Chicagoland ARCA Scott 150: My Weekend Adventure

Ryan Reed came from the back to win at Chicagoland

For the second straight week, the rains came just after ARCA completed its race - the previous weekend it happened after 20 miles at Michigan and this time it was at Chicagoland Speedway Saturday June 20th as severe weather rolled in before we could complete Victory Lane ceremonies for the Scott 150. Unfortunately the Xfinity Series, which was to follow ARCA at Chicagoland, got washed out until Sunday. Ryan Reed was pulling double duty in both races and took the his first ARCA win and the first for Lira Motorsports in a heated battle at the front of the field. Reed outlasted current ARCA season points leader Grant Enfinger, Will Kimmel, Matt Tifft and Frank Kimmel to pull into Victory Lane before the track announced that people should seek shelter. Reed had to bolt to the Xfinity garage in the midst of our Victory Lane photos due to the severe weather approaching, so I quickly finished shooting the Scott Rookie of The Race award with sixth place finisher Matt Kurzejewski and commenced one of the fastest post race editing jobs I've ever done for ARCA. For the rest of the finishing order, click here.

Tom Hessert teamed with Josh Williams at CLS

I kept an eye on the sky as I wrapped up my ARCA work that night at the track as I still needed to drive to Akron, Ohio (again) to be with my siblings who had already gotten there to help Mom who was having another scary medical episode. I left the track at 9:50 pm (eastern time) and could see on the weather radar that there was another huge cell of severe rain coming into the Chicagoland area from the northwest. I thought I had a window to outrun the worst of it as I headed east to Akron, and even as the skies were lit up all around me with spectacular lightning, I made my way east on I-80/94 and only encountered scattered rain showers which dissipated around the South Bend area. After that I was in the clear and other than one stop for gas, I rolled 389 miles eastward and got to Mom's in Akron at 4:30 Sunday morning. It was a banzai trip and I stoked up on Mountain Dew and Diet Coke to stay alert, but not surprisingly there wasn't much traffic on I-80 in the middle of the night, so it was a pretty uneventful drive once I got east of the Chicagoland weather.

The ARCA field funnels into Turn 1

The reason I've titled this post as an "adventure" is because I knew before the weekend even started that I would have to make a loop from Indy to Joliet to Akron and then back to Indy over a five day period. Starting at 7:00 a.m. Friday, I left Indy for an easy drive to Joliet and got set up to shoot for ARCA. There was no track activity until later in the afternoon, so I had a chance to catch up with friends I knew on the Chicagoland Speedway photo staff and get some preliminary shooting out of the way. My Friday ended around 10 p.m. once I finished editing for the day. The next day didn't start quite as early so I had time for breakfast at the Clarion where we were staying and then there was more down time at the track before ARCA qualifying. Even early in the day, people were talking about the weather forecast for the evening so I kept my fingers crossed and remained optimistic that we would get our race in. Over two days at the track, I logged over 33,000 steps on my phone's pedometer app, and shot from outside Turn 1, along the frontstretch outside wall, in the garages and pits, and on the roof of the main control tower atop the frontstretch grandstands.

Backlit pit action was a challenge

One of my main goals every weekend is to deliver photos to ARCA taken from a variety of angles and get something on every car and driver entered for the event. When I left Saturday night, I was sweaty and tired but generally satisfied with my work when I hit the road for Akron Saturday night, and felt like I had produced some of the best Victory Lane photos I have taken in awhile. Other than cropping and adding a touch of clarity, I still prefer to deliver images straight from the camera, so I was extremely pleased with my exposure settings and how everything looked. The late afternoon sun and shadows during the race were especially challenging but I thought the backlighting made some of my pit stop shots especially dramatic, so I felt good about meeting the lighting challenges.

Xfinity Series regular Daniel Suarez

With Chicagoland being my third straight weekend and fifth of the season overall shooting for ARCA, I think teams and drivers are getting used to seeing me around and have come to just ignore me, which is what I really want them to do when I am looking for candid photos. I find myself hiding around a corner or behind some equipment and using a long lens to get some shots so they don't even know they are being photographed. I have also really been concentrating on using only available light in the majority of situations, which automatically means I am constantly adjusting ISO, shutter speed and aperture settings, so I have to be alert all the time to  the lighting conditions around my subjects. I love that aspect of photography at the track!

I got back to Indy about 7:30 Tuesday night and am writing this Wednesday June 24th, the first day I've really had a chance to reflect on the weekend since leaving for Joliet last Friday. I am getting more and more opportunities to just have casual conversations with drivers or team members and owners. I haven't met anyone yet in the ARCA garage who isn't genuinely nice and I see every weekend how they help each other out when someone has trouble on the race track, i.e., someone has found the fence and bent a race car. I know it is like that at a lot of levels in racing, but I have a feeling that it's more prevalent in ARCA since the budgets aren't anywhere near what they are in other national series. It's all about "the show" and making sure everyone can race who wants to and I admire that communal spirit tremendously. I'm happy to be a contributor and hope some of that comes across in my photos. My fourth straight ARCA weekend is just a few days away now, and it's close to home at Winchester Speedway in east central Indiana, when ARCA headlines a two-day event which also includes Saturday features for the "King Of The Wing" sprint cars and the Top Speed Modifieds. Until next time, here's a few of my photos from Chicagoland. If you want to see more, then go to www.arcaracing.com and click on the ARCA sites link or just click here. C'mon out to Winchester Saturday and Sunday! Hope to see you there.

