Authors: Shey Stahl
Reaching
for her arms, I pulled her up my body and slumped against the counter. “How am
I going to win
...
” my arms circled around her bringing her
flush against me, pants still around my ankles, “when you just did that? I’m
exhausted.”
“You’ve
won more races than any other driver in the history of this sport and you’re
forty-one, I’m sure you’ll get it together.”
Sway drew
herself away as I reached for my jeans. We parted ways not long after that but
I did promise to repay the favor tonight to which she assured me she would be
holding me to it.
“I’m glad
you made it,” I said kissing her forehead before exiting the motor coach
dressed in my racing suit.
She smiled
taking a long gaze down my body.
“Arie was
arrested last night. Just sprung the little shit before we came here.”
I stopped
mid-step looking back at her over my shoulder, “Seriously?”
Sway
nodded.
Nowadays
with Axel racing on his own and gone most of the time, Arie usually wanted
nothing to do with us on the weekends. Casten was always with Sway but
sometimes he took off to the track with Axel. That didn’t happen often, as Sway
didn’t like him hanging out with Tommy and Willie.
Daytona
was never a race Casten missed, too many girls.
As throngs
of those said girls passed by, I noticed Casten sitting outside the motor coach
as Sway and I talked about Arie.
He looked
up at us. “Thank god you’re done. I’m starving.”
Casten
pushed his way inside to retrieve a sandwich and then came back out to sit in
the chairs outside watching the girls. Casten had a way with girls that most
fourteen year old boys didn’t have. They loved him to the point of obsession.
“Remember
that boy who said he didn’t want a girlfriend?” Sway asked wrapping her arms
around my waist and tucking herself under my shoulder.
Casten
kicked his legs out slouching in the chair. “I don’t recall saying anything of
that nature.”
“You did.”
I sat next to him. He rolled his eyes uninterested. “Why was Arie arrested?”
“Ask her,”
he shrugged keeping a close eye on a group of young blonde’s wearing bikinis.
After
finishing his sandwich, he stood, “Good luck today.”
“Stay out
of the pits Casten!” Sway yelled after him.
“Too
late,” he called back sprinting the other direction so she couldn’t catch him.
“I don’t
know why I bring those little shits with me,” she said taking a seat on my lap.
Arie and
Lexi approached us, as I was getting ready to head to the grid. Spencer had
pulled up in the golf cart and looked at his daughter about the same as I was
looking at mine. Denial they were old enough to be wearing what they were
wearing. I wasn’t impressed and threw a Simplex Shock and
Springs
sweatshirt at her. “Put that on.”
Arie
rolled her eyes and hung the shirt over her bare shoulders but didn’t put it
on.
Tate and
Bobby walked up jumping on the back of the golf cart wanting to hitch a ride
when I noticed Easton trailing close behind. He offered my daughter a shy
smile. I knew they knew each other from Axel and Easton racing USAC together.
“Let’s
go.” Spencer ignored the girls and nodded to the track.
I stopped
beside Arie and leaned against her shoulder. “We will be discussing your arrest
tonight.”
Again, more
eye rolling.
“Jameson,”
a reporter to my left shoved a microphone in my face. “This year you’ve already
been fined $50,000 for the altercations made to your car and forced to start
from the rear of the field today. What are you thought on making it to the
front and do you think you’ll get caught in the big one?”
Trying to
keep my composure for the media and their invasion into our privacy, I answered
politely, “It’s unfortunate that we’re
startin
’ from
the back but that’s the way it is. I think if we keep out of trouble, pay
attention and make good stops, we have a shot just like anyone else. With
Daytona you can be leading and then next thing you know you’re last. Same goes
for last place. You just never know.”
I must
have answered with that same speech twenty times standing on the grid before I
finally heard the call for us to report to our cars.
Brody
Williams, a rookie this year walked past me, and my forty-third starting
position, to his pole position. I didn’t appreciate his brash walk past me.
Spencer
noticed and looked over his shoulder before nudging mine. “He looks like he’s
ten years old.”
I grunted
but said nothing. I gave Sway a kiss, she wished me luck, my team and I shook
hands and patted backs. We all prayed for a day of good luck and a safe five
hundred miles when the outcome at a track like Daytona was far from our
control.
Inside the
car, I got comfortable, pulled on belts and did the best I could to calm my
pre-race nerves. Most of which were usually calmed but one picture that reminded
me why I was here, my family. The picture was one taken when the kids were
younger and my absolute favorite as it reminded me of the way we were. It
wasn’t your ordinary posed family picture. Instead, it was Sway and me standing
together on the beach, both looking at each other. My right arm was hung out to
the side holding a two-year old Casten up in the air by his ankle as he
laughed. Sway stood with one hand resting on my cheek with the other one
grabbing a six-year old Axel by his hooded sweatshirt. There, standing with her
hands on her hips, was our little headstrong Arie wearing a ballet outfit, a
JAR Racing sweatshirt and a pair of combat boots. It was my family and a family
that got me through this. Those that knew me understood this lifestyle wasn’t
something I enjoyed but I enjoyed racing. I enjoyed being the best and with
that came this lifestyle.
