NASCAR Preseason Thunder

          In just a couple of weeks all the NASCAR teams and even the fans will descend upon Daytona International Speedway for testing the new "Gen6" cars at a plate track. The last couple years I have been attending this wonderful event, and have been able to get many autographs.

        The last couple years Teams have been allowed to test of the track since NASCAR started to loosen on its strict hold of where teams were allowed to test. Below are some photos that I have from last years testing. I used my Nikon D3100 with a Tamron 70-300mm lens and I set it up on a monopod to steady myself

         During the start of the 2012 Season, AJ Allmendinger was the driver for Roger Penske's #22 Shell Dodge. Here is a photo of AJ out on the track doing some single car runs.

        I took this photo at a focal length of 195mm with an aperture of F/5 with shutter speed of 1/1250sec which frozen everything.

 Since the testing started early in the morning most drivers had to run and eat their breakfast. Case in point with Clint Bowyer walking to his garage stall with a cup of coffee.

     The plus side that makes Daytona worth wild to head to for most fans is not only that it starts the season off with the most prestigious race of the year but that all the teams and drivers are easily accessible in the garage.

    As in case here is Danica Patrick's ride easily seen from the window that looks into her garage. Sorry for the reflection.

 These couple of photos are of more cars on the track doing single car runs to see how fast they are so they will have a baseline setup for when the teams come back in February. The one thing about Daytona is that single car runs are not the norm for the track but it works in qualifying.

 Of course included had to be two of my favorite drivers since I'm a huge fan of Hendrick Motorsports. Top photo is Jeff Gordon with his new sponsor and Jummie Johnson

 During the testing teams basically will try to get all of the haulers they bring to be lined up next to each other so it will be easier to discuss certain setups with out having to walk to different sections. This photos shows that with all the Joe Gibbs Racing haulers sitting next to each other

 New drivers with their new teams. The top photo is Kasey Kahne driving now for Hendrick Motorsports with Farmers Insurance as his primary sponsor. Below is Ricky Stenhouse Jr. making his first start in the Sprint Cup series in the #6 car with Ford as his sponsorship

This last photo shows the cars working on the as people called it "2-car Tango"