Ross Kenseth Takes Ken Schrader Racing Ride to Michigan Win

Ross Kenseth led 51 of 100 laps in his Corrigan 200 win

The first time I went to Michigan for a race was in 1981 for the CART Norton 500 and it got rained out. Summer weather in the Irish Hills always seems to involve "moisture" and this past weekend's trip was no exception, although thankfully the ARCA Series race did not get rained out. There was a point just after halfway where Grant Enfinger's crew was begging for officials to throw the checkered flag early as there was mist in the air and he was leading at the time. But race control waited it out and ARCA managed to get the entire 100 laps run. Ten minutes after we started the hat dance in Victory Lane, the downpour hit us so we were quite lucky to get the day completed more or less on schedule, especially since it had rained hard the night before as well as earlier Friday afternoon. Everyone involved was glad to get the full race distance in on Friday and Ross Kenseth made the most of his opportunity with Ken Schrader's #52 Federated Auto Parts machine to take a fairly convincing win. Frank Kimmel looked like his old self in Venturini Motorsports' #25 with a second place finish and Austin Wayne Self snagged an impressive third for Mason Mitchell Motorsports after a crash at the last race in Pocono ended his day early.

One of the last Victory Lane pix before the monsoon: Ross and dad Matt

Once the rains came, we had to move the rest of the Victory Lane photos under a covered area beneath the pit lane suites which was something new for me but it was fun anyway as it was just Ross Kenseth and a cadre of photographers as the crew members and usual Victory Lane crowd had run for cover elsewhere. The rains continued to pound down until I had to clear out of the ARCA hauler which was ready to leave, so I had to run to my car which was parked in a grass lot in the infield so I could drive it back and load up my gear. From the track to Coldwater, Michigan, the rain was coming down sideways but it was fairly early so I didn't push it as I had to stop for gas before getting on I-69 anyway. Once I hit the interstate, I drove south out of the rain and had a nice drive back to Indy, arriving home about 1:00 a.m. Saturday which wasn't bad at all.

Frank Kimmel leads Enfinger, Hessert & Kerzejewski in Turn 1 at MIS

Working for ARCA as its photographer is really a blast: I get to do what I love and see my work published on the websites of teams and the series. The racing is always entertaining and I am getting to know quite a few people involved in the series. The teams and crews are also starting to recognize me which makes my job easier. The days may be long at times and there's lots of walking involved at the tracks - last Thursday I logged over 20,000 steps and Friday over 15,500 on my pedometer app - but the people are great and it's very rewarding supporting the teams and series. Michigan was the second of four straight June weekends where I will be working for ARCA. We go to Chicgaoland this coming weekend, paired up with the NASCAR Xfinity Series, for the Scott 150. Then the last weekend in June, we are back home in Indiana at Winchester Speedway where ARCA will be the headliner for two days of racing at "the world's fastest half mile". I love Winchester, partly because it's close to home and partly because I get to sleep in my own bed rather than in a hotel on the road!

Mason Mitchell's 2014 Chicagoland burnout was epic

It might be hard to top last year's race at Chicagoland Speedway where eventual season champion Mason Mitchell got his first ARCA win and executed a burnout for the ages with tire smoke billowing above the main grandstands. While I can't say that his win was unexpected last year, you just never know who will be entered each week that might be a serious contender to win. At Pocono, it was Trevor Bayne. Ross Kenseth did it at Michigan. This weekend, Daniel Suarez will pull double duty with the Xfinity race, and there are easily a half dozen ARCA regulars who could win, not the least of which is current points leader Grant Enfinger who started off this season like a house afire with three straight wins. Tom Hessert is second in points and is overdue for a win. Third place Josh Williams gets a shot in the Cunningham Motorsports #22 machine while fourth in points Austin Wayne Self is ready for a breakout win in Mitchell's #98 anytime now. Matt Tifft will be back in Schrader's #52 to try and duplicate Kenseth's Michigan win for the team. I could go on and on but in case you hadn't noticed, I am already getting excited about the race this weekend, and I'm writing this on Tuesday!

I don't think a lot of people give ARCA the credit it deserves for a number of reasons. Having worked inside the series now for awhile, I may be biased but if you want to see hard fought racing and some of the best young talent in stock car racing, then you need to get to an ARCA race. Come on out and join us! Until next time, here's a sampling of my Michigan photos. To see the rest, you'll have to go to ARCA's photo site at this link. Let me know what you think and we'll see you at the track.

Bayne Takes Pocono ARCA 200 in First Series Start

Sprint Cup regular Trevor Bayne was a happy winner

Trevor Bayne made his first trip to Pocono Raceway last weekend and so did I. We both ended up in Victory Lane: Trevor as the pole and race winner in his first ever ARCA start, and me as the ARCA photographer documenting the occasion. When I took his headshot photo on Friday, I told him I was shooting Daytona in 2011 when he became the youngest Daytona 500 winner ever, and now here we both were crossing paths again more than four years later at a different two-and-a-half mile racetrack. I told some of my ARCA friends that I was beginning to think that I am some kind of a first time charm for some of the these ARCA newcomers since this is now the third race where I've been shooting for the series and a driver has won in their first ever ARCA start. In 2013, Austin Theriault did it at Michigan. Brandon Jones did it at Winchester last year, and now Bayne in 2015. Now we go to Michigan so I wonder who might be the lucky charm recipient this time!

