NASCAR Sprint Cup Series tackles the Tricky Triangle in Long Pond

I know it's been awhile since I've done a post, but graduations and some other assignments have kept me from an updated blog post.  Anyways, enjoy the post.

For those of you that have never been to Pocono Raceway, it's a 2.5 mile race track that sits in the middle of the Pocono Mountains. It's a three turn racetrack with completely different banking in each turn, which makes it tough for drivers and crew chiefs to set the car up to handle and drive well in all three turns.

Below, is an arial diagram of Pocono Raceway courteous of Pocono Raceway.

First up for the Sprint Cup Series drivers on Friday morning was an hour and forty minute practice session, followed by another hour and thirty minute practice.I hung around the garage area for both to get some nice portraits of the drivers.

Below, Denny Hamlin sits in his car prior to hitting the race track for practice.

Carl Edwards

Kurt Busch

Below, Martin Truex Jr. scratches his head after climbing out of his race car during practice.

Below, teammates Jeff Burton, left, and Clint Bowyer, right, chat during practice.

While walking through the garage, I spotted something different on Jamie McMurray's car. Since McMurray was running the McDonald's paint scheme this weekend, instead of his name above the window, it was "Big Mac".

Below, Scott Speed, center, chats with crew chief Ryan Pemberton, left and a crew member during practice.

Below, Kevin Harvick sits in the garage area, then takes a look under the hood of his Shell/Pennzoil Chevrolet Impala during practice.

Below, Jeff Gordon pulls his Dupont Chevrolet Impala into the garage.

After moving some images in the media room following practice, it was time for pole qualifying. I headed to the end of pit road to get some photos of the drivers before they climbed into their cars, but bailed out because of the massive amount of media. I then walked back up pit road to the area where the drivers pull their race cars once completing their qualifying runs. I was able to get some low perspective shots as they climbed from their cars.

Below, a dejected Jimmie Johnson climbs from his Lowe's Chevrolet Impala following a disappointing qualifying run.

Below, Kurt Busch climbs from his Miller Lite Dodge Charger following his qualifying run.

Below, Dale Earnhardt Jr. climbs from his National Guard/Amp Energy Drink Chevrolet Impala.

Then signs autographs for some eager fans.

Below, Kyle Busch climbs from his car after putting his M&M's Pretzel Toyota Camry on the pole. 

Then chats with his brother Kurt Busch about their qualifying runs.

Saturday morning started with another practice session. For this practice, I headed out to the front straightaway and climbed a few sets of stairs to the top of the Victory Circle Club building to get photos of the cars coming down the long front straightaway.

Below, Tony Stewart leaves the garage area to begin practice.

Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Jimmie Johnson

I then headed back to the garage to get more photos in the garage area the last few minutes of practice.

Below, Denny Hamlin looks on during practice.

Below, Greg Biffle looks over his car during practice.

After hunting around the garage area for some feature photos, I recognized crew chief Greg Zipadelli on top of the teams transporter watching his driver Joey Logano during practice.

Below, Tony Stewart sits in his car prior to the final practice session (Happy Hour).

Below, Kyle Busch looks over his race car prior to the final practice session.

I then jumped into the car and drove out to turn two to get the Sprint Cup cars racing off of turn two during the final practice session. It was in this area last year that Tony Stewart wrecked his primary car. I was hoping for something like that to happen or a car to get sideways, but it never happened.

Below, Kurt Busch exits turn two during final practice.

I was listening to the scanner when I heard Dale Earnhardt Jr. come over his radio with a few choice words to crew chief Lance McGrew. McGrew fired back telling Earnhardt Jr. to feel the car out. Again, is this combination between Earnhardt Jr. and McGrew really working?

Below, Dale Earnhardt Jr. exits turn two during final practice.

After getting a bunch of stock photos, I headed back to the media center to transmit before getting ready for the demolition derby, oh I mean the ARCA Re/Max Series race.

A lot of photographers chose not to photograph this race, but I usually hang around and shoot it for two reasons. One, because of the potential wrecks and second, some NASCAR Sprint Cup Series teams use the ARCA Re/Max Series for their development drivers to hone their skills prior to entering into NASCAR competition.

Below, Penske Racing development driver Dakota Armstrong (22) races through turn one.

Below, the other Penske Racing development driver Tom Hessert (77) races through turn one.

Below, Nick Igdalsky (14) with right front fender damage after making contact with another car early in the race.

Below, Tim George Jr. (31), Bryan Silas (11), Joey Coulter (16) and Steve Arpin (55) battle for position. 

Below, veteran Bobby Gerhart of nearby Lebanon, PA races through turn one.

Below,  Mikey Kile (25) and Craig Goess (81) battle for the lead.

After many continuous green flag laps, the cars clinging to the lead lap started to dwindle. I was waiting for a car to blow a right front tire and slam into the turn one wall, but again, no such luck. I headed back towards the front straightaway to prepare for the finish.

For the finish and the possible burnout, I contemplated where I was going to shoot from. A lot of the photographers stand along the pit wall at the start/finish line, but the inside wall tends to block the car during a burnout, so I climbed the stairs again to the top of the Victory Lane Club building, which overlooks victory lane and gave me a clear shot for possible burnouts.

Below, I fire off a few test shots prior to the victory lane celebration (Photo courteous of Icon SMI photographer William Guerro)

After Venturini Motorsports driver Mikey Kile lead most of the race, a late race pitstop before the caution came out played into the hands of Eddie Sharps Racing's Craig Goess. Goess, a car salesman for Greensville Toyota and racer on the weekends took the lead after Mikey Kile pitted with only a handful of laps left. On the restart, Craig Goess was able to hold off a challenge from Mikey Kile to collect his first career ARCA Re/Max Series win.

Below, Craig Goess celebrates by doing a burnout.

Below, Craig Goess climbs out of his car in victory lane.

Myself and Bill Guerro arrived at the track around 7am to beat all the traffic into the race track. The chance of rain was extremely high and the forecasted time for the rain to begin was at the start of the race. Everyone was keeping an eye on the radar and crossing our fingers that we'd get this race in or at least until half way, making it an official race. 

After transmitting a few images, I walked the garage looking for some feature images.

Below, crew members make last minute adjustments on Kyle Busch's M&M Pretzel Toyota.

Kevin Harvick's Shell/Pennzoil Chevrolet is pushed through technical inspection.

Instead of the cars being pushed out to pit road, they were pushed back into their respectable garage stalls and covered because of the potential rain.

The weather held off and I headed out to cover driver introductions.

Below, Carl Edwards during driver introductions.

Below, Jimmie Johnson during driver introductions.

During this time the clouds started to roll in, but so far, so good....no rain. I started the walk to turn one. Though, before exiting pit road, I captured a few images of the drivers prior to climbing into their cars.

Below, Matt Kenseth plays with his daughter, Kaylin Kenseth.

Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Pole sitter Kyle Busch climbs into his car prior to the start of the race.

Below, race fans anticipate the start as storm clouds roll in.

With a few big raindrops, I started to head back to pit road and just then, I heard over the scanner for the drivers to return to pit road and take cover. I rushed back and just as I got to pit road, all hell broke loose. Myself and a bunch of other photographers were able to take cover under the tailgate of a Sprint Cup hauler. In about fifteen minutes, the rain stopped and instantly, the sun came out. I right away started looking for feature weather images.

Below, Brad Keselowski, fresh off his Nationwide Series win in Nashville the night before sleeps in his race car during the rain delay.

Roughly two hours later, the track was dry and racing was about to begin. I made my way back to turn one for the start of the race (Take Two!!)

 Due to the rain, NASCAR made an announcement that a caution would come at at lap 15 so teams could check tire wear, since all the rubber that was put into the track from the practice sessions was wiped away after the heavy rains.

Below, leader Denny Hamlin leads the field down pit road.

Kyle Busch makes his pit stop.

After the brief caution, teammates Kyle Busch (18) and Denny Hamlin (11) battled for the lead as they drove their cars into turn one.

Since Denny Hamlin was shooting for his fourth win at Pocono Raceway, I wanted to incorporate something Pocono related into the photo. Below, I used the letters on the wall as Denny Hamlin drove into turn one.

Then it was Clint Bowyer who took his Cheerios Chevrolet into the lead.

After no cautions for a long period of time, the field was starting to get strung out, I started hunting for something different. I found a hole on the inside of the turn one guard rail and shot through it with the cars driving past the Pocono logo on the wall.

Below, Kyle Busch drive through turn one during the race.

After a few photos like this, I started to walk towards turn three to get a different view. 

Below, Kurt Busch exits turn three during the race.

Below, Denny Hamlin leads a pack of cars through turn three.

Below, drivers Juan Pablo Montoya (42) and Jeff Gordon (24) bang fenders as they drive through turn three.

After about a half an hour or so in turn three, I walked back to the media center to transmit some photos before the end of the race. With about 25 laps to go, I headed to the frontstretch in anticipation on the finish. The entire race was pretty boring, but with leader Denny Hamlin coming to the white flag, Kevin Harvick got into Joey Logano, resulting in Logono spinning. I had my camera settings set to manual and the proper exposure set for the finish line, but when I heard of the spin, I starting firing off pictures of the spin. It wasn't until after the incident that I had overexposed the photo of Logono spinning, but in the end, I like the sun rays bouncing off the hood of the car. It's something that grew on me and something that was different. Below is the photo of Joey Logono doing a 360.

Due to the caution, we would have a green-white-checkered finish. Below, leader Denny Hamlin (11) leads Tony Stewart (14) on the restart.

With one lap to go, all hell broke loose on the Long Pond straightaway when Kasey Kahne attempted to pass his Richard Petty teammate AJ Allmendinger, but was blocked and pushed into the grass, resulting in a major crash that eliminated almost half the field. Instantly, the field was frozen and Denny Hamlin was declared the winner.

Here is a link on Youtube of the major wreck - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmQoBkNA0f0

Below, Denny Hamlin takes the checkered flag, his fourth win at Pocono Raceway.

Then one by one, damaged cars that were involved in the wreck made their way down to the finish line to avoid a DNF.

Ryan Newman

David Ragan

After the win, Denny Hamlin did one hell of a burnout, almost a quarter of a mile long, then hit the wall with the left front of the car.

Oh, and remember that wreck between Kevin Harvick and Joey Logano? Yes, that resulted in a major bawl in the pits following the race. Here is the video of that on Youtube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8hCwG6x4pQ&feature=related

While all this was going on, Denny Hamlin drove his damaged FedEx Toyota into victory lane.

Denny Hamlin, winner of the Gillette Fusion ProGlide 500 celebrates in victory lane.

Well, that wraps up my weekend of racing from Pocono Raceway. Overall, a boring race except for the major wrecks on the final lap and the fight between Kevin Harvick and Joey Logano, both which I missed, which had me peeved, but you can't be everywhere. Next up, Hershey Bears win their 11th Calder Cup over the Texas Stars.