One of the things that I love most about being a journalist is that I do things that I would never do under normal circumstances. Attending a NASCAR race is just such a thing, and yet, there I was at Dover International Speedway, running around from turn to turn trying to catch all of the action.

The level of noise definitely exceeded my expectations. The first time the door opened to the press room and I didn’t have my ear protection on, I was in shock. It is deafening. I had always assumed that NASCAR was like baseball in a way … that people went to hang out, eat some hot dogs and watch sporadic moments of action when they occur, but I learned that the sheer volume of the cars as they go around the track makes conversation pretty much impossible, and I imagine most make do with listening to radio chatter in their headsets as they watch the race.

We had three photographers at the race. One was stationed up high on turn one, looking down at the start/finish line, and two others (myself and a freelancer) who were free to roam the track. At around the three hundredth left turn I realized that NASCAR is much better on television, with multiple camera angles and that everyone at the event, myself included, was really just there to see a crash.