Kimmel Seeks Record Tying Win at Winchester Speedway

Frank Kimmel at Michigan International Speedway

I am back on the road tomorrow for a racing road trip, but this one is practically in the neighborhood. Winchester Speedway is only about 75 miles from my Indianapolis home and marks one of the shortest trips I have to make all year. It's another short, fast, high-banked oval which proclaims itself as the "World's Fastest Half Mile". I will be helping out ARCA again at this race and am looking forward to getting to see my friends run here again, something I've been able to do now for several years in a row. The track hasn't changed much since I started coming here in the 1990's to shoot USAC midgets and sprint cars, but the ARCA teams really put on a good show here and use every inch of race track during their 200 lap features. There may also be history in the making here as veteran Frank Kimmel has the chance to tie the all time ARCA wins record of 79 victories set by Iggy Katona.

If Frank were a university professor, he would have achieved emeritus status in ARCA long ago, but he's a racer and is determined to win a record 10th series championship in the twilight of a great career in the series. Regarded by some as a big fish in a small pond, Kimmel shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon, has the best sponsor in ARCA and is one of the most fan-friendly drivers you would ever want to meet. The lines are always longest to get his autograph during ARCA's pre-race autograph sessions and Winchester will be no exception. There is no questioning his desire to win every time he races and if he is disappointed about not making it to the top of the stock car racing world, you would never know it when you see him at a racetrack.

Yet the ARCA series is changing, having become a training ground for young up and coming stock car drivers. Two years ago, Dakoda Armstrong won at Winchester and last year it was Alex Bowman's turn, both young guns with bright futures in stock cars. This year Mason Mingus, Justin Boston and Mason Mitchel are among the young guys hoping to make names for themselves by winning at this historic track. At Michigan two weeks ago, youngster Ryan Blaney was on the pole while another fresh faced "kid" Brennan Poole snagged the win in his first ARCA start of the season. While Blaney - who won the pole here two years ago - is not currently entered this weekend, Poole's win at Michigan has to put him among the potential race winners. Poole has won at Salem Speedway before so he clearly knows the fast way to get around short tracks like this. Along with Kimmel and the other young guns I've noted.

Winchester seems calm before the ARCA storm hits the high banks

The race is typically well attended, similar to the ones at Salem as Winchester has a long history and loyal, albeit regional, fan following.  This event  also has a title sponsor which is a great thing for ARCA. The "Herr's Chase the Taste 200" recognizes a company which makes some fantastic chips and snack products. I had a chance to sample some at the Michigan race for the first time and wish I could have pirated out a case or two to take with me. While that wasn't possible, it's good to see an event sponsor like Herr's jump into ARCA. This series needs support like any other racing series, but especially one which has been around longer than any other stock car sanctioning body and which races on every kind of track imaginable. They raced at Elkhart Lake on its scenic four mile road course last weekend and before August is over the series will also have run on another road course, two mile dirt tracks, other paved short tracks, and on mile-and-a-half ovals. Running at big tracks like Pocono, Talladega and Daytona gives ARCA drivers well rounded experience unparalleled in any other series, but it is still Frank Kimmel's show until more drivers and team owners commit to running the full season schedule like Chris Buescher did in 2012 in winning his ARCA championship before moving up.

Winchester ARCA action from 2011

In the meantime, I've added a few pix from the last couple years to get you warmed up for Sunday's action. Winchester promises lots of close racing with multiple grooves for passing, a bumpy and weathered surface which challenges teams to find grip with their Hoosier tires, and likely some beating and banging among those in the top ten who are fighting for a win. That's what I've seen here in years past and Sunday will probably not be any different. I am looking forward to it after two weeks away from a racetrack. Be sure to visit the ARCA website after the race at www.arcaracing.com to check out photos and race results from little old Winchester. If you're in east central Indiana and love short track stock car racing, then just go! Head over to Muncie and turn east on State Road 32 - in about 20 minutes you'll feel like you're at home at the races. You won't regret it. See you there!

Tim George, Jr. didn't have a good day at Winchester in 2011

2011 Winchester winner Dakoda Armstrong (22) presses the issue with Chad Hackenbracht

Matt Lofton (16) and Jared Amrks (12) demonstrate two groove racing at Winchester in 2012

Frank Kimmel's crew provides quick service on a beautiful day for racing in 2012

Michigan Road Trip Done: ARCA Victory to Brennan Poole

Brennan Poole takes ARCA win at Michigan

Michigan International Speedway has changed a lot since I was last here in 2007. Gone are the majority of the grandstands that used to wrap around the outside of Turns 3 and 4. In their place is a new motorhome area and part corral sponsored by Budweiser where fans can get within about 10 feet of the outside wall. Gone is the old media center building behind pit lane, replaced with new facilities that are quite ample, lined with full height glass windows, and topped by pit area suites which have access to roof level viewing platforms. The one thing that hasn't changed is the access. US 12 remains a two lane highway on the south end of the track where the main entrance is located, and getting out of here after a full NASCAR weekend is probably still a bear. But I didn't have to worry about that this year since I headed back to Akron once my duties with ARCA were complete.

Ryan Blaney was quickest in ARCA practice and took pole position

Thirty cars were on the ARCA entry list for this 200 mile, 100 lap race. Once again the younger generation showed the way in Thursday's practice, and Friday's qualifying and the race itself.  Races of this length in ARCA typically involve two pit stops as teams were allotted two additional sets of Hoosier Tires in addition to the ones they started. My favorites going into the race was Frank Kimmel who is one win shy of tying the all time wins record in ARCA, but he would start from the third position and while he ran in the top five all day, he never really had the speed to match the Venturini Motorsports tandem of Justin Boston and race winner Brennan Poole. Pole winner Ryan Blaney, the son of NASCAR veteran Dave Blaney, led early but an out of sequence pit stop pushed him down the order. ARCA vet Tom Hessert blew a tire and hit the wall late in the race while another ARCA regular Grant Enfinger was strong but could not match the leader's pace.