ARCA vet Frank Kimmel chases Bayne at the start

Bayne was pulling double duty at Pocono and was using the ARCA event to gain experience for his first Sprint Cup start on the track known as the Tricky Triangle, unique among modern oval tracks for its lengthy front straightaway, its distinctive triangular shape and three differently banked corners. He piloted the Cunningham Motorsports #22 normally driven by Kyle Weatherman and did a masterful job of showing everyone else the fast way around. The ARCA regulars gave it their all and some were apparently trying too hard as Michael Lira hit the wall in the last minutes of Friday's only practice session, and then Kyle Benjamin and Matt Tifft spun and hit the Turn 3 wall during qualifying Saturday morning. All three were able to start the 80 lap, 200 mile race in backup cars and no one was hurt, but there were some bruised egos and lots of bent sheet metal. Needless to say there were some tired ARCA crews when all was said and done as the Benjamin and Tifft accidents happened barely two hours before the scheduled 1:00 pm starting time.

A lonely scene in the garage area with Michael Lira's crew working

I started off the race in the flagstand and was able to play with my new GoPro camera at a racetrack for the first time. I used it around the garage area on Friday and from the flagstand and in the pits during the race on Saturday. Since this was my first time at Pocono, I had to learn my way around on Friday and found that walking takes too much time to get from place to place. I joked with the ARCA folks about loading a golf cart in one of the series haulers, but even if we had one, I doubt I would have gotten to use it. That's OK as I racked up some pretty good step counts on my pedometer app both Friday (16,00) and Saturday (13,500). I actually drove my car outside the Tunnel Turn Friday at the start of practice to shoot in Turn 2, then I went back inside and parked, then walked up into Turn 3 to shoot cars at speed before finishing the two hour practice in the ARCA garage area getting people and scenic shots. It was a weekend of firsts for a lot of reasons. Here is one of my first Go Pro track videos, taken from the flagstand at the start of the race:

I also logged some serious miles on my RSX-s this road trip as I went through Akron to visit my Mom on both ends of the drive to tally 1,434 road miles for the round trip. I love to drive and going through Pennsylvania on Interstate 80 gave me the chance to see a whole lot of new towns that end in the suffix "-ville." Some of the best names I saw were "Barkeyville", "Broadheadsville" and "Limestoneville". I never saw another car with Indiana license plates the whole time I was in the Keystone State which told me I was quite a ways from home. I think our road crews in Indiana could learn something from their counterparts in Pennsylvania, as the twisting, hilly I-80 was in beautiful shape. Coming back into Indiana on Monday, I was quickly reminded of the contrast as our interstates are in terrible shape by comparison to the smooth stretch of highway I experienced on I-80. It was quite an enjoyable drive overall, and I managed to avoid most of the serious rainstorms that were rolling through the Hoosier state on my way home Monday.

Venturini Motorsports driver Kyle Benjamin had a rough weekend

The weekend was quite memorable for a number of reasons and reminded me once again how fortunate I am to be working with ARCA and its teams this season. There are some really nice people involved in this series and even though they compete like crazy on the racetrack, there is still a sense of camaraderie in the paddock that I think is rare in modern day racing. For example, I had a very nice conversation with last year's ARCA champ Mason Mitchell on Saturday morning before qualifying. A similar situation occurred with Tommy Venturini who had come in to the ARCA trailer Friday evening as I was wrapping up my editing for the day. Perhaps my biggest takeaway will be how supportive everyone is, and my weekend was by no means perfect as I had technical snafus during and after the race on Saturday that I had to overcome. In the end, I have to say it was a challenging and rewarding race weekend and this week I get to go to Michigan and do it all over again. Hope you can come out and join us. If you can't then be sure to check the ARCA website for news and more of my photos. Until next time, here's a sample gallery of my work from Pocono.

Next Stop: ARCA at Pocono Raceway

Recent high school grad Michael Lira was fastest in ARCA open test June 3

My summer adventure is underway and I am on the road again. This week I am headed to Pocono Raceway for the first time ever, a track I have wanted to visit for years, and now I have the chance to go and work for the ARCA Racing Series Presented by Menards. The 200 mile ARCA race is Saturday afternoon and it will kick off a string of racing weekends for me which involves shooting 11 of the final 12 ARCA races. I couldn't be more excited, and now that May is over and the Indy 500 is in the history books, I can get back to racing's roots working with the most diverse stock car series around. After this weekend, I go to Michigan, Chicagoland and then Winchester before a break in the ARCA schedule, and if you've never seen an ARCA race in person, then you need to go so you can say you say these future stock car stars when they were just kids.

