After several months of only shooting football and basketball it was time to get back to shooting one of my favorite sports, NASCAR. Unlike nearly every other sport in the world which has their biggest event towards the end of the season, the biggest race on the NASCAR calendar is the first race of the season. Strap in as I show you my best imagery from 12 days at the World Center of Speed in Daytona Beach.
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With the opening week of Daytona out of the way all eyes would be on the biggest race of the year, the Daytona 500. Oh and Danicas first Nationwide start. Both races would live up to the hype and then some.
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After several weeks in the past few months on the road covering NASCAR it was great to have a weekend at home as NASCAR made their second stop of the year to the Phoenix International Raceway for the second to last race on the year. While PIR isn’t known for exciting races it is absolutely known in the motor sports photography world for some amazing light. Check it out.
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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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When you go to a restrictor plate race the chances of seeing some spectacular racing is typically very good. Thats why the races are so popular with the fans and its also why I have gone to the past 11 restrictor plate races and will continue to go to every one for many more years. The latest stop was at the historic high banks of the Daytona International Speedway where Kyle Busch would attempt to win back to back July Daytona races after his victory the previous year.
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Every once in awhile a crash occurs that has the sports world talking for days. Carl Edwards experienced one of those crashes when he went airborne on the last lap of the Aarons 499 at the Talladega Superspeedway. With its location in the tri-oval plus occuring on the last lap it would be one of the most photographed NASCAR crashes ever. Sadly I wouldn’t be one of the many photographers who would have their coolest crash shot ever. Read on to see my failure.
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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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With the Daytona 500 just hours away I figured I may as well throw up a blog of random photos from the week. I am sick in the media room with the flu so it will be lacking of my random talking and nonsense.
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In the many motorsport events I cover every year I typically witness several crashes. While most are simple spins into the wall, sometime it is hard impacts and explosions and sometimes even flips. Continue on to see some of the dramatic moments I witnessed in 2008.
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Nikon D3, 600mm, 3200iso, f4, 1/1250th
Todays best of 2008 gallery brings us to my favorite dejection/reaction photos of the year. While not as happy and fun as celebration photos it is still very important to capture athletes at their worst.
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