More Daytona 500 Preparation

This is pretty cool! My work credentials gives me total access to any where in any of the race tracks that we'll be going to. It allows for a lot of neat views of things that most people don't get to see. Of course, we have a responsibility to not abuse our privileges and such - and so for the most part - no one does.

Here's some photos and some explanations:

The TV compound is really filling up. It's amazing just how much equipment is being devoted to televising and other media outlets for this race week.

This first photo is of the TV compound on Friday the 2nd of Feb.



This photo is taken on the 7th. You can really see a difference



The track grounds and infield are starting to get a lot of attention as well:

In this first photo (from Sunday the 4th), you can see that there's not a lot of activity on the infield and they haven't yet started addressing the logos on the grass:


In this second photo, you can see (just 3 days later) that the infield is filling up with all the racer's crews' gigantic RV's and semi trucks. They've also started making the grounds look better.


My job has me all over the entire racetrack (I'll make a graphic in the next few days showing you what we do (in general terms). The following photos are just of the racetrack from several places:

Here's a photo from when I was driving on the track near pit road


Here's a photo of the Richard Petty Driving School Cars coming by at about 150mph. It's amazing how fast they seem to be going when you're this close


Here's a photo from one of our camera positions -going into the backstretch.