Will Hearne: NASCAR fan and photographer

Just minutes before the drop of the green flag in Kentucky Speedway’s inaugural Sprint Cup Series race I was milling around behind Mark Martin’s pit stall. What happened next was something I least expected, yet it was one of the cooler things about the entire weekend.

A man walked up to me and said, “Hey are you Adam?”

He caught me a little off guard. I didn’t know people knew who I was, but thanks to Twitter, I had become a mini-celebrity to some folks while I detailed every moment I could from Kentucky Speedway.

“Yeah, that’s me,” I responded.

“Hi, I’m Will. I follow you on Twitter,” he said.

I had no clue how to respond. “Well, thanks, glad to meet you,” I said, probably looking more calm than I sounded.

On Friday night at Kentucky Speedway, during the Feed the Children 300, I posted Mark Martin’s radio chatter to Twitter. I tweeted an almost instant play-by-play of everything Mark, his spotter Jeremy Brickhouse and crew chief Trent Owens discussed on the radio during the Nationwide Series race.

Mark’s Cup Series media rep, Kendra Jacobs, who wasn’t at the track, tweeted to her 6,900-plus followers that if they wanted play-by-play of Mark’s radio chatter, they should follow me. Not only were the tight knit group of Markaholics following me, but I picked up nearly 50 followers on Twitter during Friday night’s race.

One of them was Will Hearne, the man I just mentioned who met me on pit road prior to Saturday night’s Cup race. Throughout the race and after the weekend we communicated via Twitter and e-mail. Will had mentioned to me that he took a photo of FOX19 Sports Director Brian Giesenschlag and myself during the June 1st tire test that made it into the local Community Press.

FOX19 Sports Director Brian Giesenschlag works the camera while I interview some fans during the June 1st Goodyear tire test at Kentucky Speedway (Photo courtesy: Will Hearne)

Will shared his stories about his photos with me. I decided, “Hey this is great stuff, let me blog about it.”

Folks, meet Will Hearne…

Will Hearne at Bristol during a snow storm in 2006 (Photo from Will Hearne)

They saw a picture is worth a thousand words, and Will Hearne knows what that is like. In August of 2000 he was standing feet from Dale Earnhardt Sr. at Bristol during qualifying.

“I was never a big Earnhardt fan but knew plenty of people that were and that has probably been the best [photo],” Hearne said. “I had to respect him for his dedication to the sport and the fans and I believed that I caught that.”

(Photo courtesy: Will Hearne)

He started taking photos when he was a student at Owen County High School, located just over 15 miles from the racetrack in Sparta. His main love though was sports.

“I liked the action,” Hearne stated.

Hearne studied photojournalism at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, Ky., but couldn’t continue to pursue his education due to rising costs for his photographs.

“It was very expensive as a student, film, developing supplies plus tuition, etc,” he said. “The evolution of digital photography that has helped me get my foot in the door. It is easier and cheaper to get good pictures.”

When he took photographs on film cameras, Hearne noted that he had to wait and see if the photo was clean. With digital photography, he notes, you can take a picture and see it “on the spot.”

“The more pictures you take the better your chances of having a good photo as well as learning from your mistakes,” he said. “I am trying to get into it more and would love to find or have an opportunity to continue to follow this dream I have.”

This dream is a dream that any NASCAR fan has: to get paid to watch the sport.

When Will Hearne began following NASCAR, back in the mid 1980s, he began following an up and coming star from the ASA ranks named Mark Martin. He continued to follow the sport through the 1990s but didn’t get a chance to go to a race until 1998, when attended a race at Bristol in the spring.

Mark Martin waving to fans as he walks to driver introductions before the Quaker State 400 at Kentucky Speedway (Photo courtesy: Will Hearne)

“They always said if you think this is fun, go to Bristol,” Hearne said. “So off I went, and [I’ve] been hooked since then.”

Hearne got up close and personal with the drivers and the cars.

“I went down early and just started taking pictures of testing, qualifying,” he said, “trying to get as close to the action as possible. I had a lot to learn, but kept going back. Fortunately I have never had an issue with any driver. I have tried to stay out of their personal space and give them space.”

Hearne has also visited Daytona, Martinsville, Nashville, Bowling Green and now Kentucky Speedway.

“While in Bowling Green we started to go to the local track where I met Darrell and Michael Waltrip, Jeremy Mayfield and the Green brothers,” he said. All of those NASCAR stars are from Owensboro, Ky., near Bowling Green and the Kentucky Motor Speedway in Whitesville, Ky.

But no matter how hard Hearne has tried, his freelance work just hasn’t made him much money.

