Indianapolis Motor Speedway staff photographer Chris Jones shares his favorite images of the year from IMS and the Verizon IndyCar Series circuit.

Will Power opened the 2014 Verizon IndyCar Series season with a win at St. Petersburg.  Shooting the checkered flag photo from the flagstand can be a challenge, so it is always a relief when everything works in the shot.

The checkered flag at the Grand Prix of St. Pete

To me, the highlight of every IndyCar season is the Indy 500. I was fortunate enough to be on the podium for the pre-race festivities including when Jim Nabors sang “Back Home Again in Indiana” for the last time, and then when Jim helped Mari Hulman George give the command to start engines.

Mari Hulman George and Jim Nabors

A tradition at the Indianapolis 500 is the several-hour day-after photo shoot with the winner. This year, Ryan Hunter-Reay’s son Ryden stole the show as he turned the Yard of Bricks into his personal playground. This photo was taken from the flagstand.

Ryden Hunter-Reay on the bricks

The drivers get all of the glory, but IndyCar racing is truly a team sport. This photo taken from outside of Turn 1 at Iowa Speedway shows the crew members in action during the race.

Pit stop action at Iowa

In my opinion, the most scenic track on the IndyCar schedule is Sonoma Raceway. Here is 2014 IndyCar champion Will Power at Sonoma.

Will Power at Sonoma

2014 has been called the Year of the Selfie. The top 3 (Mike Conway, Tony Kanaan and Will Power) for the second Toronto race are shooting their selfie.

Mike Conway, Will Power and Tony Kanaan take a selfie

We cover a lot of non-racing activities at IndyCar events, including the full-field autograph sessions that takes place each weekend. At the Mid-Ohio autograph session, some fans gave goodie bags to the Andretti Autosport drivers that included cans of silly string which they used to ambush the Team Penske drivers. Even though they are on-track rivals, we often see the camaraderie among the drivers in the series.

Andretti Autosport team members ambush Team Penske with silly string

In addition to the racing action, we cover a number of other events at IMS. This photo was taken the morning of the Indianapolis Corporate Challenge from the roof of the Pagoda.

Sunrise at IMS