Grant Enfinger (#23)  won at Nashville; here racing Kyle Weatherman

And the ARCA kiddie corps is leading the way this season after Grant Enfinger got off to a hot early season start. Enfinger already has three wins this season, but his last was at Nashville in April. Since then its been all the young guys racing at the front, with Kyle Weatherman winning the most recent event on the New Jersey Motorsports Park road course. At the open test June 3rd, 18 year old Michael Lira set fast time but Wetherman found the wall in the test so it will be interesting to see how one of the series' best teams, Cunningham Motorsports, bounces back to start practice on Friday. Another youngster, Trevor Bayne, will race the 22 this weekend in order to get experience at Pocono for the Sprint Cup race. You may remember Bayne as the youngest Daytona 500 winner just a few years ago, so his addition to the ARCA regulars like veterans Frank Kimmel and Tom Hessert will make things very interesting. Last season's champ Mason Mitchell will be back behind the wheel as well so I'm sure he's anxious to get a win for his own team.

ARCA vet Frank Kimmel is back in #25 this weekend; Matt Tifft returns in Ken Schrader's #52

I have wanted to go to Pocono since the 1980's when Indycar raced there and the walls were steel boiler plate, but somehow I was never able to make it happen. I've already heard stories from some of my photographer friends about snakes in Turn 1 that I need to watch out for, and I expect near-record days on my pedometer both Friday and Saturday. I've been thinking a lot about my shooting strategy for this race and I will let everyone know after the weekend if my plan was successful or not. Since I've never been there before, I expect that much of Friday will be spent just finding my way around and scouting shooting locations for the race. No mater what my plan is, I also expect that I will have to go with the flow as there will be situations I couldn't anticipate that will force my plans to change. That's part of any race weekend to a certain extent, but even more true at a track I've never been to before.

ARCA pit action is always interesting and could determine Saturday's winner

Since ARCA is racing with NASCAR this weekend, track time will be limited but the race is being televised on FoxSports 2 so it will have a good field of 32 cars at last count. The ARCA TV races bring out competitors who don't race the full season and I've heard there are quite a few drivers who haven't raced at all with ARCA yet this season. That means I will have lots of headshots to shoot Friday morning before the sole two-hour afternoon practice, and that can be a challenge rounding drivers up who are focused on getting their cars ready. The headshots are used on ARCA's website with driver profiles and on the television broadcast during starting lineups so the green screen shots must get done before they hit the track. Then they will qualify Saturday morning and race at 1:00 pm Saturday afternoon for 80 hectic laps. I need to find out what the pit window will be and see how many tires each team will have in their pit box for the race (typically either six or eight in addition to the four on the car at the start) to get a feel for what kind of pit strategies may play out so I can be in position to shoot final pit stops which often effect the outcome of ARCA's races. It's the 60th time ARCA has raced at Pocono but my first time shooting so I'm sure I will earn my rookie stripes this weekend and hope to make it back again. And again. See you at the Tricky Triangle!

Montoya Over Power in 99th Indy 500

Juan Pablo Montyoa has won Indy in 2 of 3 tries

Another month of May at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway is over, and what a fantastic and dramatic month it was. From the introduction of the new superspeedway aerodynamic kits May 3rd through the drinking of the traditional milk in Victory Lane May 24th, this year's edition of the Indy 500 was another for the ages. The final story will be told with a victorious Juan Pablo Montoya winning his second Indy 500 charging from the rear of the field to overtake Will Power in the waning laps after sustaining early damage to the right rear wheel pod of his Chevy powered Dallara. Just as JPM had a come-from-behind win, I'd say Indy had a comeback of its own with thrilling wheel to wheel racing and numerous lead changes over the last 15 laps of the race. Events earlier in the month, namely the apparent tendency of the Chevy Dallaras to go airborne when they got turned around, threatened to derail May at Indy with a dark cloud of controversy. Thankfully, on one of the best weather weekends for the 500 ever, that cloud was blown away in a race full of competitive spirit and no airborne race cars. Tony Hulman weather prevailed and the 99th Indy 500 was a rousing success by almost any measure as the teams and drivers overcame technical challenges to put on one hell of a show. Juan Pablo got his second Indy 500 win in only his third attempt, and 15 years after his first one in a comeback to open wheel racing that will surely have historians taking notice.

My early race view from the roof of the Penthouse seats in Stand E

I was fortunate to be shooting for motorsport.com again this May and race weekend loomed for me with a lot of questions about how I was going to cover the race. I had signed up for Victory Lane and my "Plan A" shooting strategy depended on getting a blue photo vest to be allowed to shoot from the trackside photo locations along the outside wall. Up until about 9:30 race morning, I did not know if the Victory Lane request had been approved or if I would get the blue vest. I had a "Plan B" worked out in my mind, but everything came together just a couple of hours before the noon starting time and I got very busy, very quickly. I did manage to catch up with my brother and his son very briefly after walking the pre-race grid on my way to the Penthouse roof for the start of the race. The older I get, the less I believe in coincidence so in the end my faith that everything was going to work out was proven to be well founded as everything fell into place just as I had hoped.

The Pagoda just before sunrise on raceday

My day started at 3:50 a.m. when my phone alarm went off. I was on the road to the track shortly thereafter and parked in the outside media lot by 4:45 a.m. where I sat in my car and ate my traditional powdered donuts breakfast. I ended up shooting over 1600 images on the day after starting the morning off watching the sunrise over the Pagoda tower. Shooting the rising sun was part of my "Plan A" for the day and I wasn't the only photographer who had that idea as there were several others wandering around the Penthouse seats when I got there about 5:45 in the morning. The next was was beautiful, spectacular, quiet and peaceful and I finally got to the media center a little before 7:00 to get set up. I uploaded several sunrise shots to motorsport.com, checked in with the IMS photo office to see about Victory Lane and the blue vest, but was told everything was on hold until after the 9:00 photo meeting so all I could do was wait. Thankfully there was breakfast being served in the media center so that took my mind off of strategy for awhile. I didn't know it at the time, but that meal would be all I would get (other than a couple handfuls of salted peanuts) until after the race was over that afternoon as I got busy shooting and the lines at the concession stands during the race were too long for me to take time away from shooting. After the photo meeting, I went back to the IMS office, was handed my Victory Lane pass and signed out the coveted blue vest so I knew it was going to be a great day.

The pre-race crowd on the grid was huge

Then it was time to get ready and really go to work. I borrowed a super wide angle from Canon, packed up my belt bags and headed out to the pre-race grid with my trusty 7D and 40D cameras. I ended up running into a Twitter follower who recognized me (which was very cool) and I took his picture with his son. I then walked through the 16th Street tunnel around the outside of Turn 1 to Stand B where our family's seats are located and grabbed a bottle of water from my brother before I headed up to the Penthouse roof. The view from up there is amazing and it was the third straight year I've started my race off in that location next to the team spotters. My shooting strategy for the day was to shoot 20 laps and move to get variety in my photos, so from there I went to ground level along the wall at the end of the frontstretch and around the outside of Turn 1. By about lap 70, I had gone back through the 16th Street tunnel and worked my way to the inside of Turn 1. By half distance, I had moved to the top of the F1 garages behind the pits and spent the rest of the race either in the pits or on the viewing platforms overlooking pit lane. With 25 laps to go, I hurried back to the media center to get a couple more bottles of water and was in position on the Victory Lane photo stand for the last 20 laps of the race. Following Victory Lane ceremonies and the kissing of the bricks, I had a ton of editing and uploading to do. I didn't get finished with that until nearly 8:00 that evening but I was not the last person to leave the media center either. By the end of the day, I had racked up over 16,600 steps on my pedometer app and had enjoyed a solid day's work at the Greatest Spectacle in Racing, so I headed home tired and hungry, but feeling good about helping to document another historic day at Indy.

Pre-race selfie with my brother and his son at the seats in Stand B

I consider myself fortunate and blessed to live in Indy and have the opportunity to shoot at the Speedway. This year was my 40th straight Indy 500 and 42nd in total, and I have learned so much about photography since my first year with credentials in 1984. Lots of people have helped me out along the way, and shooting for motorsport.com is a fantastic responsibility and honor. Everything I've done through the years has prepared me for this and I was incredibly happy the way it all came together this year. Next year will be the 100th Indy 500 and while I will be really busy this summer shooting ARCA, there's no place like Indy so it may be awhile before I start asking the question: "Is it May yet?" In the meantime, here are samples of my work from last Friday's Indy Lights Freedom 100 on a beautiful Carburetion Day, and Sunday's Indianapolis 500. Go to motorsport.com to see the rest!

Field Is Set For the 99th Indy 500

"Scottie D" put up a big number early that no one could top

Nothing ever seems to come easy at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and controversy is usually a part of every May somehow. This year has been no different so far. Before I get into the craziness that I witnessed this past week in practice and during this weekend's qualifications, congratulations are in order for Scott Dixon who won the pole Sunday in a one-shot qualification run. I don't know whether this week's action will be memorable 20 years from now, but there were things that happened that were certainly unprecedented. Indianapolis weather had been mostly sunny through Friday but then spring in Indiana reared its head on Saturday when persistent downpours cut track activity and the track officially closed for the day around 2:30. No one could have foreseen what would transpire the next day as the Saturday schedule was set to repeat with early practice sessions followed by qualifications.

Ed Carpenter's wreckage is brought to the team garage

The overriding news for the whole week was flying race cars - Chevys, to be exact. Three of them, with the last one, local favorite and Butler Bulldog Ed Carpenter, flipping in Turn Two Sunday morning during "final" practice for qualifications. Saturday had been washed out after only two qualifiers had finished and ironically Scott Dixon was the third qualifier on a four lap run Saturday when the rains hit. Helio Castorneves was the first to go airborne in spectacular fashion last week and then Carpenter's teammate Josef Newgarden followed suit on Thursday. Lots of people on the IMS grounds were now seeing a scary trend and the place shut down for several hours Sunday morning while the Chevy and Honda teams huddled with Indycar officials to decide what to do. I stood in the garage are for an hour waiting for Indycar officials to emerge from that confab with answers but meanwhile social media was exploding with all sorts of rumors.

Mark Miles and Derrick Walker handled the news conference

Finally around noon, an Indycar official notified the waiting throng of media people that an announcement was coming and we all rushed over to the media center to hear the outcome, which was to lower the turbo boost and qualify with race day downforce configurations to increase grip. This was done in the name of safety and who can blame them? Even if the three flipping Chevys were just coincidental, no one wanted to tempt fate any further without doing something. We also learned that teams would get an extra 30 minutes of practice in the new configurations and then have one shot to qualify. That wiped out the Fast 9 competition and extended everyone's day beyond the original schedule. Remarkably no one was hurt in any of the three airborne incidents and qualifying went off without a hitch, or much real drama for that matter, as several drivers commented "it was easy" with the grip they had. I'm sorry, but something is just not right about Indy 500 qualifying being easy. Needless to say it was an impossible situation and there's probably plenty of blame to go around as to how it got to that point, but I will leave that to others to assess.

Rain hit the Brickyard Saturday

My primary task all weekend was to get interesting driver shots and record scenes which are notably "Indianapolis" for motorsport.com. I think I did that and managed to get something on ever single driver which ran Indy this month. I have had so much fun this week roaming the pits and garage area for what I thought would make interesting photos. I also was able to take advantage of Canon being at the track where their tech people offer a clean and check service along with equipment loans. I got both my main camera bodies serviced and discovered that one had over 111,000 shutter actuations and the other had almost 84,000! That's close to 200,000 images I've taken with that gear, which I thought was a lot until I heard of another photog that had 425,000 and 375,000 on his camera bodies! I also got the chance to work with 500 mm, 16-35 mm and 10-22 mm lenses which was both fun and challenging as they each have their own unique properties and situations where they are most useful. I really want that 10-22 zoom; I've used the 500 before at Talladega so I knew what that was like, but I did not have my monopod Friday so I got quite a workout hauling that thing around and panning from up in the Penthouse seats overlooking Turn 1. I had more fun with the 10-22 Sunday but the first one I borrowed showed a communication error on both my cameras so I took it back to Canon and swapped it out for another one to use along pit lane. Needless to say all this added to my steps count for the day which ended up over 15,500.

Get well soon Hinch!

All day long Sunday as I was walking around IMS, I would see someone I knew and just say "This is crazy" as the day's events were so bizarre and unheard of in Indy 500 history  - at least since I started going in 1971. Prior to Monday when James Hinchcliffe crashed his Honda powered Dallara due to a parts failure, there had only been one other incident involving a Honda machine when Pippa Mann spun in traffic last Wednesday and hit the inside wall and pit lane attenuator without getting airborne. It's not the crashes which are unheard of or unprecedented as people hit the wall at Indy every year trying to push the limits of speed and adhesion. I remember in 1987, which was my third year shooting the 500, there were more than two dozen crashes spread over two weeks of practice and qualifying. Those cars were on a knife edge then just as the current Chevys seemed to be this year. What is unprecedented is changing the rules and specifications on a qualifying day. The length of time there was silence at the Speedway Sunday when there was supposed to be cars on the track was just plain weird.

Scott Dixon must be considered the favorite to win

So now we have Carburetion Day to look forward to Friday, but it will not include Hinchcliffe who suffered a serious thigh injury, and it remains to be seen who (if anyone) will jump in Hinch's Arrow car Friday and start the 500 in his place. Carb Day practice will be in race day conditions, so I am hoping for a safe and clean hour so everyone makes it into the big show Sunday at their best. I'll be there documenting everything for motorsport.com so check back often for our complete coverage and more photos. Let's race!

Chevy and Will Power Dominate Angie's List Grand Prix of Indianapolis

Will Power pushed hard from the green to the checkered flag to win

After Helio Castroneves punted Scott Dixon into a spin and triggered a melee in the first turn of the opening lap of last Saturday's Indycar road race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, it was all over but the shouting as Will Power controlled the pace and led 65 of 82 laps en route to a dominant win from pole position. The story was much the same for those running Honda power, except for Graham Rahal who escaped the first turn mess and did everything he could to pressure Power into a mistake which never came. Rahal ended up as the highest finishing Honda runner but it was a weekend of Chevy dominance from qualifying Friday through the checkered flag on Saturday. Hopefully the rest of May will see more competitive balance on the oval as practice for the Indy 500 gets into full swing this week. With only a day to transition from road course to oval spec and weather always a variable during Spring in Indy, teams must get down to business in a hurry to be ready for 500 qualifying this Saturday.

Indy looked good!

I spent the better part of three days at IMS last weekend walking all over kingdom come and shooting the Indycar and Indy Lights action for motorsport.com from lots of different vantage points. About the only part of the road course I didn't make it to was the chicane on the north end where they come back onto the backstretch of Hulman Boulevard. Working pit lane and being up close and personal with the teams and drivers is always a thrill, and I overhear some interesting things in the process of looking for photo opportunities. Most of those conversations I wouldn't divulge, but the funniest one I overheard involved Arie Luyendyk and Dario Franchitti who seemed to be playfully arguing about who would pay for dinner, with some quite spicy language thrown in the mix. I wish I knew how that debate ended up!

The start of Indy Lights Race 2 looking south from road course Turn 1

Friday and Saturday were both very long days which began with early photo meetings at the track and ended after 10 each night at home with completion of backups for each day's image files. Living in Indy and shooting the Speedway is a blessing during May as I get to sleep in my own bed and am only 20 minutes from IMS, so the long days and extensive walking at the track are not as taxing as they might be if I were on the road. Covering the action on the IMS road course is a special challenge since there is no easy way to get from one area to another. The shorter road course races magnify that challenge and I try to follow a "10 lap and move" strategy so I get shots from different locations. It has also forced me to be more efficient and not shoot a million images. I have quit looking for the "perfect" shot through sheer quantity and gotten much better at getting the shot I want with fewer images. That certainly cuts down on editing time, which is essential when deadlines for uploads loom after qualifying or a race and the editors at motorsport.com urgently need images.

Graham Rahal had the fastest Honda machine during the Grand Prix

Another aspect of being up close that I really enjoy is watching the Indycar crews work during qualifying when time is of the essence. There was lots of attention being given to springs and shocks with quick changes on pit lane the order of the day in Friday qualifying. Whatever the reason, the Chevy teams seem to have this figured out (for the road course at least) and it seems to my eye that the Honda road course aero kit just simply has too many elements, especially on the nose wing. While the complexity of the Honda kit may create a lot of downforce, it also may make adjustments more complicated and could be creating unwanted drag as well, Chevy may have the road course advantage due to the simplicity of its design more than anything else. I've written before about the differences in the speedway aero kits; Honda's is more complex than Chevy's so it remains to be seen if Chevy's road course advantage holds up during 500 practice. This weekend should deliver an interesting qualifying for the 500 and the folks in Japan may be holding their collective breath that they don't get shut out of Sunday's Fast 9 session which will determine pole position.

The new Indy Lights cars are attractive

Another aspect of covering an event like the Grand Prix of Indianapolis is the support races which provide non-stop track activity for the fans each day. I wasn't required to shoot all of the support series which make up the Mazda Road to Indy which was a good thing as there simply wasn't time between my Indy Lights and Indycar responsibilities. This was my first chance to see the new Indy Lights cars in person and I was very impressed by their look and sound. I really hope they are able to get more than twelve cars in the series this year as the cars are quite attractive and appeared very racy on the IMS road course. The short field meant that once they got strung out behind the leader there wasn't a lot of action to follow once the Lights races got past the early laps. Jack Harvey won the first race on Friday and Sean Rayhall took the second race on Saturday in only his Indy Lights third start. Despite the low number of entries, there are some quality drivers in Lights this year and nine of the twelve are rookies in the series, including former F1 driver Max Chilton, so go support these guys if you get the chance as they fight their way up the ladder to Indycar.

Now everyone in the Indycar garages turns their attention to preparing for the Indianapolis 500. I have a somewhat limited schedule at the track this week due to my teaching obligations, but I will be there for Fast Friday and both qualifying and pole days this weekend. The Indy Lights teams won't hit the oval until a week from Thursday when they prepare for their own big race, the Freedom 100, which is run on Carburetion Day after the final Indycar practice May 22nd and has featured three and four wide racing with photo finishes the last two years. It could be the best month of May ever, so you really need to get out and see the show. And keep checking motorsport.com for more of my photos from the track. Until next time, here's a sampling of my work during the Grand Prix weekend. See you at the Speedway!

Indy 500 Opening Day In The Books

"Racing Capitol of the World"

Assuming I make it to the end of this month (God willing and the creek don't rise, as a former colleague used to say) I will turn 58 years old and have attended my 40th consecutive Indianapolis 500. The month of Jay- I mean the month of May - is finally here and now another Opening Day at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway has come and gone. Sunday May 3rd was a perfect weather day to unveil the new oval track aerodynamic kits and the Verizon Indycar Series teams made the most of it. The series had two stated goals for the aero kits:  to increase speeds and to visually differentiate the Honda and Chevy teams. I'd say they were successful on both counts, as the cars definitely looked different and speeds above 226 were posted. Now the teams put their Indy 500 machines in the garage for a week and turn their attention to this weekend's second annual Angie's List Grand Prix of Indianapolis on the IMS road course.

Simona DiSilvestro's Honda powered Dallara in Turn 1

I got to the Speedway early Sunday morning and spent the day roaming the grounds trying to grab a variety of photos. I managed to log about 13,000 steps for the day and I felt it by the time I left around 6:00 pm. Overall, I was very impressed by how well prepared all the teams seemed to be. Honda had unveiled its aero kit on Simona DiSilvestro's car prior to the test day but no one had seen the Chevy kit until Sunday. Suffice it to say, there are two very different engineering approaches at work by the two manufacturers and Honda seemed to have the upper hand for the first day on the track with more of their runners near the top of the speed charts. The cars really looked stable throughout the day, so it appears that the engineering braintrusts have struck a good balance between lower drag and increased downforce with the new kits. Once they start running in practice next week, speeds will surely climb, especially if they are allowed extra turbo boost for qualifying.

Scott Dixon's low-slung Chevy Dallara

The Honda kit is actually quite beautiful, with curvy sculpted rear wing supports, multiple rear wing elements and mini wings above the rear wheel cowling bodywork. Their front wings don't look that much different than in year's past, so it appears that Honda's concentration has been on the rear wheel area. I like how both manufacturers have worked to get the rear wheel totally out of the air flow, and from head-on shots of the cars, you can't even see the rears. Chevy on the other hand has a much more low profile approach with a simple rear wing and small tab on the right end of the rear wing. Its treatment of the rear wheel area is totally different than Honda's and the Chevy's seem designed to lay low and minimize drag.

The Chevy front wings are very different than Honda's with uprights that appear designed to kick air around and up over the front wheels. Mind you, I am not an engineer, but I've been around Indycar a long time, and while my observations may not be grounded in proper engineering theory, dialing in these cars through my cameras for hours at the track helps me see details that a casual fan might not immediately recognize. I am hoping that there are enough differences for Indy fans to get behind these designs and bring their friends out to support the series. I have maintained for years that Indycar puts on some of the best races with the closely matched equipment, and it will be very interesting to see if there is any significant shift in the balance of power now that the engine manufacturers have been given some design leeway on the Dallara bodywork.

