Day 1 of 4

[JSPhoto]

Day one of four, a busy weekend that started tonight. This was the kickoff for the Kroger Speedfest at Raceway Park with the USAC Silver Crown pavement cars. Tomorrow night it's the Craftsman truck series and Saturday the Busch series, and of course Sunday is the Allstate 400....

#1:Josh Wise spins and Brian Tyler tries to save it after they bumped wheels. Wise was leading, and Tyler ended up winning the race.

#2: Josh Wise hits the wall in turn 1

#3: David Steele in his pavement series Silver Crown car.

JS

[swmdrayfan]

John,
Looks like you're going to be very busy.
John

[Old Timer]

Looking forward to some great images from you this weekend John. Great start here with this batch. Looks like I'll have my first football game a week from today. Ordered a Kenko 1.4x teleconverter to go on the 80-200 last night. Hope it will give me that extra length that I have needed for those corner of the end zone pictures.

[Jaedon]

nice shots JSP.

Can't wait to see more over the weekend.

Jay

[JSPhoto]

Thanks everyone. I'll post some more in the morning after I get some SLEEP! I started out at 6am Friday morning and just got home 30 minutes ago (2:30am) ....... long day! Lotsa pics too!

JS

[JSPhoto]

Well Day 2 was interesting. Nextel Cup practice was a bit boring so I headed off to the Craftsman truck series race early. Turned out that was a good thing as I had to get shots of one driver. As it tuned out I knew a few more of the drivers than I thought, and ran into some others who were just there hanging out or trying talk owners into giving them a ride.

#1: Allstate 400 practice
#2: My "target" for the night, Cameron Dodson who was running in his first CTS race
#3: Cameron during a pit stop
#4: one of several incidents

JS

[JSPhoto]

Day 3 included another stop at the "Brickyard" and then back to ORP for the Busch series race. These three are from the race.

#1: One of two parachutist who landed on the front straight. Both brought a huge cheer from the capacity crowd.

#2: Rubbin is racin!

#3: and the winner is.....Kevin Harvick

Now it's off to sleep so I can get to the Allstate 400 on time (5:30am!)

JS

[Jaedon]

lol .. Rubbin' is racing alright...

Kevin had the race sewn up early the way his car could drive last night.

I can't wait till next week to see my first NASCAR event live.... just itching and dancing in my seat thinking about it.

Nice shots of Cameron too. The pit stop picture is my favourite. You can see the concentration in his eyes as he sits there thinking "C'mon guys.. get me outta the pits already"

lol

[JSPhoto]

Actually I think Cameron was saying something like "I wish I could run over John....or at least that camera of his"

JS

[Jaedon]

lol

need a better hiding place then?

[JSPhoto]

Kind of hard to hide at a race track, and it's real hard to shoot through pitboxes.

As for shooting at NASCAR events you have to first pay attention to the track safety workers. If your in the pits or garage area pay attention to the saftey workers AND the NASCAR officials. Use common sense and stay out the way, NASCAR won't hesitate to pull credentials!

More later, my brain is still fried from this weekend!

JS

[JSPhoto]

Part 2 of the race

1: Leaders battle, Jr was leading at this point, but Johnson was catching up fast and blew on past him.

2: One of 34 shots from Kahne's crash on the final lap. See the other two shots in their own thread "Ouch, wild ride"

[JSPhoto]

Well it's finally over, 4 races in 4 days plus many hours of just standing around waiting on practices and qualifying. All total I worked 72 hours in 4 days. I was soo tired by the end of the Allstate 400 I almost fell asleep with 30 laps to go. Then almost fell asleep driving home .

1: A pitboard sign in Kyle Petty's pit

2: Looking from the exit of turn 3 towards turn 4

3: I guess the wall was hungry for a Snickers bar

4: Spin in turn 3 and the photgs at work

[WsW-WYATT-EARP]

Some more great pics !!! I like the pic of kaseys car in the other thread though ...

Kyle's pit sign is the best !!!

You were quick to get that pic of JR in the lead ... IT DIDN'T LAST LONG

some excellent pics here !! :thumbsup:

jaedon - the first nascar event you attend is just amazing !!! I have not been as close as John... but just being in the stands is great .... but a real rush is NHRA event ....

[Old Timer]

Thanks John for giving us a great taste of the NASCAR action. It's been years since I had credentials to a big time car race, but it's still one of the biggest thrills of my photo life. Your images sure don't disappoint.

[masdog]

Great pics, JS. Man, I wish I could have been there. I was stuck watching the race on a fuzzy tv.

[Jaedon]

Awesome shots JS. I am dincing in my seat as I type this. 1.5 days of work before the road trip. Bringing my lappie too so I might dump some pics each night if I am not too tired from all teh walking and chasing my 3 year old around at the same time lol.

I love the shot of Kyle's pit sign.

Gonna try and get me a shot of Kevin Harvick's happy face pit sign.

I also just found out that the friend that is getting me tickets for the Daytona 500 in Feb is getting them from his dad who works for NBC!! Apparantly this means that I will have credentials possibly for that race. He has gone every year for the past 7 years and had credentials everytime so I am crossing my fingers untill I see the tickets.

[JSPhoto]

I didn't hang around in the pits too long as I was hot and tired. I wound up only having three hours of sleep . It was so bad that as I drove home I fell asleep and almost got run over by a semi. Thats why I only got Kyles pit board, plus it kind of stuck out a bit sitting there.

Sean, I know how you feel, if I weren't there shooting it I would have been watching it on a fuzzy tv too. And I wouldn't have seen the truck or Busch races at all. The cable ends 1/4mile down the road and they claim it costs $20,000 to run it to my house! Sat won't work due to trees, although that may change when the one tree comes down this fall (or sooner if a storm helps me out).

Thanks everyone and yeah, I like the Kyle pitboard too, thats why it was first in the lineup

JS