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.

Brickyard 400 media day unlike any other

In two weeks I’ll be on the road to the world-famous Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and you know I couldn’t be happier about it. The Brickyard 400 is a big deal, a huge deal, for me and a lot of other NASCAR drivers.

Jeff Gordon has won it four times, Tony Stewart has done it twice, and Kevin Harvick became the first-ever driver to win from the pole in 2003. Jamie McMurray captured a win in the Brickyard 400 last year, months after winning the Daytona 500.

From left: Felix Sabates, McMurray and Chip Ganassi in the post-race press conference at IMS

“Getting to win the Daytona 500 and the Brickyard 400 means more to me this year than making the Chase,” McMurray said after winning last year. “This year or in 10 years, the guy that won that race one time everybody will talk about. The guy that finished third in the points, nobody cares.”

Winning once at Indy immortalizes you amongst the greats, and not just the NASCAR greats. If you look at this list of winners at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway you’ll be reminded of history: Foyt, Unser, Andretti, Mears, Fittipaldi and Luyendyk. Names that made the world-famous 2.5-mile rectangle in Speedway, Ind., their home and they invited NASCAR into it.

A win at Indy is priceless.

But some of the best drivers in the sport have yet to visit victory lane, which is why, every year, the same question is asked: “What would it mean to win at Indy?”

Martin and Montoya prepare to start the 2009 Brickyard 400, a race that Montoya dominated, but was caught speeding on pit road, and Martin finished second to Jimmie Johnson

Mark Martin has never done it in NASCAR’s top division (he does have three IROC wins at IMS). Dale Earnhardt Jr. has also never won at IMS, and Juan Pablo Montoya has won the Indy 500 and the U.S Grand Prix, but has never won the Brickyard 400.

To each of these men close is not good enough. They’d love nothing more than to step into Victory Lane, and all three are fan favorites.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. winning at Indy would make a lot of fans very happy. His dad won in 1995.

But this season has been a season of firsts: Trevor Bayne’s exciting Daytona 500 win, Regan Smith capturing victory at the Southern 500 and David Ragan’s first career win at Daytona two weeks ago have all made headlines.

It seems we’re due for an unlikely winner at Indy.

In two weeks, when media day is upon us, maybe the question to every driver at Indy should be, “Who’s going to be the surprise winner this time?”

I’ll be there. And I can not wait. The countdown is on to the Brickyard 400.

Kentucky’s inaugural race was uneventful

On Thursday I sat in the Kentucky Speedway media center and happened upon an article by Yahoo’s Jay Hart. He said that NASCAR’s move to Kentucky was a bad move. The race would be bland.

The green flag drops on the inaugural Quaker State 400 at Kentucky

“Nothing against the good people of the Bluegrass State, who have done their damndest to earn a Cup date, but I can’t get behind it,” he opined.

I thought, he can’t be right. The bumpiness of the track in Sparta made for some interesting races in the years I was there. The racetrack was going to be great for racing, drivers were going to search for multiple grooves in the track and the track was good enough to promote a lot of side-by-side racing.

I was wrong.

“If that weren’t enough, the racing at these cookie-cutter tracks tends to be really, really – what’s the word? – oh yeah, boring,” Hart said.

A view of the Quaker State 400 racing action from turn one at Kentucky Speedway

And after sitting back and thinking about it, I’d be hard pressed to do much but agree, and I’m not the only one.

Don’t get me wrong, I love NASCAR with every fiber of my being. I enjoyed being at the track this past weekend and truly enjoyed seeing NASCAR’s big boys at the track closest to my house. But the Quaker State 400, dare I say it, was boring.

Kurt and Kyle Busch ran away with the first part of the event, and due to long, green-flag runs, clean air was paramount.

A few weeks back Carl Edwards was angry about having to race downforce at tracks like Michigan rather than racing his competition.

“Sadly, downforce is such a big factor in these (current) cars, and I am really hoping NASCAR will take the opportunity in 2013 to take downforce away so the fans can see the guys race race cars and not race downforce,” Edwards said.

A view of the stands at Kentucky late in the race

He continued with, “Let's say all of the cars are a tenth (of a second) apart and you are behind two or three cars, your car is two-tenths of a second slower. You can't make (it) up. I'm not whining; Denny (Hamlin) earned this win and those are the rules we are under. Track position was huge, and I just wish it wasn't like that.”

“Track position is the name of the game,” said Lance McGrew to Mark Martin before the green flag dropped on Saturday night.

Even though there were a lot of late race passes, the first 150-plus laps were little more than a parade. At one point Busch had a ten-plus second lead.

I often hear non-NASCAR fans criticize me. ‘It’s so boring. I don’t know how you watch them just drive in circles,’ people tell me.

This week was NASCAR’s chance to impress first-time visitors to the track in Sparta. A lot of non-NASCAR fans were coming to Kentucky from Cincinnati, Louisville and Lexington for the first time. And if they feel that NASCAR is boring because it’s just guys driving in circles, I feel their feelings were confirmed by the first part of the race at Kentucky.

Even some NASCAR fans who were watching on TV tweeted at me during the race that the race was a little bland and boring.

And that is sad. I love Kentucky Speedway, but it’s going to be tough to sell people to come to a track that has a horrendous track record with parking and has questionable racing.

I wish it was better, but we’ve got one year to see if Kentucky will fix anything. Until then, we’ll have to wait and see what kind of improvements Bruton Smith and SMI make to the facility in Kentucky. They’ve got a long list of things to fix. We have to have faith that they’ll get it done.