Justin Boston's zloop ride

I felt badly for Justin Boston who spun out of the lead under pressure by Poole with about 10 laps to go, but Boston will have to be reckoned with as the season unfolds. Poole won in his first ARCA start of 2013 and since this race was being televised live on SPEED, teams desperate for television air time to showcase their results and attract sponsor attention were there to run Michigan. The resulting field was a mixed bag of competitive cars in the top 10, a couple of start-and-parks, and mid-pack runners who were just happy to finish without tearing up their equipment. My role this weekend as chief photographer for ARCA for the first time meant I had a lot to do for two days, and it was strange being at the track on Thursday when ARCA had the facility to itself and the public did not have access.

Godspeed Jason Leffler

Friday was a different story as NASCAR's Nationwide and Sprint Cup teams had most of the track time and fans were there all day. My day was spent covering qualifying, wrapping up ARCA driver head shots, documenting safety and driver/spotter meetings, shooting a driver autograph session, and then shooting the race itself for the series. Safety was on everyone's mind with the recent death of Jason Leffler in a sprint car accident, the second such racing death in the last two weeks. Honoring Leffler was a frequent topic and some NASCAR drivers had Jason's traditional "LEFturn" logo above the driver's door in his memory. I think ARCA does an excellent job with its safety initiatives. The use of Mallory ignition boxes is a good tool for governing the engines, both for longevity and managing speeds. The latest in technology is required for driver seats, seat belt restraint systems and head and neck restraints. As a training ground for drivers, crew members and even team owners, ARCA has done a great job of providing a level playing field in a safety conscious environment. Having a series-issued radio and listening to the ARCA officials for two days really brought that home for me and I left Michigan Friday evening with a greater appreciation of all the things a series must do to put on a good safe show for all concerned.

Leaving Friday night was the strangest part of the weekend, as there were still two more days of track activity and two races for NASCAR on the MIS schedule. I don't recall another race weekend where I left a track with more racing on the docket, but I needed to get back to Akron and had no other responsibilities at the track. But the weekend got stranger on the way home as I got pulled over for speeding near Litchfield, Ohio, although I only got a warning after talking with the officer. When I finally pulled into my Mom's driveway after midnight, I was grateful to get there safely, especially after the way the road trip started. Thursday morning on my way to MIS, I drove past a serious accident on Ohio State Road 18 involving a head-on collision where one car was on fire and other drivers were tending to an injured person in the middle of the road just before dawn. So my ARCA Michigan weekend ended well, all things considered, and my photo journey concluded safely with more lessons learned both from the road and through my lenses. In two weeks, I will be helping ARCA again at Winchester Speedway, and am excited to get another opportunity to work with my growing group of ARCA friends. Until then, here are a few pictures from the event; more can be seen and purchased from ARCA's website.

On the Road Again - Next Stop: ARCA Michigan

My lady friend and greatest supporter outside my family often calls me the "Energizer Bunny", and not because I use their batteries in my camera gear (which I do). She also calls me a madman because of the pace I work and the schedule I keep. Last week a teaching colleague called me "The Machine", which was a new one, but I like it. As an old TV commercial pitch man used to say, "I don't care what you call me as long as you call me."

This week I am called to Michigan International Speedway to fill in for the chief photographer at ARCA. This is a wonderful opportunity to support a racing series which is among the most varied on the planet. This trip is sandwiched within a visit to Akron, Ohio to help my Mom, so I will be logging some serious miles on the road to Indiana-ville over the next few days. Veteran Frank Kimmel currently has the season points lead and seems ready to finally snag his 10th ARCA series championship. Kimmel will be challenged by the usual assortment of young guns, future stock car racing stars, and older veterans who just love to race. This past weekend, Chase Elliott, one of those talents on the rise and son of NASCAR legend Bill Elliott, won at Pocono. With the wide open high banks of Michigan holding the promise of two- and three-wide racing, 100 laps for the ARCA contingent should be fun and exciting to shoot.

Going to Michigan is sort of a homecoming for me as my first race there was in 1981 at the CART Michigan 500 and several of us from Indy regularly made the trek to MIS for the Indycar races over the years. Sprinkle in a few NASCAR races in the '90's, and I've probably shot 25 or more races there. This week will mark my first time back at MIS since 2007 when Indycar Last ran there. I know I'll have a busy two days shooting this week and hope I can do a good job filling in for my friend Doc Hunter.

Once my duties during the ARCA 200 miler are finished Friday night (you can catch it live on SPEED at 5 p.m. Eastern), I will be back on the road to Akron to be with Mom as she deals with a serious medical issue. Prayers for her would be appreciated. She's a great race fan and comes by it naturally as her father, (and my namesake) Jay Shue, helped get a dirt track built in her hometown of Warsaw, Indiana, at the county fairgrounds after World War II. Her recent physical difficulties kept her away from the Indy 500 this year, much to her dismay, but she's got the family's  "Shue grit" and proudly goes racing when she can. Pretty good for a 78 year old,  little white haired lady - once a racer, always a racer.

That's it for now until I get to the racetrack, so I will see you at Michigan, or in Akron, or somewhere on the road soon.

Never Say Never: Tony Kanaan FInally Wins Indy 500

Tony Kanaan finally tastes the milk at Indy

Never say never. At long last no one can ever say that Tony Kanaan has never won the Indianapolis 500. He did it yesterday with the same style and passion that has made him a fan favorite at Indy for years. He did it with a late race pass of my pre-race pick Ryan Hunter-Reay on a restart, then the racing Gods finally smiled on him as a crash brought out a final yellow flag and he cruised to the win at Indianapolis where he has led so many times but never before won. Now he's an Indy 500 champion and his image will be added to the Borg Warner trophy alongside his former teammates Dario Franchitti and the late Dan Wheldon. In a race for the ages which obliterated previous records for lead changes, the new standard of 68 lead changes may never be topped. Tony got the last one, the one that truly mattered, and I'm sure he was thinking of Danny when he pulled into Victory Lane.

