When he shifted from NFL Films to NASCAR Images in 2006, producer Kevin Jackson '01 went from being a greenhorn at a company boasting nearly 100 Sports Emmys to the old hand at a company just few years old.

"NFL Films was like my grad school," says Jackson. It's an apt analogy considering his Bates background: as a theater major whose senior thesis project was directing Neil Simon's The Good Doctor and an athlete in track and football.

Jackson quickly got up to speed at NASCAR Images (recently redubbed NASCAR Media Group), co-winning a Sports Emmy in 2007 for his producing work on the documentary series Beyond the Wheel.

Similar to what NFL Films does for pro football, the NASCAR Media Group repurposes motorsports content for TV, film, new media, and consumer products. As far as Jackson's own work, "essentially what I do is use raw elements — HD video or film, interviews, narration, music, announcer audio — to tell a story that's interesting and compelling."

In early 2008, Jackson and his colleagues produced a documentary on the history of the Daytona 500 to celebrate the race's 50th edition. The project took advantage of NASCAR's relatively short history.

"We filmed a roundtable discussion for the Daytona project and had moonshiner Junior Johnson at the same table with Michael Waltrip," a two-time winner of the 500, Jackson says. "NASCAR has a living history."