I was watching the Budweiser 25 lap shoot-out at Daytona last weekend and I sighed a little, knowing that this year, I won't be at any of the Talladega races as a photographer.

The first race is in April and my little girl will have just been born, so I'm planning on staying around the house to help my wife out- since she will still be a little under the weather. I also promised that I would, for at least one race this year, take her and our son, Grayson and sit in the stands like normal people. Grayson is getting old enough now that he can and does appreciate the competitive nature of NASCAR. Infact, Grayson is already a seasoned veteran, having gone to his first race at the ripe old age of 6 months. My wife never went to a race before we started dating, but has gone to almost every race since. She LOVES her NASCAR and can even tell you who all of the drivers are and how they're doing in the points race. Infact, we recently sold our Mercedes-Benz and bought a Ford Expedition. She says it's because with a new child we need more room. I think that she just felt funny putting "Anyone but 3" in white shoe polish on the windows of a Mercedes-Benz and driving to the track. ;-)

My association with the sport started when I was working at the Winter Haven (FL) News-Chief and went to the "Firecracker 400" on a 4th of July weekend. I'll never forget that race because I went to Jacksonville and spent the night with my brother, Mike (who is also a photographer) and the next day, we made the hour and a half drive down to Daytona. He'd been to several races and his then-roommate, Rick, was an avid NASCAR fan. So, the night before, we sat up talking and Rick filled me in on the nuances of the sport. I was amazed to see to cars beating each others fenders going through the front of turn one at 200+ miles an hour. My brother and his friend corrected me- telling me that he "rubbed" him. On that day, Bobby Allison wrecked while crossing the finish line- but won the race. Now, that particular race and ending are considered classic to most true NASCAR fans.

One of the most common sights that you'll see on the way to the track is everyone in front and behind you. The traffic is horrible. It normally takes me about an hour and a half to drive from my home to Talladega, but on race day I count on a four hour trip.

Harris DeVane isn't a well known driver, but then, Most ARCA drivers aren't. It's the "Triple A" of stock car racing and is considered by many to be the best route to getting a NASCAR ride. Drivers like Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr. cut their teeth in the ARCA series. .

While I was in Winter Haven, I also covered the world famous races in Sebring, which was only 35 miles from my home. They aren't NASCAR events and even though I could appreciate what it takes to run a car for 24 hours, it just wasn't the same. I also went to a few Indy car races and I have to admit, I think these guys are nuts. Having totally exposed tires and driving like a bat our of hell is insane. Still, it's just not NASCAR. I also covered the Snowbird Nationals in Gainesville, Florida, but hey, by the time they get up to speed, they slow down. Not much fun in that.

The following year, I shot both races at the Daytona Speedway- the "500" and the Firecracker "400". The following March, I'd gotten a phone call from Jim Smothers, chief photographer for the Talladega Daily Home- asking me if I'd be interested in interviewing with the paper. I have to admit, having two races to cover at the world's fastest speedway was pretty exciting to me and was one of the main reasons that I moved. I moved to Talladega on the first of April and covered my first races there four weeks later. I'll never forget how lost I got trying to get from the track back to the paper to process film after the race was over. I somehow ended up in Pell City, which is about 30 miles from where I was supposed to be. To this day, I still don't know how I got there, but when I finally did get back to the paper, my co-workers had a good laugh with me about it. Next race was a few months after and I had the time to learn what the best way to get back to the office was before the races started.

DeVane's Pit crew watches as he makes a pass for 2nd place.

And since I was working for the local paper, we had a really good relationship with the track officials and with the NASCAR folks. Infact, I can still talk to some of them today and they remind me of old stories from when I was a "local". Jim Freeman, who was the P.R. director at Talladega Superspeedway found out that I needed a few tickets for some friends who were coming into town to celebrate my birthday, and gave me enough tickets for everyone. The Daily Home was also a good source for the track to get photos of drivers, wrecks and whatever else happened during the race week.