Tony starts the winning pass...

After Friday's four-car photo finish in the Indy Lights Freedom 100 race, I wondered how the 500 could top that in terms of drama and excitement. I should have known better, as I had seen many times during  practice days how passes were abundant on the straightaways and whoever was in the lead car was a sitting duck with the slingshotting that drivers are able to do in the current Dallara design.  The 97th Indy 500 will be remembered for fast, furious, clean wheel to wheel racing at its finest but I will remember it for other reasons.

...and completes it into Turn 1

My reasons fall into the "never" category, as in never done before. I've never had a Victory Lane pass for the 500 and it was the most chaotic and crazy winner's circle I have ever been in, with people in the way and photogs getting upset that their shots were being compromised. I've shot a lot of race victory lanes the last few years at a bunch of different racetracks but never anything like this one. I hope I get the chance to do it again.

The grid from the roof of Stand E

In all the years since shooting my first Indy 500 in 1984, I've never shot the race from on top of the Penthouse stands. I was on top of Stand E where it starts to curve around the outside of Turn 1 and only got the opportunity  because the person from motorsport.com who normally takes that position was unable to make the race this year. What a view from up there! It's too bad the field never really got aligned into the classic 11 rows of three but I had the chance of a lifetime to shoot from the rooftop and victory lane in the same 500. I've also never worked so hard to shoot the 500 and never shot pit stops from the outside grandstands. I went from the roof to ground level at the end of the frontstretch, then to the drop gates outside of Turn 1, back to the Penthouse stands, then inside the track to the top of the F1 garages, then to the roof overhang by the Pagoda, and finally to Victory Lane. After getting up at 3:30 on race morning and getting into the track at 5:00 a.m., the stairs and the walking were quite a workout, but I didn't really feel it until late last night as I was running on adrenaline and Excedrin on race day.

Kanaan races through Turn 1 ahead of pole sitter Ed Carpenter

Tony Kanaan never said never, and he got it done on an overcast and chilly day that was perfect for speed. Last week I wrote about odds on various driver's winning Indy this year, and I never mentioned Tony as he has not been topping the speed charts or generating headlines this month. He has quietly gone about his business as the consummate Indycar pro and showed everyone how to really race on Indy's flat oval. At 15-1 odds, a $10 bet on Tony would have paid off nicely, and those who aren't around Indy much will never know all the people Tony has touched with his spirit and generosity over the years, like newspaper salesman Chuck, The "Wolfman", who got one of the biggest hugs of all from TK during the kissing of the bricks after the race. This guy is special, having nearly been out of Indycars a few years ago after Andretti Autosport did not renew his contract. Tony has driven the KV Racing Technology team to the top and although we may never see another race like the one we had May 26, 2013, we can never again say  Tony didn't, or can't, win Indy.

TK's winning pit crew in action

All Roads Lead to Speedway for the 97th Indy 500

They say that everyone loves a parade. And in Indianapolis, the day before the Indy 500, you know it's true. The 500 Festival Parade draws throngs of parade lovers and race fans to downtown Indianapolis every year and it is as much a part of the Indy 500 as the winner drinking milk in Victory Lane. For many, the parade may be their only connection to the race as it is the uber-family friendly event of a month of race themed events. There are lots of lifelong Indy residents who would never go near the Indy 500, but they will go to the parade to see the bands, floats and all the drivers who've made the race. Today Charlie Kimball was not in his designated convertible Camaro pace car but the rest of the field was there to soak up the adulation of those lining Pennsylvania and Meridian Streets, or perched on Monument Circle. It's the final hurrah before race day and signals the countdown of the last 24 hours before the green flag flies.

Monument Circle

Indianapolis has come a long, long way since my family moved here in 1968. Even though this is my 38th straight Indy 500, there are many who have longer consecutive strings than I do, and a big theme this year is "all roads lead to Speedway". This is certainly the case for people like me who wait 364 days a year for race day and struggle through Indiana winters asking complete strangers "Is it May yet?" No longer is Indy just a cornfield with a racetrack around it, although it is not exactly a cultural mecca either. It's a big, small town full of sports lovers of all sorts where you can get anywhere in about 30 minutes by car. I met an Australian journalist on Carb Day who hadn't been to the 500 in about 25 years, so I am anxious to hear his impressions of the City I call home and the race that brings this town to life. Gone are the superstitions about racing green cars and the prohibition against women in the pits and garage area. Thank God for that! Indy has been built on the reputation of the 500 and in just three years, the 100th running should be a monumental day in this city's history.

Ed Carpenter - a Butler Bulldog

I don't know how the drivers privately feel about all the hoopla which surrounds the Indy 500 but their public statements suggest that they do more than just tolerate it. The biggest cheers today during the parade went up for Ed Carpenter and most of the drivers seemed to genuinely enjoy the fans hooting, hollering and shouting out their names along the parade route. I grew up a block from Hinkle Fieldhouse, home of the Butler Bulldogs and where scenes from the best basketball movie ever made (Hoosiers) were filmed, so it's not surprising that local fans are getting behind Ed to win Sunday. And like the Hickory Huskers who won the state title for all the little that never had a chance, Ed has a chance to do the same on race day with his own one-car team taking on the goliaths of Penske, Ganassi and Andretti. If Ed were to win Indy, and if the Pacers can beat the Miami Heat again on Sunday night at their Banker's Life Fieldhouse home downtown, then Indy may come apart at the seams.