“I have had some success at selling to the public, a few publications and area newspapers,” he said. “It is a passion that I have carried with me since I started taking pictures—to become a photographer—but it is difficult. Sticking with it has been hard; got bills to pay and a life to live.”

Yet, no matter how hard it is to continue to pursue a dream of selling great NASCAR photographs, Hearne had an awesome opportunity to get photographs at Kentucky’s inaugural; Cup weekend.

“Never been that close,” he said of the action in Sparta. “I had been close before but I got a lot of great pictures.”

He also got to hang out in the garage area and take plenty of photographs of his favorite driver.

“[I] don’t mean this in a bad way but, he (Mark Martin) reminds me of my dad, same work ethic and perseverance. They don’t make ‘em like that anymore,” said Hearne.

He even had an opportunity to get some autographs from Mark Martin with the access he had at Kentucky.

“Mark signed everything I put in front of him for three days,” Hearne said. “[Drivers] are people too. They don’t mind you taking their picture, and it is part of their job, but [I] always keep the respect for them as well as others wanting to get a picture for themselves.”

This was Hearne's favorite photo of the weekend, a shot he got of Mark Martin walking toward the pre-race driver's meeting (Photo courtesy: Will Hearne)

It’s that reason that so many fans flock to NASCAR. Mark Martin has a lot of fans, and he made one fan’s weekend a great one at Kentucky Speedway. Those photographs that Will took will remain with him forever. They are mementos of a first-time event in the Bluegrass State.

Each snapshot means something to the person behind the lens. For Will Hearne, each photograph is another chance to chase a passion and a dream unlike any other.

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Like Will Hearne’s photography? Follow Will on Twitter (@ul1card) or contact him at whearne.pics@gmail.com for more information. And, if you ever run into me in public, feel free to come up to me and chat.

I always love meeting new people, especially NASCAR fans. I never knew a quick chat with Will on pit road at Kentucky would turn into a long blog post, but if you’ve got an awesome story, I’m willing to talk to you about it and post it here on the blog.

Have a good Monday afternoon. Stay cool, and thanks for checking in.

Busch wins 100th NASCAR race and ties Mark Martin’s Nationwide Series record

Last week after he won NASCAR race No. 99 at Kentucky one member of the media gathered in Kentucky Speedway’s media center asked Kyle Busch how cool it would be to win race 100 at Indy, in the (arguably) sport’s second most prestigious race.

“Kyle,” the man said, “I know you want to win next week or maybe at ORP, but how cool would it be if you could get win 100 at the Brickyard since you haven't won there?”

Kyle Busch sits at the table in Kentucky Speedway's media center after winning the Quaker State 400 with crew chief Dave Rogers

“I'm hoping it comes at Loudon, sorry,” he said. “Certainly whenever the next one is, I'll be cherishing it just as much as I did the last one.”

Well, I tried at least. 

It wasn’t that I didn’t want to see Kyle win this weekend, but I thought it would be awfully cool to see him take the checkers at the Brickyard for win number 100 in his NASCAR career. You can barely write a better story.

But my question at least was prefaced with, “I know you want to win next week.”

“To me,” Busch continued, “I don't want to wait that long for win 100. Hopefully we get the opportunity to run up front again and, you know, have a chance to win some other races before we get to the Brickyard.

“Brickyard is still a little ways off. Maybe we can talk about 104 or something by then.”

Kyle Busch is sitting on 100 wins in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, Nationwide Series and Sprint Cup Series, and maybe more importantly, is tied with Mark Martin for the Nationwide Series all-time wins record with 49.

The first person to Victory Lane on Saturday to congratulate Busch was Martin, who has said all along that sooner or later his record would fall to the 26-year old from Las Vegas.

“It’s pretty incredible,” Martin said. “Some people can learn how to drive these racecars if they really, really want to and work really, really hard at it, but the guys that already know how before they ever do it and they work really hard at it are always more successful. That’s the case with Kyle. He was a natural from the first time he slipped into one of these big stock cars on a big racetrack.

“It’s been amazing to watch and it’s hard for me to get my arms around that he is where he is at his age. It’s amazing. It’s really great that NASCAR is in a position today to give an opportunity to young drivers and get an opportunity because 30 years ago having a 25-year-old driver was not something that a top team would want to have.

It’s really cool to see, and I’m just as impressed as everyone else with this guy – every week.”

Busch wanted the media folks to stop harping constantly on his numbers, but was asked if being mentioned in the same breath as Hall of Famers like Richard Petty and future Hall of Famers like Mark Martin had sunk in yet.

“You have to retire first right, to get in the Hall of Fame?” said Busch. “Apparently (Mark Martin)’s not going to be an inductee anytime soon — that’s alright — more power to him. I said on TV, he’s young at heart and he wants to keep doing what he’s doing. That’s awesome.”

