NASCAR: A weekend of problems!

Where do I start? Well, Mark and I each arrived on separate flights where we were both happy to see one another. With smiles on our faces, we were eager to arrive to the Texas Motor Speedway. Once we arrived to the credential office, our smiles quickly became frowns.

My credential wasn't ready for me. A name change request, resulted in me spending the rest of the evening in the hotel room alone.

As if this wasn't enough, I get a text from Mark around 11pm that he locked the keys to the rental in the trunk with all his gear, his phone was about to die, and there were few photographers left. Now what to do? After many attempts to break into the trunk, he left the car and gear and received a ride back to the hotel at 1am.

Picking up another rental car Saturday morning and hiring a locksmith to meet us at the track did not seem like a great way to start our day. With much confidence, our locksmith said he'd have it open in no time.

Reality starts to sit in for Mark...a little high pass action in the below photo. I was a bit over exposed.

As practice was about to wrap up, I quickly make it to the media room to set up and hustle to get some driver shots. Unfortunately, I wasn't too successful, as many of the big named drivers quickly returned to their trailers.

A rare siting of Jeff Gordon with his helmet still on.

Back at the parking lot, Mark was finally able to celebrate...2 hours later.

Photo by Chris Graythen

The O'Reilly Challenge was a pretty uneventful race. Except for a few crashes that occurred on the back side of the track.

Before

After

Before

After

The track was covered with "Texas" and blue stars all around the outside wall. It made for some great backgrounds to set the stage for which track this was shot at.

Drivers prepare to take a green flag on a restart.

And finally Kyle Busch takes the checkered flag for the second day in a row.

And does a nice burn out!

Having never shot Victory Lane, I ran in there to grab a spot and my exposure. My stomach began to get uneasy as I was quite nervous. I didn't want to mess it up. But a camera guy that decided to stand in everyone's way made it quite difficult to nail a great shot.

I'd say I was fairly successful.

I grabbed the 400mm to get a tighter shot of Kyle. I love that you can see the reflection of his number in his glasses.

Sunday was a much better day. Luckily starting with a delicious breakfast at Denny's, team US Presswire was bright eyed and bushy tailed.

The American Flag flies at half-mast due to an incident involving Major Nidal Malik Hasan, an army psychiatrist, who killed 13 people and wounded 30 in a shooting at the military base at Fort Hood. Below sits the car of Jimmie Johnson.

And the car of Greg Biffle.

I started the race on the roof. As I'm waiting for the opening ceremonies to take place, I begin to day dream about the cool photo shoot that could have occurred in this parking lot if Mark and the locksmith were unsuccessful.

Shortly after, I notice Jeff Gordon's crew on one knee in pit road.

The race begins.

Barely 3 laps into the race in turn 2, a sliding car immediately grabs my attention. Car #48, chase leader in points, Jimmie Johnson. Mark is going to be jealous!! I lock on and don't stop until everything starts to mellow down. Unfortunately, I couldn't see him hit the inside wall. But the smoking tires was more than enough for me.

Jimmie makes his way to the garage where it takes his crew over an hour to fix everything.

Below is the video clip.

As the cars begin to space out, I start looking around and notice the crowd below me.

I start messing around with a few shot ideas. Took quite a few frames, but I was able to catch Jimmie Johnson. It appears all he's missing is paint, speed, and a few points.

A few pit stop shots.

Joey Logano

Kyle Busch

Before Mark and I switch spots, he takes a photo of me.

Photo by Mark Rebilas

In turn 1, I took a few clean shots of each of the drivers with the crowd behind them.

Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Jeff Gordon

Jimmie Johnson

Kurt Busch, changing up the crop.

Then I move to turn 4 to do the same.

Mark Martin

Kasey Kahne

Greg Biffle

Finally over to an empty pit stall across the start/finish line. I scrunch in low to make room for others and so someone can shoot over my vertically challenged body. Having lead 232 laps, Kyle Busch was just 3 laps away from a win and being the first person ever to make a sweep over 1 weekend; Trucks, Nationwide and Sprint. Unfortunately, he ran out of gas! His brother, Kurt, was more than happy to take the number 1 spot away from him.

After much arguing with Mark, below is of Kurt on the final lap. Unfortunately the flagman waved the white flag instead of the checkered flag.

Winning the race on fumes, Kurt had a weak burn out.

But does a victory lap with his checkered flag for the fans.

Then finally ended up being pushed to victory lane. Check out Mark's shot!

Kurt was stopped just shy of victory lane for an on camera interview and I noticed some soft light on his face.