A "Pacers and Racers" weekend in Indianapolis hasn't happened in a long time so this one really has sports fans in Indy excited. Lots of "Beat the Heat" signs were on display at the parade today and race day weather is predicted to be cool and overcast, which means the day should be comfortable for everyone visiting 16th and Georgetown in the Town of Speedway. I know I'm ready to go to work for motorsport.com. I'll be headed into the track on race day before the public gates open at 5:30 in the morning, and the Greatest Spectacle in Racing will then be just a few hours away. Are you ready for race day?

James Hinchcliffe burns rubber leaving the pits on Carb Day in his bright green GoDaddy colors

Indy 500 By The Numbers

Polesitter Ed Carpenter is one favorite to win the 500

My full time job is teaching math and science to middle schoolers so I'm a numbers guy. The Indianapolis 500 has been contested 96 times already so the event is full of numbers to play with so I thought I would take a spin of my own through this year's race figures just for kicks. Although I play the lottery occasionally, I am not a gambler but I wondered who the oddsmakers in Las Vegas had instilled as the favorite this year. according to Linemakers, this year's pole winner Ed Carpenter, three-time Indy winner Helio Castroneves, Marco Andretti and 2008 winner Scott Dixon, have been tabbed at 7-1 odds. Another three-time winner and the defending Indy 500 champion, Dario Franchitti, is next up at 8-1. Interestingly, Dario and teammate Dixon start next to each other on Row 6. James Hinchcliffe is also at 8-1 and he has won twice already this season in the IZOD Indycar Series, and been a stalwart in the Andretti Autosport onslaught on top practice speeds this past week. Hinchtown's teammate Ryan Hunter-Reay, my pre-practice pick to win this year, is at 10-1 while another Andretti racer, rookie sensation Carlos Munoz, is at 20-1. Even though I wrote earlier this month that Ed Carpenter should be considered a darkhorse candidate, this may no longer be true since he has won twice on ovals in Indycars, and now he gets to start from P1 at the track owned by his relatives. If car numbers mean anything, the last driver to win with #20 was Emerson Fittipaldi in 1989 in his legendary duel with Al Unser, Jr., so Ed would be in good company were he to follow in Emmo's wheel tracks.

A. J. Allmendinger has support to win Indy

Oddly enough A. J. Allmendinger is posted at 12-1 along with Penske Racing teammate Will Power even though the Dinger has never run the 500 before. Chalk that up to the strength of the Penske team and A. J.'s prowess in Champ Car a few years back. The pride of Japan, Takuma Sato, is listed at 30-1 but I would put five bucks on him in a heartbeat since he came so close to winning last year and won an Indycar race this season at long last. Sato's teammate, rookie Conor Daly, is only given a 300-1 chance of winning from the last row but rest assured that race fans in Noblesville, Indiana and Heritage Christian High School would be willing to take those odds and blow a few dollars to show their support. Needless to say, the top drivers with the top teams are being touted as potential winners this year, but the 500 usually has its share of surprises in store. 

My pick to win:  Ryan Hunter-Reay

Lots of other numbers factor into this year's race. There are four previous winners and four women starters. Dario won in #10 in 2010. The most experienced and oldest driver is Buddy Lazier at 45 years of age with 16 Indy 500's under his belt, although he starts next to Daly in Row 11, and isn't likely to do much on race day. Carols Munoz is the youngest at 21 and hopes to follow the example of fellow Columbian Roberto Guerrero challenged for an Indy as a rookie in 1984. Eighteen drivers, including Munoz,  have experience in the Firestone Indy Lights Series, so the Road to Indy feeder system must be judged a success on that basis. Seventeen drivers in the field have led laps at Indy previously, and Dario has led more than anyone who is starting the race this Sunday. The lowest starting position ever to produce a 500 winner is 28th, and you have to go back to Louis Meyer in 1936 and Ray Harroun in the inaugural 500 in 1911 to find them. When Lone Star Johnny Rutherford won the 1974 race, he had started 25th but since then 30 of 38 winners have started in 10th or better. J. R. Hildebrand starts 10th this year and was one turn away from winning as a rookie in 2011 when the late Dan Wheldon got his second Indy win in car #98. Starting next to Hildebrand? Alex Tagliani in Car #98. Don't count Tags out, even at 50-1 odds. There's another five bucks that would be well spent.

If these numbers don't make your head spin, then try these: as I recall, the teams ran over 11,000 laps (27,500 miles) in the nine days of track activity, which is more than enough to make a lap around the earth at the equator (24,859.82 miles), or for every car in the field to run the full 500 miles 1.67 times. My camera counters were spinning too as I shot 4,490 images (that I kept), and that's with a schedule that only allowed me to be at the track full time on four out of the nine days. If you add up all the car numbers for the 33 starters, the total is 1,028, so the average car number is 31.15152. While there is no car #31 in this year's race, all the cars in Row 11 end in the number 1 - (41, 91, 81), and the last driver to win in #31 was Al Unser, Jr. in 1994. The third row car numbers add up to 31 and it includes three of the odds-on favorites:  Ryan Hunter-Reay, Helio Castroneves and James Hinchcliffe. Finally, in Row 6, the car numbers add up to 33, there are 33 cars in the field, and 3 + 3 equals 6. This row features Scott Dixon, Dario Franchitti and Takuma Sato, so watch out for these guys!

The most important number is that the 97th Indianapolis 500, which used to also carry the moniker of an "International Sweepstakes", is now just a little more than three days away. It will my 38th in a row and I can hardly wait to see you all at 16th & Georgetown!

A Week at the Indy 500 Lasts a LIfetime

Katherine Legge is happy to be back in the 500

What a week this has been. Nine days of preparation for the 97th Indianapolis 500 are now over and I feel it in my bones. Bump Day wrapped up qualifying today with zero drama after Saturday's rain delayed Pole Day shootout. Other than Ed Carpenter, Katherine Legge is probably the happiest driver in the 500 as she jumped in a car this morning, got it up to speed, qualified on the bubble as 33rd fastest and never had to deal with a serious challenge from the only other car/driver combination, Michel Jourdain, Jr. I felt bad for the Rahal Letterman Lanigan team which thrashed all day to find speed for Jourdain but he just kept going slower and slower the later it got today. And that was even after teammate Graham Rahal took the car out for a few laps in the middle of the afternoon to try and help sort it out. Neither driver looked comfortable in the 17 car at all. I hate that there was no bumping today once the field got filled around 1:00 p.m., but most of the qualified teams took advantage of the track time, spending most of the day running race trim in traffic and emerging with their equipment intact. Carburetion Day this Friday will likely be just a quick shakedown for most teams.

Pole Winner Ed Carpenter leads a pack into Turn 1

I wish I knew how many miles I walked this week at the Speedway as I was able to be there eight out of the nine days the track was open. Every year I talk about wearing a pedometer but it never seems to come to mind when I'm getting my stuff together for the track and this year was no different. With the warmer weather the last few days, it's a challenge to stay hydrated while lugging a few extra pounds of camera gear around. Today I had a special treat as I borrowed a 400 mm lens from Canon and went to shoot in Turn 1 while all the top teams were in race preparation mode. The down side of schlepping that 400 around was it was damn heavy but the opportunity was too good to pass up. Traipsing up and down the pit lane to get driver shots is one of the most enjoyable parts of working Indy but also one of the most tiring. Hot, loud, smelly - wait a minute; it's perfect! All the sensory stimulation anyone could want for people who love that sort of thing. And I do.

Indy's Infield Hawk

Another aspect of walking so much at Indy that may not occur to casual fans is the nuances of the track. Yesterday as I was going back to my car to swap out some gear, I noticed something in one of the last remaining large trees in the infield. From prior experience I knew that was a large redtail hawk nests in that tree so I got my longest lens and took a break from the race cars to shoot some wildlife - and I don't mean in the snakepit. The hawk waited there for me to get close and kept a keen watch on me as I circled the tree and took pictures. Race fans walking by probably wondered what the heck I was doing, but I did hear someone say "Look, there's a bald eagle". I cut them some slack for not knowing their birds and went about getting shots of this beautiful creature. I've seen this bird, or a family member, numerous times on race day circling the crowd high above the track so it was a real blessing to be able to take its picture while it was guarding its nest. I have a special affinity for hawks - and I believe they do for me as well. I see them all the time while traveling, there's a pair that lives at the cemetery in Muncie, Indiana where my sister Carol is buried that I see almost every time I go pay my respects, and whenever I see one I know everything is going to work out the way it's supposed to. I use one of my hawk photo on my website and business cards, and have a hawk based on that photo tattooed on my left shoulder. Lo and behold, at the end of Bump Day today as I stood on the 2nd floor balcony of the media center, there he was, circling high overhead in the middle of the track, white belly exposed as it lorded over its territory. Seeing it today was no accident.

And I suppose it was no accident either that a group of total newcomers from Manassas, Virginia struck up a conversation with me about 5:00 this afternoon as I shot from the rooftop platform seating area above the formula one garages. They were college students and teachers in Indy for a robotics competition at IUPUI, and they literally knew nothing about the track or the 500. One young man asked why they were called Indycars; another asked how qualifying worked and what the teams were doing running so many laps at that hour. I got the chance to explain the history of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway again, just as I had on Friday to my middle schools students, and explained how the video displays showed current lap times for cars on track and what the numbers on the main scoring pylon meant. It was a fitting way to end another memorable week at IMS, and now I have a few thousand more digital images to add to my archives, and more memories which will last a lifetime.

The best is yet to come. Next Sunday at this time I will be recapping the 500 itself, carving more indelible scenes into my brain and contributing photos to the great story which is the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. You have to come see for yourself; I promise it will be worth it.

Ed Carpenter On Top After Indy's Longest Pole Day

Ed Carpenter and team members celebrate an Indy Pole win

The longest Pole Day in Indianapolis 500 history ended after 7:15 p.m. tonight with a sprint car guy and Butler Bulldog taking the first qualifying spot after the Fast 9 shootout:  Ed Carpenter! Now rain on the first day of qualifications at Indy is not new, as it has happened many times before. What was new was the early decision by Indycar to let the normal qualifying process play out all the way to the scheduled 6:00 p.m. closing time and then run the Fast 9 starting at 6:30. I don't ever remember the Speedway running after 6:00 and it was well worth the wait for local fans who genuinely rooted Ed  and his "little team that could" on. I said earlier this week Ed could be a darkhorse this May but thought sure Will Power would close the deal as the final Fast 9 Qualifier. Even though two Andretti Autosport drivers took the other two front row starting positions with Carlos Munoz second and Marco Andretti third, Ed taking P1 was a huge victory for the little guy.

I had an extremely long day and as I suspected in my last blog post, my Indy 500 OCD behavior took over early. I left home on Indy's northeast side at 5:45 a.m. and was one of the first people to set up in the media center a little after 6:00. I was hoping to get a sunrise shot over the Pagoda tower but it was heavily overcast and it didn't seem like there was any way the morning practice would start at 8:00 as scheduled after the rain we got last night. But it did so I headed out on pit road and then down to the end of the front stretch where the cars turn into the first corner to shoot. About halfway through the session, I walked back to the media center and took my gear to Canon to get a suspected problem looked at, but thankfully it turned out to be operator error and my equipment checked out fine. Can't say the same about the operator however, as sometimes my 7D seems to do things on its own which still bewitch me even after owning it for three years and shooting tens of thousands of images.