USAC star Bryan Clauson wheels his Chevy through Turn 1

While I have been shooting Indy since 1984, this is my 10th May shooting with high speed digital equipment since switching from film and manual focus cameras. I have to pinch myself sometimes when I am at the track to realize I am actually involved in documenting one of the greatest sporting events in the world. Shooting for motorsport.com again is a special privilege which I do not take lightly, and they have given me a lot of responsibility this year which I relish. One of the best things about photography is that the learning curve never ends and I continue to be challenged to find new ways to be creative while chasing the good light. This month of May will surely involve more lessons with the camera as well as personal revelations when the right subject matter, good lighting and proper technique all intersect at just the right moment to help tell the stories that Indianapolis inevitably generates.

And then there are those times where you just get lucky. I hope to be both lucky and good this month, but you know I will be ready. See you at Indy!

The sidepod bodywork on Takuma Sato's Dallara Honda is continuous to the top of the rear wheel

The sidepod bodywork on Juan Pablo Montoya's Dallara Chevy splits in front of the rear wheels

Ageless Kenny Schrader Schools ARCA Kids at Salem Speedway

Kenny Schrader wins at Salem again

Everyone in racing knows the name Kenny Schrader. He is a true racer - a throwback to the days when drivers would criss-cross the country and race anything on wheels. This past weekend, this ageless wonder brought his Federated Auto Parts sponsored stock car to Salem Speedway in southern Indiana and proceeded to spank the field of youngsters in the ARCA Racing Series Federated 200. I was working as ARCA's photographer again at what was originally supposed to be a two day show, but was condensed into Sunday after Saturday's activities were washed out. It turned out to be quite a show, which is not surprising if you have ever seen an ARCA race at short tracks like Salem Speedway. I will be back with the series again starting with Pocono in June so I am looking forward to a busy summer!

Rain took care of Saturday's schedule

I made two round trip commutes from Indy to Salem to work the event and added more interesting travel experiences to my vita. I passed a lot of cars both days and I would really like to see all the slow driving, brake tapping, scaredy-cats get out of the way and move over. If you don't, I will just fly by at the first opportunity. I don't know what was going on with I-65 northbound on the way home Sunday, but I managed to avoid two long backups by getting off the interstate (twice) and taking a much more scenic route through southern Indiana.

If you drive enough, you will inevitably encounter delays like I did Sunday, but that doesn't tell the story of my weekend. The most interesting thing that happened was having Kenny Schrader come into the ARCA marketing trailer where I was working before the race. I had just finished shooting the driver autograph session and I asked him if he wanted to sit down. He said no thanks, he'd be sitting the rest of the day. I asked if he needed to see anyone and his response was he was just looking for a place to hide out before the race. I completely understood that as the trailer is normally pretty quiet and he seemed happy just checking his phone. I asked him one more question and figured I should leave him alone:  did he feel that Salem owed him one after last year? His response was pure racer: no track owes a driver anything; you have to take it. And that's exactly what he did Sunday afternoon, despite being involved in an early incident that damaged his left front fender. At last year's spring Salem race, he tangled with a backmarker while leading with only a handful of laps remaining, cut a tire and hit the wall. There would not be a repeat of that situation this year as he controlled the race tempo after taking the lead on lap 63 which he never relinquished. He was clearly peddling it through the corners late in the day, comfortable with his advantage and ability to rack up the laps. In the process, he got his first win at Salem since 1999. It was really special to be there and be a part of it.

Schrader held off Haley, Ursetta and Kyle Weatherman on a late restart

Hopefully the youngsters he raced this weekend at Salem learned a thing or two from Schrader. It was the 97th ARCA race at Salem and the man to beat going into the weekend was Grant Enfinger who had won the first three races of the season. Grant found the wall late in the race which dropped him to 13th which opened the door for the youth brigade to charge into the top 10. Kyle Waetherman took second and his 15 year old little brother Clayton took 8th. Dominic Ursetta took third in only his second ARCA start followed by JJ Haley, who barely looks old enough to shave, let alone drive these big, heavy stock cars. Last season's rookie of the year Austin Wayne Self grabbed fifth and was followed by Brandon Jones in sixth. For Jones, it was his lowest ever finish in an ARCA race! Veteran Tom Hessert in seventh must have felt like a graybeard with all these kids around him as current rookie points leader David Levine followed the younger Weatherman home in 9th. Another veteran James Swanson did a very nice job to finish in 10th with perhaps one of the lowest budget teams in ARCA, so that was really good to see.

This week ARCA heads to Talladega Superspeedway and I had originally intended to work this weekend for Associated Press but I just couldn't make it work. So I will be at Indianapolis Motor Speedway Sunday instead for opening day and rookie orientation for the Indy 500. I am excited to be shooting again this May for motorsport.com and am grateful for the opportunities to travel and shoot so many excellent events. Indy is home, however, and it is nice to sleep in my own bed every night after long days at the Speedway, so stay tuned for the Greatest Spectacle in Racing. See you at the track!