So maybe I was wrong for asking Busch if it would be cool to win at Indy. Obviously he’ll still be gunning as hard as ever to win the Brickyard 400, but maybe by then it will be NASCAR win No. 104. We’ll have to wait 13 days to find out.

Photo blog: Cincinnati media at Kentucky Speedway

Post race press conferences as viewed through my video camera

Last weekend at Kentucky Speedway was a lot of fun. I rubbed shoulders with some of the best in the business, both literally and figuratively.

Jeff Gluck, of SBNation.com talks to fans during Saturday's tweetup

I also got to stand back and watch all four local TV stations in Cincinnati broadcast live shows from the turn one TV compound that Kentucky Speedway had set up for us.

Joe D about to go on live at 6 p.m. on Thursday evening

Joe Danneman and Brian Giesenschlag from FOX19 were my partners in crime if you will, along with photographer Dan Wood.

Dan Wood shooting some NASCAR Sprint Cup practice

Brian talks to Jerry Carroll former Kentucky Speedway owner as Joe D works the camera

Joe Danneman...Dale Earnhardt Jr... need I say more?

Brian and Joe on Friday nights "Final Quarter" on FOX19

I also hung out quite a bit with Mark Slaughter, from WCPO, Channel 9, when he wasn’t asleep in the pop-up trailer that WCPO had in the infield at Kentucky Speedway.

Slaughter tests audio for Channel 9 ("Come on dude, don't take a picture of me dude")

The number of great quotes Slaughter had might have reached 1,000 by the time Saturday night rolled around.

Slaughter sits down to join the rest of us in turn one at Kentucky hours after the Quaker State 400

From Channel 5 (WLWT) in Cincinnati came Denny Hamlin fan and photographer JT, who loved this shot I took of him filming his favorite driver.

JT was fired up to see Denny Hamlin. He just kept repeating the word "Denny" throughout the weekend.

After the race, as traffic was all but stopped at the speedway, we all sat in turn one and chatted about the weekend.

We were there so long they turned out the lights on us.

It was also a fine time to catch up with former FOX19 Sports reporter Zach Wells, who now works for Cincinnati’s Local 12 (WKRC).

Zach Wells doing his best Zach Wells impression (He does some great impressions, by the way)

All in all, I’d say it was one fun weekend at Kentucky for all of us involved in the local TV side of the show. If you stay tuned throughout the next few weeks I’ll find another time to show off some great photos of Joe Danneman and Dan Wood doing interviews throughout the week.

Opinions abound on Kentucky Speedway attendance and traffic

The fallout from the Kentucky Speedway traffic debacle is still ongoing. On Wednesday, Reid Spencer of the Sporting News said Kentucky should give up its 2012 Cup date and revamp facilities for another go around in 2013.

Sports Illustrated released an article counterpointing that, saying, “The first Sprint Cup event at Kentucky Speedway was overflowing with fans – a welcome sign for a sport eager to regain its momentum.”

Eleven months ago I said Kentucky would not be ready for a Cup race. I wasn’t spouting off an unworthy opinion. I sat in snarled traffic as a youngster waiting eagerly to attend the 2000 Craftsman Truck Series race—the inaugural NASCAR event—at the Kentucky Speedway.

Mark Story, columnist for the Lexington Herald Leader, commented on the traffic from that race in a story he wrote on Monday.

“In 2000, for the first major event at the then-brand-new racetrack, some 63,000 people showed up, it rained furiously, and traffic got backed way up way out on I-71…Amidst the massive traffic snarls outside the Quaker State 400 on Saturday night, I kept thinking back to that first night when former owner Jerry Carroll's track opened.”

But Jerry Carroll, the track’s former owner, thought his facility was Cup ready when he built it in the late 1990s. Carroll hasn’t been heard from since the race, but I’d love to hear his delusional reasoning behind why traffic was so bad on Saturday night.

In a 2003 Cincinnati Enquirer article, former track General Manager Mark Cassis said, “As far as the facility itself, everything's in place. All we need is a date.”

I would have loved to have seen that. Could you imagine how interesting a 2004 traffic jam at the track in Sparta would have been without Twitter?

But not all opinions have been terrible. Spencer’s thoughts about skipping 2012 were counterpointed by the Evansville Courier and Press.

“Although the next year’s NASCAR schedule won’t be released until later this summer, rarely do events leave the NASCAR schedule after one race weekend — especially ones that can sell out 107,000 seats more than a week before the race,” wrote Jonathan Lintner.

