"Juan Pablo Montoya, driver of the #42 Target Chevrolet, practices for the Sprint Cup Series Wonderful Pistachios 400 at Richmond International Raceway on September 9, 2011 in Richmond, Virginia."
"Jimmie Johnson, driver of the #48 Lowe's/Power of Pride Chevrolet, practices for the Sprint Cup Series Wonderful Pistachios 400 at Richmond International Raceway on September 9, 2011 in Richmond, Virginia."
"Aric Almirola, driver of the #88 AdvoCare Chevrolet, sits in his car during practice for the Nationwide Series Virginia 529 College Savings 250 at Richmond International Raceway on September 9, 2011 in Richmond, Virginia."
"Ricky Stenhouse Jr., driver of the #6 Fastenal Ford, races during the NASCAR Nationwide Virginia 529 College Savings 250 at Richmond International Raceway on September 9, 2011 in Richmond, Virginia."
"Kevin Harvick, driver of the #29 Budweiser Chevrolet, makes a pit stop during the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Wonderful Pistachios 400 during the Wonderful Pistachios 400 at Richmond International Raceway on September 10, 2011 in Richmond, Virginia."
The night before I flew out to the east coast for the race I hurt my back in the finals of our soccer league. Almost immediately after it happened I had flashbacks of Patrick's injury, as he did the same thing a year ago and ended up being down and out for the next nine months.
Consequently he was picking me up from the airport in Baltimore and driving down together to Richmond to cover the race. The last thing you need with a back injury is two, 3.5 hour stints in a plane and car seat but I took two Aleve and sucked it up.
When we got to the hotel I was walking like the Hunchback of Notre Dame.
The whole weekend was a painful challenge. Standing wasn't a problem but as soon as I would sit for a few minutes my back would lock up.
In an effort to make things easier I went "old school" and shot most of the weekend with just a wide and a 70-200 on two cameras. No belt back. No extra lenses. That strategy, I'm sure, proved useful during 14 hours at the track on Friday and 11 hours on Saturday. I was assigned to just cover pit stops during both races which I'm sure my back is happy about.
I'm guessing that it was just a strained muscle or something as it has improved every day.
Despite the constant pain all weekend, two crab cake lunches and two images in Getty's pictures of the week made it worth it.
-JCE
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