Lights, camera, action!

As you can imagine, there’s a lot of behind-the-scenes prep that goes into getting everything ready for the race season. A significant part of my job as an IndyCar driver involves marketing and media. Last Wednesday I took the first flight from Indy (6 a.m., ouch!) to head to INDYCAR’s media day in St. Petersburg as part of “spring training.”

The day started off with the dedication of a street named in honor of Dan Wheldon. It was a very fitting tribute to the champion, and I look forward to seeing the permanent memorial in St. Pete.

After that, it was non-stop work for the rest of the day. I started with still photography, which is used for everything from at-track signage to website imagery. We also tape a lot of video for use throughout the season—Q&As, track previews, etc.

Another important part of the day is our individual roundtable interview with members of the media. This is a time to develop storylines for the year, get to know each driver better and catch up after the off-season. Of course, this year we had plenty to talk about after already spending a good amount of time testing the new car.

Ready for my close-up.

A lot of the zoomy-looking segues between commercials on race broadcasts are shot during media day, so we do green screen work under bright, hot lights (and yes, we have to wear makeup- it’s amazing how much work goes in to making everyone look ‘natural’!).  The amount of technical equipment and talent it takes to produce the finished product always amazes me. Look for some cool shots this season!

Once media day was a wrap, I drove to Sebring for my favorite part of spring training… two days in the car!

P.S. "Like" me on Facebook for an exclusive video from media day!