usually is an action packed race. The one thing I wasn’t expecting though was the low temperatures (40s) or the high ISO’s (6400).
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It had been three years since my last venture to New York to shoot NASCAR at the historic Watkins Glen International, and after the fun I had shooting the previous road race in Sonoma I figured why the hell not. Watkins Glen is in the middle of nowhere New York in the picturesque Finger Lakes region. Like the surrounding hills and green of the region, the track is a beautiful place to shoot. On to the fun!
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It has been three years since I made the trip to the rolling hills of the wine country to cover NASCAR as they raced around the winding turns of Infineon Raceway. NASCAR has 38 races a year and only two of them occur on tracks with left and right turns. This is the first road course of the season. It makes things a pain in the ass for drivers as well as us photographers.
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After 5 days of attempting to get over screwing up and missing the Carl Edwards crash in Talladega it was time to put it behind me as I made the trip up to Richmond, Virginia for a nice weekend of NASCAR on the 3/4 mile short track of Richmond International Raceway.
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After a few weeks of shooting baseball I was more than excited when NASCAR made its first visit of the year to the Valley of the Sun. While the race itself usually isn’t very exciting, the light for shooting photos of the race that begins in the day and ends at night is typically amazing. With three races on tap for the weekend things were shaping up to be a fun, productive weekend at home for me.
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