And I’m not 100 percent Mr. Negative either. I agree that selling out was a huge deal, especially for the sport of NASCAR, which has seen a decline in TV ratings and ticket sales in the past few years.

But there’s no way that 107,000 people saw that race from the stands.

SceneDaily’s Bob Pockrass estimated about 95,000 fans saw the beginning of the race. But, Pockrass noted, “The 95,000 or so fans who made it in to witness the track’s first Cup race were incredibly enthused. As crew members walked into the track, fans cheered. They were vocal in driver introductions. The atmosphere was one of the best of the season, for sure.”

Track owner Bruton Smith said 15,000 to 20,000 fans with tickets were turned away, although some folks have suggested that Smith’s estimate was a little high.

Skirts and Scuffs.com (NASCAR from a female perspective) writer Amy, who has been a race fan her entire life wrote, “Other than the tire debacle at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway a couple years back I do not remember the fans complaining this much about any race. From comments made through the media, by drivers and fans on Twitter, and Kentucky Speedway it looks as if this was much worse than the 2008 Brickyard 400.”

I remember the ’08 Brickyard quite well. At one point I got up and walked toward the bathroom. My dad grabbed me when I got back to my seat and said, ‘What was that about?’

I responded, “I knew there was going to be a competition caution so I went to the bathroom.”

While my dad says NASCAR did the wrong thing by throwing those cautions (“Let ‘em race,” he said. “They’ll figure out real quick going 190 mph won’t work. Make them slow down to 150 and actually race.”) no one denied just how bad, just how painful that race was.

Phil Bengel, a NASCAR fan from Cincinnati, and the guy who dropped the green flag on the Jeff Byrd 500, agreed. “I just don’t want to see Kentucky get hit like IMS did after 2008,” he tweeted to me on Wednesday night. “Lost about half attendance. Not good for KY, the state, or NASCAR.”

We actually made it to that 2008 Brickyard 400. So did nearly a quarter of a million other race fans, Phil Bengel included. Think of not being able to even sniff the facility where the race was being held. That’s what many fans encountered on Saturday at Kentucky Speedway.

I can sit here and write and post more opinions about the traffic debacle that was Saturday night, but I think you can read for yourself. If you were stuck in it, you know just as well as I do how painful it was.

The book will never be closed on Kentucky Speedway’s traffic issues until next year, and we’ll see if they can change anything. Because if they can’t, next year, the press surrounding Kentucky Speedway could be, and will be, a whole lot worse.

Breaking: National writer says Kentucky should give up 2012 Cup date

A lot of angry fans have vented about Kentucky Speedway’s horrific parking and traffic issue. Remember, this isn’t the first time Kentucky speedway has had a parking and traffic issue.

In their inaugural NASCAR event, a Craftsman Truck Series event in 2000, a traffic scene not unlike the one that unfolded Saturday marred the race.

So why doesn’t Kentucky take a year off, completely revamp their facilities, and give it another go around in 2013?

Reid Spencer of the Sporting News suggested just that when he opined that the 2012 Cup date everyone assumes will return to Sparta, should not. (Read Spencer’s article here: http://aol.sportingnews.com/nascar/feed/2011-07/quaker-state-400/story/commentary-perhaps-kentucky-should-forgo-its-2012-cup-date)

“Give the 2012 Kentucky date back to Atlanta Motor Speedway and give Kentucky a year to work out the problems with local government and law enforcement, another sector that wasn’t blameless in the fiasco,” Spencer wrote. “If not, then proceed on the current course, and do as little as possible to assuage inconvenienced fans, and let the attrition begin.

Come to think of it, that’s probably the surest way to guarantee there won’t be a traffic problem next year.”

Matt Kenseth's No. 17 Crown Royal Ford makes a lap at Kentucky Speedway during testing on Thursday

Bruton Smith sank way too much money (between $80 million and $100 million) into the Kentucky Speedway to give up the Sprint Cup date, but the PR nightmare that has been dubbed as “carmageddon” by some has put a huge black eye on an event that was otherwise pretty good.

And if anyone can learn from a neighbor about screwing an event up, Kentucky needs to look no further than the closest track to it that holds Sprint Cup racing.

Spencer put the spotlight on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s attendance issues after the 2008 Goodyear tire debacle that has cut attendance at IMS by nearly 100,000 fans. He noted in 2008 there were 240,000 folks for the 10-lap, caution-filled parade that was the Brickyard 400, and at last year’s 400-miler, there were just 140,000 fans.

“Unless SMI comes up with a meaningful way to compensate all fans who sat in traffic for hours, whether or not they eventually got to the race, Kentucky Speedway will lose the public relations war, and it’s already getting bloody,” Spencer wrote.

Gentlemen, start your apologizing.