I remember supplying the track with photos- one in particular that stands out in my mind is when I photographed Davey Allison with his rookie car when it was being put on display at the Motor Sports Hall of Fame, which is located next to the Talladega Speedway (it is still, in my opinion the best looking #28 Havoline car there ever was...).

It was the first time that I'd met Allison, but not the last. I covered him regularly up until the time that he died in a helicopter crash only several hundred yards from where he stood posing with his rookie car. I got to know his brother Clifford pretty well too and found them to be some of the nicest people I've met. For all the good that this family has done over the years to have had two sons killed at tracks (Davey at Talladega in a Helicopter crash and Clifford during a practice round at the Michigan Speedway), death of the elder "Pop" Allison and a crash that Bobby Allison himself barely walked away from and eventually, the divorce that he and his ex-wife endured- having to sell some of their most personal items publicly by court order. It's a shame and I still feel for all that this family has gone through.

Another racing icon that I miss seeing on the track is Neil Bonnett. The first time I met Neil wasn't anywhere near the track. It was in Greensboro, Alabama at the "Catfish Festival" (Greensboro has a huge catfish farm industry and Bonnett owned one of the bigger farms, "Southern Pride" catfish). It was shortly after his "Winners" T.V. series started and I ended up talking to him at length about the transitions that he'd made from being one of NASCAR's biggest stars to "Neil Bonnett-Catfish Farmer/T.V. Personality".

One of DeVane's crew members wears a "customized" pair of sunglasses with his team number on them

Clifford Allison had done some work on my car and while I was picking it up, Bonnett showed up to talk to Clifford and had remembered talking to me in Greensboro. I ran into him again at a gas station in Birmingham and talked to him again for a while. The next time that I saw Bonnett was at the Talladega track a week after Davey Allison and Red Farmer had crashed. It was Bonnett's first race out of retirement and both Clifford and Davey Allison were dead now. I'll never forget him coming toward me on Pit Road the day of the race and saying hello. Bonnett told me that he didn't have any pictures of his car on the track and would appreciate getting some from me. Since the A.P. also wanted shots of his car, I told him I'd help him out and after the race, would send him some shots. I wished him good luck, shook his hand and remember the smile he had on his face when he said "thanks". You could tell he was happy to be back in a car.  The race was pretty slow and I decided that I'd try to get some of those pictures of Bonnett on the track. The first time he came around, I'd had only a frame or two of film left in my camera and decided to change rolls. The next lap, Bonnett came around the tri-oval with Ted Musgrave close behind. The cars are traveling so fast that if another car gets too close to their spoiler, it takes wind off of the first car and it becomes nearly impossible to control. I saw Bonnett start to lose control of the car and held the shutter button down and came away with 26 frames of his crash- a total sequence from start to finish. Bonnett has flipped the car several times and had gone into the retaining fence in front of the tri-oval grandstand- taking with him a huge swath of fence and leaving the crowd exposed to the track. The race was "Red Flagged" for 2 hours while repairs were made on the fence. Bonnett luckily walked away from the wreck with minor injuries. I'd planned to get Bonnett to sign a large print of the image I'm showing you of this wreck at the following race, but he also died in a crash while running practice laps for the Daytona 500 the following year.

I've met many of the other drivers too. Richard Petty is of course, the ultimate race car driver and I've found him and his son Kyle to be very approachable and just nice people. Michael and Darryl Waltrip are the same way. Rick Wilson, who isn't driving now, lived in the small town of Bartow, Florida, which was only minutes from Winter Haven. I remember on one trip to visit my then-girlfriend (who worked at the Bartow Democrat as a reporter) seeing a little old lady driving in front of me with this huge sticker on her back windshield that said "I'm Rick Wilson's Grandmother". I ran into Wilson at Talladega that same year and mentioned the car to him. He smiled and told me "She's my biggest fan and I'm hers". What a cool thing to say.

DeVane's pit crew in action. An average Pit Stop (to change 4 tires, fill the gas tank, make track-bar adjustments and clean the wind shield) takes an average of about 22 seconds. Most pit crew members are trained not only in what their job is, but extensive physical training too.