But I’m afraid the damage has already been done.

Quaker State car ready for Quaker State 400

I feel like this is a week on the blog that has been so long in waiting that I shouldn’t have to write a darn thing. You all know how I feel (excited, fired up, pick any adjective that agrees with those words) and how much fun it will be to see Mark Martin run in two races this weekend at Kentucky.

Here’s his Quaker State car for the Quaker State 400, as tweeted by his media manager Kendra Jacobs

Via TwitPic-Kendra Jacobs

“Let’s get it started,” as the Black Eyed Peas would say.

Or, if you prefer the theme song of the week, here’s Andy Williams

Kentucky Speedway GM Mark Simendinger goes 1 on 1 with FOX19’s Joe Danneman

On last night’s SportsWrap on FOX19 Joe Danneman had the opportunity to sit down and chat with Kentucky Speedway General Manager Mark Simendinger. Simendinger was part of the original group who picked the site of the newest track to hold a Sprint Cup event back in the late '90s.

Here is his discussion with Joe D, presented in question and answer form (a blog first!)

Q: With just days until the Quaker State, is it exciting to hear the words “race week”?

Simendinger with AJ Allmendinger

A: It is. It all started a long time ago and for us everyone started showing up last week so we’re in the middle of it right now.

Q: How important is the sell-out to bring NASCAR back year after year?

A: Not only do we want to put on a good event to bring it back year after year but we want to make sure that this mid-Summer date, right around the Fourth of July, time is a great date for us so we want to really lay claim to that. The best way of doing that is having a big success like we’re going to have.

Q: What is your advice to first-time NASCAR fans going to their first-ever NASCAR race?

A: There’s a lot of things, advice wise, that I would give them. If you’re only going to come on Saturday, I would come early because there’s a huge corporate display area. There’s a big vending area with 52 trailers of all different things which creates a shopping mall that people like to go up and down.

We’ve got a prerace concert at 5 p.m. All the prerace festivities and the flyover and all that kind of stuff, you don’t want to miss any of that, and that’s really a big part of the experience.

Even if you’re not coming Saturday, or even if you are, Thursday and Friday are incredible shows and they’re very affordable. You get to see the Cup drivers, they’re either practicing or qualifying. The trucks and Nationwide races are fantastic races, and it’s a great way to come down to the Speedway for not too much money.

Q: How is Kentucky different from tracks that other NASCAR fans have visited in the Midwest (like Indy, Michigan or Bristol)?

A: All of our grandstands are brand new. The way that our track is built down into a bowl gives a lot of commanding views from all of the seats. We’ve moved pit road closer to the fans, so I’m partial to the place because I’ve been a part of it for a long time but I think it’s as fine a place to watch a race as there is on this Earth.

Q: No complaints from the June 1st tire test. That’s a good sign, right?

A: That’s one of the best things, of course.

Q: Kentucky is unique, and some big names haven’t raced there. That should make for some good racing, right?

A: I think it will. I think NASCAR is going to try to equalize that by giving them six hours of testing on Thursday when they come here to try to get everybody on equal footing. But we’ve got guys like Joey Logano who has won three times [in the Nationwide Series], Kyle Busch has won a couple of times at our place, Carl Edwards, guys like this, and Kevin Harvick.

Mark Martin during the tire test

They all know their way around there pretty well. It’s going to be interesting to see if the other guys, the Jimmie Johnsons and the Earnhardts and the Gordons, can they catch up knowledge wise to what these other guys are bringing to the table.

Q: The average, non-NASCAR fan still may not realize exactly what this means for Sparta and Gallatin County. Talk about the economic impact of the race weekend.

A: When you consider that Gallatin County has, I believe, less than 7,000 people and we’re going to check in at about 125,000 or so by the time it’s all said and done by the time you count the campers, and the people that work there and everybody, that’s a pretty big deal.

It’s having its effect, and this is one of the great things about this event. I feel good that this isn’t just an event that [Kentucky Speedway] do well with. We’re going to do well with this event obviously. But so will the city of Cincinnati and their hotels and their restaurateurs, so will Lexington, so will Louisville, so the entire region draws off this thing and benefits from it and that’s what gives it so much popularity.

Q: What last minute preparations are you going through?

A: Everybody thinks that sports marketing is the greatest, sexiest business in the world, but in the last couple of days some employees and I spent some time stuffing bags for campers and putting credentials together and some of the most unglamorous stuff. The guys from the Reds  and Bengals know what I’m talking about, you’ve got to do all that stuff. But that’s the last minute detail stuff that we’re doing.

All the major construction stuff is done. We’re just painting lines and stuff like that. We’re ready to go.

Q: Speaking of construction, the highways are open?

A: The highways are open, and I am really thrilled about that on so many levels. Not only will our fans be able to come in, but I can get to work a lot easier now.

Q: Can people still get standing room only tickets?

A: Yes, standing room and we’ve also got the Pit Road Club inside which is a high-end, hospitality area, which is really pretty cool. It’s kind of an expensive ticket but if you’re selling clients, it’s a great place to watch the race.

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Those tickets are available on Kentucky Speedway’s website www.kentuckyspeedway.com or by going to FOX19.com and finding the link on the sports page.

Happy Fourth of July everyone and happy birthday to my mom today as well. The Quaker State 400 is just days away. Check out all my blogs leading up to the race. I’ll be tweeting and blogging away from Sparta starting Wednesday. It should be a blast of a time.