Speaking of which, the counters on both my main camera bodies rolled over again this week, so there's another 10,000 images captured. Ironically, my 7D rolled over just as the pole winning celebration for Ed Carpenter was getting started when it became apparent that Will Power was not going to be quick enough, so editing was a snap since those images started at 0001. I didn't even leave the media center until after 8:15 p.m. and still had to get dinner, write this post and finish another file transfer from the Fast 9 session.

Rain, rain go away!

I'm not complaining. I'm just going on adrenaline now, still hearing the track's public address system announcers in my ears along with the turbocharged engine sounds from the canyon which is Indy's front stretch. I am getting a little sick of the rain so far this racing season. It rained almost the whole drive to Salem Speedway for the ARCA race at the end of April. Then I went to Talladega to shoot the NASCAR races the first weekend in May and both the Nationwide and Sprint Cup races had lengthy rain delays, not to mention all the rain I drove through to get there. My photog friends already give me hell about bringing rain with me at every race I shoot after I got drenched at Mid Ohio a couple of years ago and almost ruined my camera gear, so enough already with the "moisture"!

My lady friend alternately calls me a "madman" and the "Energizer Bunny". Bump Day will be more of the same on Sunday. And we will actually have at least one car bumped now that Katherine Legge has been confirmed. This wasn't quite the 24 Hours of Indianapolis today, but it sure feels like it.

Center of the Racing Universe

I will turn 56 in two weeks and my life has revolved around May at the Indianapolis 500 for nearly two-thirds of my life. My lady friend refers to May as the "Month of Jay". I get tunnel vision every year and go all OCD about the 500. Her and I almost didn't make it past that first May together as I either disappeared to the track or spent hours at the computer working on photos. A college friend from the University of Chicago used to say "You're such a f-king Hoosier" in his Bronx accent, and I'm about as Hoosier as it gets every May. When my family moved to Indy in 1968, the die was cast.

With this being my 26th year as a credentialed photographer at Indy, I am moved to reflect. The Speedway has given me so many awesome experiences and created great memories that I wouldn't even know where to start to recap them. By the numbers, I've been to every 500 since 1976. If you put all the days together that I've spent at the track, it would be like spending every single day at IMS for about 14 months. Lord knows how many images I have created throughout the years. Since I went full digital in 2006, those numbers have expanded exponentially. The past six days alone, I've probably shot more than 3000 frames between my two camera bodies. Of those, I have uploaded 398 images to www.motorsport.com for its Indy 500 coverage. That's just a drop in the bucket compared to what lies ahead - two days of qualifying this weekend, final practice and the Freedom 100 Indy Lights race on Carburetion Day next Friday, possibly the 500 Festival Parade next Saturday and then race day itself May 26th.

Today was the first day this May that track activity was cut short by weather, or "moisture" as they like to say on the track's public address system. With my teaching schedule, the "moisture" hit, replete with thunder and lightning, just as I was leaving school this afternoon to go to the track so my cameras got the day off and I got some time to catch up on other things which have fallen by the wayside this week.

If you get me started talking about the Indy 500 and Indycar racing, I could go on for hours and never grow weary of it. One of my 8th grade students asked me today "Why is the Indianapolis 500 here?" His question sent me off on a gleeful monologue about Carl Fisher and the founders, the Indianapolis automotive industry of a hundred years ago, Ray Harroun and the first 500, and for a few minutes I forgot all about the math lesson I was supposed to be teaching. The goosebumps were standing tall on my arms as I spoke and  climbing down off my soapbox to teach again was a challenge but I managed to keep my OCD Indy 500 behavior to the bare minimum for one afternoon.

On Pole Day that behavior will be in full force and I am so grateful to have meaningful work at a racetrack which many - including myself - regard as hallowed ground. So get with the diehards and pray for some Tony Hulman weather this weekend. I'll be at the track regardless as the best is yet to come.

Rookie Carlos Munoz Back on Top At Indy 500 Practice

Carlos Munoz at speed

The Andretti Autosport onslaught continued today during Day 6 of Indy 500 practice as rookie Carlos Munoz ran the fastest lap of the month at 225.163 and teammates Ryan Hunter-Reay and Marco Andretti were close behind. Another rookie also made news at Indy today as Conor Daly found the SAFER barrier in Turn 1 and almost got upside down in his AJ Foyt Enterprises Dallara the first wall-banger of the month. Someone always has to be the first to hit the wall at Indy but I hate that it was Conor.

Conor Daly

After five clean days of practice, I joked with a friend that I had jinxed everyone by writing yesterday about how there had been no incidents so far this week. I saw Conor walking out of teammate Takuma Sato's pit when practice closed at 6:00 p.m. and asked him what happened. He simply said "I don't know; we're trying to figure that out." I then asked him if he was OK and he said he was. While he seemed a little down, which is to be expected after crashing, but he still smiled when I took his picture. There's an old racing saying that there are drivers who have hit the wall and those who are going to hit the wall, so now CD knows what that's like at Indy. It's certainly not the first time Conor has crashed a race car in spectacular fashion - last year he almost cleared the catch fencing at Monte Carlo in a GP support race - but hitting the wall at Indy at 220 is something different entirely. It's a tough break for a tough kid and I'm sure Larry Foyt will have him back on track tomorrow going through the whole process of working up to speed again. This setback may prevent Conor from being a Pole Day qualifier, but it won't keep him down for long.

Buddy Lazier got on track in his familiar #91

A full field of 33 cars is now assured as the 33rd car finally got on the track today as 1996 Indy 500 winner Buddy Lazier got his Halloween colored car out after some hiccups in the pit lane kept him stationary until after 5:00. A quick shakedown of three laps and Lazier parked it for the day amidst a lot of fan interest along pit road. Lazier won Indy with a broken back in '96 and has always been a fan favorite, having run for Ron Hemelgarn for years. But he hasn't run the 500 since 2008 so he has a learning curve to deal with and a year old car underneath him. Unless Ed Carpenter or Sam Schmidt rolls out their other cars for someone with a suitcase full of cash, Buddy is assured a starting spot in the race so it will be nice to see how his little team fares over these last three days of practice and qualifying. He would be the oldest driver in this year's 500 so I hope he can get up to speed and run competitively.

