Well as a Nascar fan long before anyone even thought of boogity boogity boogity, and in fact it was a Scot's voice that started what little coverage that did exist. In fact ole DW hadn't even turned a lap yet. I have a hunch that it might have been Neil in the 31 car of Richard Childress where the car was air born. I'm getting old but not sure for certain, but I think that was in the tri oval. For those that aren't Nascar fans, they broke the mold when Neil was born. A simple and up to a point a quiet man that was very humble, and just down right funny. After rolling over many times with a car that literally was completely off the ground, he unstrapped unhurt and went up to the tv booth. I never will forget his comments. "I didn't get scared till it got quiet." At first is seems a bit odd when you are wrecking a race car at nearly 200, but when you thought about it further it made perfect sense. He KNEW he was totally off the ground and 1. he knew he might be hitting a fence with fans behind them and if he went through that fence an awful lot of people would die that day 2. It was going to hurt when it started making noise again. It really is hard to believe its been 15 years now since his death at Daytona in the James Finch car number 51 sponsored by Country Time. That image would have value even today. IF they admitted they destroyed the negative, did you investigate legal action for compensation. Did the paper have your permission to send it to the AP before they did? When the word gets out and they get burned a few times for stunts like this the AP would be at least think twice before trying it again. You should rightly expect to be paid for good work. We often think short term with images, but one like this could be in any work on the history of Nascar and its market may last for quite some time to come. My how time flies and how Talladega brings back memories both good and bad. Now there is a story behind the comeback, but it really isn't photo related but if anyone is interested they can email me off list.
