*Quick Summary: The author elaborates on a few of his times working with Sports Illustrated.*
At times, my Showcar Department at Hendrick Motorsports works with many of the major sports media outlets on certain shots they can’t get from the teams. The race teams build race cars, and ideally, that’s all they do. It helps them focus on winning. Any other thing that would need to be staged or done using a car, like commercials, photo shoots, etc. are usually done by my Showcar group, using retired race cars.
One of the biggest sports media outlets in the world is Sports Illustrated. We’ve done a variety of things with them through the years, and there’s usually a story behind the staged shots you see in their magazine. I thought I’d share just a few of them here.
The most famous shot we’ve done with them so far was this cover shot from a magazine published earlier in the year:
The behind-the-scenes story there was simple – during negotiations, they asked us if they could have Dale Earnhardt Jr. lay on the car. We said no. They asked again. We said no again. They said okay.
Our guy took the car to the studio, got it ready for the shoot, and they asked Dale Jr. to lay on the car. Not knowing the previous back-and-forth, but always taking excellent care of our equipment, Dale was hesitant but extremely careful, and he did it. As that was happening, my showcar driver called to tell me what was going on, and my response was typical – “Whatever Dale wants to do is fine. Thanks for letting me know. Just tell me what we need to fix when it’s over”. The resulting shot became legendary, and that issue of the magazine became an instant highly sought-after collectible.
We had a few minor things to fix on it when it got back to the shop, but overall, thanks to Dale’s care, the car was in good shape. That’s one of the worst places to lay on a NASCAR stock car, as there is no real support for the hood close to the windshield. It basically collapses onto the air filter housing below it. That can cause all sorts of issues, including possibly having to replace the hood or air filter housing altogether. Dale was conscious of that, and did his best to keep it from happening by putting most of his weight on the windshield (sturdier) and the cowl area (cheaper/easier to replace than the hood). Our goal was to never have to put him in that position to begin with, that’s why we initially said no. In hindsight, it made for a spectacular cover, but ask me the same question again today, and I’d give the exact same answer – “NO!”
We’ve also been involved in a lot of lesser ways behind-the-scenes with their photos, and sometimes, we’re not in them at all, even when we think we should’ve been. Such was the case for this shot of the 2002 DuPont NASCAR Day celebration in Wilmington, Delaware. There was a parade through downtown Wilmington with our showcars being driven by Jeff Gordon and his crew chief, lots of great events and fun things for the fans/employees of DuPont, and a giant race car cake. We brought all of our showcars, worked for days and days to pull this off, had the city of Wilmington fix potholes and curbs along the parade route the night before, and do all sorts of impossible things, yet guess what Sports Illustrated posted a photo of? Yep, the cake! Oh well!
Then we have this silliness: Sports Illustrated was doing a photo shoot with Jeff Gordon in the race shop a few years ago. They needed someone to stand in for lighting and to get their shots lined up with the #24 DuPont car. It’s typical when you’re doing staged shots with a driver to have someone else stand in for lighting, to see which poses are preferred, work on camera adjustments, and other things before the real shooting begins. The only things that might be different for the real subject would be the color of their clothes or their height, but the rest has been practiced by the photographer, stand in, and crew by the time the star gets there. Doing this helps to get everyone home quicker. So we supplied the showcar, minus engine as requested, and I stood in for Jeff Gordon before he got there. I’ve never seen Jeff in any of these poses/scenes anywhere, so I’m not sure what good these Polaroids did other than to embarrass me in front of my co-workers, and give me a cool social media profile pic for a while! Hahaha!
