An Interview with Legendary NASCAR Photographer Brian Cleary - Part One

January 1, 2010

By Rebecca Gladden

Rebecca Gladden

An unattributed quote about photography asserts that one doesn't take a photograph - one asks, quietly, to borrow it.

That description seems a perfect fit for the career of professional photographer Brian Cleary, a self-confessed 'shy' guy who happens to have a fantastic photographic eye.

Among other subjects, Cleary, a lifelong race fan, has been shooting NASCAR since the early 1980s and recently began archiving thousands of photos -- many of historic significance -- and sharing them on his website, blog and social networking sites (see note below).

The first photo I saw of Cleary's was on his blog under the heading "Story Behind the Picture" in a post entitled "The Kid in the Red Cap." The central figures in the photo are Dale and Teresa Earnhardt and daughter Taylor Nicole, who was just a toddler at the time, but there was another youngster who popped up in the Earnhardt family photo.

Photo by Brian Cleary/www.bcpix.com

As Cleary tells it, "I framed the small group and fired away to preserve the image for posterity. The only thing that bothered me was that there was a boy in a bright red Winston Cup cap standing right in front of the Earnhardt group. He was just tall enough that the red cap stuck up and disrupted the composition of the shot."

That child, it turns out, was a very young Dale Earnhardt Jr.

A visit to Brian Cleary's website is like a walk down the halls of a NASCAR history gallery, where the walls are covered with jaw-dropping photographs and every turn reveals another amazing moment frozen in time.

Click on the file named "1982 Daytona July" and see a youthful, diminutive Mark Martin, with a mustache and a head full of hair, towered over by Buddy Baker as the two spoke in the garage prior to the Firecracker 400. Under the "Legends of NASCAR" heading, there's Neil Bonnett, Harry Gant, Bill Elliott, Benny Parsons, Bobby Allison -- too many to name, really -- all in clear, candid photos of the era.

Much of Cleary's appeal as a photographer stems from what he calls his "fly on the wall" approach, which allows him to focus on the people of the sport and capture their genuine emotions and events as they happened. But as impressive and historic as his photos are, Cleary laments that thousands more were lost to time and circumstance.

"One interesting thing I recall when covering the races for AP and UPI back in the 1980's is that, at the end of the event weekend, there would be a box of developed film in the corner of the room and whoever was in charge would say, 'Whoever wants to take their negatives, get them out of that box. If you don't take them, they'll be thrown away.' Being a huge race fan and also a pack rat who tends to compulsively save everything I ever shot, good or bad, I always grabbed my negatives. It always amazed me how many of the photographers did not, and all their photos went into the trash! I shudder to think of all the NASCAR history that ended up in the dumpster at Daytona Speedway."

The first NASCAR race Cleary attended as a child was the 1965 Firecracker 400 at Daytona International Speedway. He studied photography in college after switching his major from journalism. "One of my rewards for winning a class photo contest was photo passes to the 1981 Daytona 500. I guess that was the first NASCAR event I covered, although I didn't start officially working as a wire service stringer until February of 1982."

Photo by Brian Cleary/www.bcpix.com

Among Cleary's best subjects through the years was NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt Sr., in part because of Dale's drama-filled association with that particular racetrack. From a photographer's point of view, Cleary recalls, "His nickname was 'The Intimidator' and I was pretty intimidated by him. It always struck me how aware he was of the photographers who were around him. He would stare you down and almost dare you to take his picture. I don't think he cared if you did or not - I just got the feeling he was checking you out to see if you were brave enough to point a camera at him and snap the shutter while he was glaring at you. If you were ready and quick, you'd get a great shot, but he wouldn't give you many second chances."

In spite of -- or perhaps because of -- the unique challenges of shooting Earnhardt, Cleary is particularly proud of two photos he took of the late NASCAR star. One is a 1990 picture of Earnhardt at Atlanta after he won his fourth Winston Cup Championship. "This is not your standard 'hold the trophy' shot," said Cleary. "Dale was obviously very proud of the championship and he was hugging the trophy as if to say 'you can't take this away from me.'"

Photo by Brian Cleary/www.bcpix.com

Another special Earnhardt photo was taken at Darlington in the early 1990's. Cleary recalls, "He was sitting in the car waiting to qualify and I was kneeling on pit road focused on his face, when he made eye contact with me. He started striking all kinds of cool race driver poses, one of which shows only his eyes, surrounded by the blackness of his race car and his name on top of his helmet. He created the photo -- I just snapped the shutter. I've always liked the shot."

Photo by Brian Cleary/www.bcpix.com

Although you may not recognize Brian Cleary's name, you are probably familiar with some of his most iconic photos -- like this one of Air Force One flying over Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s race car at the 2004 Daytona 500. President Bush attended the early part of the race, which was eventually won by Earnhardt Jr. "Part-way through the race, Bush was scheduled to depart on Air Force One," Cleary said. "I thought it would be a cool shot to get Air Force One rising from the airport, which is right behind the speedway, and flying over a group of Daytona 500 fans watching the race. I found a spot inside Turn 2 and waited for the plane to appear. As it rose into the air, I started firing away and didn't stop until the airplane had cleared the airport. Of all the frames I had fired off, there was only one shot that had a race car in it; in one frame, Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s winning car appears in a gap between two groups of fans watching the President's plane take-off. Just the incredible odds against that happening have to make that photo unique."

Incredible odds? Perhaps. But it also takes remarkable talent to create such indelible images. Fortunately, Cleary has that ability and is now sharing decades' worth of his most unforgettable photos with the NASCAR nation.

Next week in Part Two: