Master of Martinsville

In motorsport, there are a few names that assert absolute dominance. It’s not always fair, it’s not always easy to like them. But they are on top, and consistently so. Jimmie Johnson is definitely among them. And nestled in the rural plains of southern Virginia, not far from the North Carolina border, is one of the few tracks where Johnson is usually his most dominant.

Martinsville dates all the way back to the sport’s earliest races. NASCAR in this region is steeped in history (If you don’t know it, go research it. Fascinating stuff). Some drivers are fantastic at road courses. Others better at the gigantic banked superspeedway restrictor plate races. Others are better at short tracks. Johnson seems to be good at all of them. He took his seventh career win at the “giant paperclip” half mile track on Sunday afternoon. And did so from pole position. Like I said, it’s hard to argue with his dominance.

I spent the weekend working with the Getty Images NASCAR crew. Most of my assignments focused in and around the garage area. But NASCAR is full of color and great spectacle and never short of excitement. It was fun, and a great learning experience working in the tightly packed NASCAR pits. Step lightly is my best advice for future NASCAR photographers!