Graham Rahal

I couldn't get away from my teaching job until late today so I only got to the track for the last hour of practice but even then it was interesting to see who was doing what. I chose to concentrate on activity along pit lane and there was plenty. I overheard Graham Rahal say his #15 car was starting to respond to changes so even though they have been struggling for speed so far, he sounded optimistic. And then there was AJ Allmendinger, riding the tow cart out with his crew after practice, grousing about someone giving him a chop job on track who he almost ran over, so Fast Friday is shaping up to be very intriguing. With more turbo boost available, will the Honda or Chevy teams benefit more? And who will come to terms the quickest with the handling changes needed to cope with the additional speed the higher boost will provide? And where are the Penske boys? Lurking, I assure you. Are they just sandbagging? We shall see. I can't wait.

Dario Franchitti Surges to Top at Indy Practice

Dario Franchitti leads Carlos Munoz & Takuma Sato through Turn 3

Defending Indianapolis 500 winner Dario Franchitti finally made some noise today on Day Five of practice by snagging the top spot on the speed chart and outdueling the Andretti Autosport brigade. Dario was the first non-Andretti driver to finish with quick time at the end of a practice day this week, and there's more to come this weekend as the teams will be allotted more turbo boost on Fast Friday in preparation for Saturday's first day of qualifying. You just knew that the Target Chip Ganassi team would be heard from sooner or later and Dario now jumps into the discussion as a possible pole position candidate.

Warm winds whipped IMS again today

Thirty-two cars hit the track today and logged 2,165 laps as warm blustery weather continued to grace the Speedway. Rarely have we had so many consecutive dry days and the teams made the most of it, especially during happy hour from 5:00 p.m. to the 6:00 p.m. checkered flag when as many as 13 cars ran in a huge pack and put on quite a show. This is what practice at Indianapolis is supposed to be like. Indy 500 specialist and NBC Sports Network Indycar commentator Townsend Bell was second quick while the first Penske runner, Helio Castroneves, was third. Defending IZOD Indycar Series champ Ryan Hunter-Reay was the quickest Andretti ace at fourth quick and former Penske driver and 2012 Indy pole winner Ryan Briscoe (Now with Ganassi) soared into fifth from nowhere. But then he's highly motivated to prove he deserves a full time Indycar ride and Ganassi must be bristling with frustration after the team's four straight quiet days at Indy.

Derek Daly

Rookie Conor Daly continues his kid-in-a-candy-store adventure with AJ Foyt's team and turned the most laps today (126) while father Derek tuned in on the team radio. Conor wasn't anywhere near the top 10 in speeds today, but he gained lots of experience running in traffic and didn't do anything wrong either. Not only has the weather this week been rare, but so has the lack of a single spin or incident, especially considering how many laps have been run. In Turn 3 late today, I saw a couple of instances where drivers weren't on the preferred line but nothing that looked like anyone was getting in trouble. Only fellow rookie Carlos Munoz seemed to dare to go below the white line through the corner which probably meant his car was pushing and he needed to duck below the traffic jam to get the nose wings to work so the car would turn. It may also explain why he was only 10th quick today as the learning curve continues for the first year drivers. The field right now is incredibly close with roughly 0.8 seconds separating first and 30th, so Saturday should be a real dogfight in qualifying and milliseconds will be the difference in the Fast Nine.

Colts QB Andrew Luck

In theater they talk about smelling the greasepaint, and walking through pit lane today in my short stint at the track, I had a real sense of the same sort of thing at Indy. Drivers were peeling out of their pits and burning rubber, leaving behind clouds of racing rubber smoke that you just have to love. Thanks to a tip from a friend, I found Indianapolis Colts quarterback Andrew Luck in the pits with several buddies and you could tell he was eating it up. He got escorted out to the area between the center retaining walls which separates the pits and racing surface and was grinning from ear to ear as cars raced past just inches away. Luck knows a little something about drama and theater having led the Colts to numerous comeback wins his rookie season, so I'm sure having the chance to experience the biggest stage in racing up close and personal was a real thrill for him and his friends. Please don't let him get in a race car however!

I am really looking forward to Pole Day on Saturday and expect more drama to unfold now that the mid-point of the preparation week has passed. While the crowds aren't coming out like they used to for the first day of qualifying, it's a day in racing that's still hard to beat. Nowhere else does a driver have to run four precise laps to post a qualifying time. Sixteen corners to screw up. Ten miles in about 2 minutes and 40 seconds. Three chances per car per day. Tension for Indycar's Big Three - Andretti Autosport, Target Chip Ganassi Racing, and Team Penske- that mounts as the day goes on, accepting nothing but the best from their teams. And it's only 20 bucks to get in for the day with practice starting at 8:00 in the morning. You gotta be there!

Hinchtown Annexes Speedway - Andretti Autosport Still Indy 500 Pacesetter

The Mayor of Hinchtown Ruled in Speedway today

It was James Hinchcliffe's turn today at Andretti Autosport to set quick time at Indianapolis on a warm and blustery day where wind gusts out of the southwest of up to 23 mph made any earnest attempts at speed seemed ill advised. In his rookie year The Mayor of Hinchtown hit the wall in Turn 3 but has rarely put a wheel wrong at Indianapolis since then, starting on the front row last year. We could see an all-Andretti front row this year, something only Roger Penske's team has been able to do in the past. Due to the windy conditions, most teams settled on lapping in groups to find a race pace with the influence of turbulence caused by traffic. It was not unusual to see eight or nine cars running together today so everyone should have a pretty good idea how their cars will behave if race day is hot and windy.

Oriol Servia gets relief from the sun in the pits

As so often happens at Indy, practice week starts off cool and the temperatures rise throughout the month.  Today was the first day where teams were using umbrellas to shade the drivers waiting in pit lane for adjustments to be made, so the heat is on. But there's an old saying in Indiana that "if you don't like the weather, then wait five minutes and it will change." This is usually true in the spring but not so far this month of May. Four consecutive dry days have enabled the teams to run a tremendous number of laps at the Speedway. The groove was really black in Turn 3 this afternoon after 2226 laps were run today. Teams ran 1733 laps yesterday so barring a significant rain event, more of the same can be expected the rest of this week leading up to Pole Day on Saturday. At some point soon, teams with a desire to win the pole, or at least get into the Fast Nine session at the end of Pole Day, will have to start making single car runs and peeling downforce off the cars.

While Andretti's drivers take turns putting on a show and setting fast times, they are not doing the most work so far other than rookie Carlos Munoz who ran 172 laps on Monday. Marco Andretti ran 117 laps with his fast lap of 225.001 on Monday, followed by Ryan Hunter-Reay with 108 laps, Hinchcliffe 92, and EJ Viso a dawdling 85. In the process, Andretti drivers took five of the top 11 places on the speed chart Monday. The story is much the same today but with a twist:  Hinch ran only 26 laps today to set his fast time and Andretti's team cars occupied five of the top eight spots on speed today. Not only could Andretti drivers sweep the front row, they could essentially blockade the Fast Nine which would come as quite a shock to the Penske and Ganassi teams. I've never been a big Andretti fan but I really enjoy Hinchcliffe's antics and he has had some big shoes to fill, taking the seat which was intended for the late Dan Wheldon and doing great things on the track with race wins and off the track for sponsor GoDaddy with memorable promotions. 

The need for speed is satisfied at Indy

I will be a short timer at IMS again tomorrow afternoon but it's amazing how much one can shoot in only a couple of hours at the Speedway. The facility is so large that it's almost impossible to try to cover the whole racetrack in one day, so I have been going out with specific objectives in mind the last two afternoons once my teaching duties were fulfilled. I always try to chase the favorable lighting and today I went for some speed shots to try something a little different. Some photogs would call this artsy-fartsy but there's only so many ways to shoot these cars without them looking like they are parked on the track. At any rate, I had fun again today and I have resisted the urge to wear earplugs so I can absorb the sweet scream of the Honda and Chevy turbos. I even recorded some digital sound on my handheld voice recorder too so I can have a listen next winter when the racing doldrums kick in. Call me crazy if you want but I don't care as long as you call me when it's time to go racing.

I'm lucky because I get to do it all over again tomorrow.

Marco Andretti Leads Indy 500 Practice Day 3

Marco Andretti leads teammates James Hinchcliffe and Ryan Hunter-Reay in Turn 3 

Andretti Autosport drivers continue to show the fast way around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and today it was Marco Andretti's turn. With 32 cars hitting the track today on a beautiful spring day which was decidedly warmer than Sunday, the groove is really starting to blacken in the corners now as more laps are run and Firestone rubber gets laid down. With no rain of any significance since the track opened on Saturday, the upward climb in speed is likely to continue. But rain is forecast later in the week so the track could get washed clean and don't let any of the current top speeds fool you as they are all being run in the draft as single car runs were not the order of the day to go fast.

Conor Daly

Possibly the happiest driver at the Speedway today was Conor Daly who was clearly a kid in the world's biggest candy store today, getting to turn his first laps for AJ Foyt's team at a track he surely dreamed of racing at as a kid. Proud Papa Derek Daly, a former Indycar and Formula One driver himself, was on hand to watch Conor pass his rookie test today so the door is open for CD to make his mark as an Indy 500 driver this month. I got to the track this afternoon just as he was coming out to finish the last phase of his rookie orientation, having completed the first two phases at a special 10:00 a.m. slot this morning when no one else was allowed on the track. I've watched Conor come up through the ranks and when he won a Star Mazda race in dominant fashion at Lucas Oil Raceway a couple of years ago in the Night Before the 500 event, it seemed like half the town of Noblesville, Indiana was in Victory Lane to help him celebrate. Expect more of the same this month regardless of his results.

Tristan Vautier sports a new paint job

Other changes today included a new paint scheme for Tristan Vautier, his #55 machine bedecked in Lucas Oil white now. Townsend Bell hit the track for the first time and got quickly over 221 in only 12 laps, showing his mettle as an Indy specialist. Pippa Mann was also out and essentially every driver entered has now seen some track time on a perfect day for practice.

Sebastian Saavedra of Dragon Racing

If you have not seen the cars of Sebastian Bourdais and Sebastian Saavedra, they bear perhaps the most striking paint schemes. Bourdais' #7 is a bright chrome color and Saavedra's #6 is a bluish chrome which  reminded me of the paint scheme of fellow Columbian Roberto Guerrero when he was racing Indycars in the True Value colors back in the 1980's.

Most of what I shot today was on the north end of the Speedway in the Turns 3 & 4 area where the lighting is absolutely perfect, with over-the-shoulder, low angle sunlight bathing the cars in brilliance while casting long shadows toward the inside of the track. Reflections off the driver's visors add highlights and it is by far my favorite place and time to shoot at Indy, from about 4:30 in the afternoon until the 6:00 gun ends practice. I don't often get to do it, but with teaching taking up the bulk of my days this week, it's the best I can hope for. A couple of laps up and down the pit lane to see who's out, then a swing through the garage area, and a hike to the north end are all that time allows on days like today, but the superb lighting makes it all worthwhile. I hope to catch more of the same during Happy Hours the rest of this week.