Days of Daytona

"Denny Hamlin, driver of the #11 FedEx Ground Toyota, leads a pack of cars during the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway on July 6, 2013 in Daytona Beach, Florida."

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Halfway through the NASCAR season, I had the amazing opportunity to document restrictor plate racing at Daytona International Speedway.

While working in sweltering heat all weekend, somehow it was much more tolerable than Maryland's nasty summer humidity. I certainly thought it would be the other way around.

Nonetheless, the two races of the weekend were after sunset making it easy to not overheat shooting the action. My position for the Getty Images team was on the roof, giving me an incredible vantage of both races.

In most cases, if you're not positioned at a high elevation, you can only see the stock cars racing by for a few seconds at a time each lap. But being on the roof, my eyes were glued on the track literally every moment time I wasn't blinking.

I had an great time with the always talented crew - and was fortunate to get to document the weekend perched above everyone else for a fresh view.