I guess this is why I like NASCAR so much. Most of the drivers are just good guys who like to drive fast. They don't seem to have the ego's of most of the other sports (even though NASCAR is now the single largest spectator sport in America). And you hear it time and time again from them- "the fans are what makes this a great sport...if it weren't for the fans, we wouldn't be here". And in a world of multimillion dollar deals, I think that's a very refreshing attitude. How often do you hear a Baseball or Basketball player say that?

I'm an avid listener of the "John Boy and Billy Big Show" (locally, we hear it on WZRR in Birmingham, Alabama), which is syndicated throughout the United States. If you've ever heard the show, you know that they're based in Charlotte, North Carolina and are huge NASCAR fans. During the season, they interview the winning driver on Monday morning. As long as I've been listening to them, I have yet to hear a driver sound arrogant- which to me, is truly amazing. They also stream their broadcast on the internet at http://www.thebigshow.com.even if you're not a NASCAR fan, they're worth a listen- but just ignore whatever "Robert D. Rayford" has to say ;-).

The A.P., and Dave Martin, who is the A.P. photographer here in Alabama, also put on a crawfish boil during the first race of the season at Talladega for the people who are shooting for them. Dale Earnhardt normally parks his R.V. next to the A.P. darkroom at the track, so you see him and his staff, wife, kids, friends and visitors coming and going. Well, we happened to be cooking the crawfish when Earnhardt's wife came walking over to the boil to see what we were cooking. She was less than enthused about eating crawfish and since Earnhardt and his wife both make it a point to come over and look at those little lobster looking things.

Associated Press Photographer Dave Martin, center, goes over the race day plan for getting film back to the darkroom, which is located in the infield part of the track. the AP uses about 13 photographers to cover the track. All film is also shot, developed, edited and transmitted from the track to member newspapers.

Not all of my stories about NASCAR are happy ones though. Normally, I shoot the races for the Associated Press. My job is to typically cover the far end of Pit Road for wrecks, pit action and whatever else is needed- including accidents on pit road. I also photograph each and every driver during the driver introductions. One story that comes to mind is seeing a ten year old boy waiting by the introduction stand at the start/finish line. I'd gotten there about an hour and a half early to shoot some wide angle shots of the track and talk to some people that I knew would be in this area. and noticed this little boy who was dressed head to tow in  clothes- hat, shirt, shoes, pants and carrying a booklet all with the name of his favorite driver. You could tell that he was waiting around for an autograph- this being shortly after that commercial where the kid runs up to Earnhardt and asks for an autograph. Earnhardt gives it to him and then messes with his hat- you know the commercial. Well, here I am thinking that this would be a good opportunity to shoot a big name driver giving an autograph.

I also remember seeing one driver checking the tire pressure on some of his spares and thought that this was pretty unusual for a driver to be doing. So, I got down to his level and started shooting pictures of  this driver checking his tires. He looked at me and said "I hate when you people do this shit..." and walked away. Five minutes later, the same driver is standing in front of a T.V. camera and just gushing with "nice-nice" for the reporter...made me roll my eyes.

NASCAR has had a lot of changes over the years and some of those are good, some not so good. I will miss covering this event though. But too, it's a trade-off and I feel that my time is getting to the point where it's worth more to be with my family and enjoy the races than to go through all of the hustle and bustle that's required to shoot a NASCAR event now. Years ago, I remember being able to walk freely through the pit area and having the freedom of going into just about any pit you wanted. Back then, the teams would talk to you and allow you room in their pits to do YOUR job. The other advantage is that by talking to the guys who actually do the work on the cars, you get a much better insight into how things work within the NASCAR series. And to me, the better I understand a sport, the better I photograph it.

But, even with the negatives that accompany shooting a NASCAR event, the overall experience is very good- and if you have the means to get credentialed, It's worth the effort.

Behind the Viewfinder - A Year in the Life of Photojournalism
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