Connecting
my helmet to the radio, I checked reception. “You copy Kyle?”
“10-4,”
All was
quiet as the field rolled from the grid and onto the track for our four pace
laps.
“Let’s
have a good day guys.” I said over the radio. “Awesome pit stops and clean
driving.”
“Clean
driving?” Kyle laughed. “Who’s
drivin
’ the car?”
“Whatever.”
I mumbled tightening my belts.
“Two to go
at the line,” Aiden announced, “I don’t have a good view in three so if you
question it, don’t make a move there.”
“10-4,”
Once the
green flag was waved, it was crazy. Every other lap we were being thrown the
caution. Cars were overheating and blowing engines. Tires were shredding. I’d
never seen it that bad before but when you’re trying to control our speeds as
we do, we get bunched together. If you bunch cars together, they overheat and
engines blow. What did they expect?
“Clear
high, there you go. Nice move.” Aiden said when I got past Brody Williams for
fifth twenty laps into the race.
“Fuck
man,” I looked up to see him still there, “he gets such a good jump off the
other cars.”
Brody
didn’t let me off easy and came right back with Nathan Wise and Bobby behind
him. Since they changed the rules and we couldn’t communicate with other
drivers I couldn’t tell Bobby what I really thought of him paring up with Brody
here. He was supposed to be drafting with me.
For three
hundred miles it was an endless display of yellow flags and swapping positions.
“It’s like
a circus out here.” I laughed when the caution came out again just after we
restarted with ten laps to go.
Aiden
laughed, “Lots of green, yellow and now red.”
“I’m
heading home if they add blue.” I joked. “Why is the red out now?”
“Tate and
Steve are getting into it.”
“Tate?”
“Yeah,
Tate Harris,”
“Why is
the crowd going crazy?” I noticed the shift in the stands and the sudden draw
to the start finish line.
“I told
you,” Kyle sounded annoyed. “Tate and Steve got into it.”
“What do
you mean they got into it?”
“They got
out of their cars and were pushing each other.”
“Oh, well
are they still doing that?”
“Why are
you so concerned with it?” he snapped. “Usually you don’t give a shit.”
I sighed.
“I’m bored and missing everything. If they’re fighting and shit I wanna see
it.”
“Stay in
your car. The last thing we need is another fine.”
I did stay
in the car but eventually after ten minutes of being red flagged, I voiced my
concern for my boredom again. “You would think with all this high tech
blinky
shit in these cars they’d let us have a TV.”
“Oh,
yeah,” Kyle laughed, his joking mood returning. “NASCAR would definitely allow
that.”
We ended
up restarting some five minutes later only to have the last lap end in
disaster.
Running
tenth, I thought for sure I would be ahead of the mess when Brody and Nathan
got sideways coming out of three it took us all out of being in the lead. For
laps, you knew it was coming when the cars were literally floating around all
jerking for position.
Cars were
scattering everywhere and all I could do was let go of the wheel and hope for
the best. Most drivers let go of the wheel. When we knew the chance of
correcting it was slim, to avoid breaking our hands if the wheel jerked back
the other direction with a hit to the front wheels. It’s happened before.
When we
start wrecking like that on a superspeedway, there’s nothing you can do. We are
all bunched up so tightly that one loose car could take out a pack of twenty
easily and it did.
“Hang on
to it bud, there you go.” Kyle urged. I tried to correct it only to be hit from
behind and then slammed into the wall.
“We’re in
it.” Aiden announced when Paul nailed us from behind and sent me sailing into
the side of Bobby and then Paul. Pretty soon I was handing out taps to a
handful of cars. It was as though I was playing ping pong and I never liked
ping pong when inside a race car.
Before I
knew it, I was being treated in the infield care center along with about ten
other guys.
“Talk
about carnage out there.” Bobby joked holding his neck as a nurse looked over
him.
“I still
don’t know what happened.” Paul joked slightly disoriented. “I think I hit you
twice before I ended up on the other side of the fence.”
“I’ve come
to the rescue.” Tate said with a shaded eye and beer in hand. He tossed one my
direction.
Sway
approached me from behind, her hands rose from my arms up to my shoulder
holding the ice pack to my neck. “I hate watching wrecks like that.”
There was
no sense in smiling nor did I have the energy to smile. Hell I didn’t even have
the energy to open the beer in my hand. “I know.”
Once they
cleared me to go, I handed the unopened beer to Paul, “Drink up.”
“Looks
like you took some licks out there.” Spencer said checking on me as I got
inside the golf cart. A few reporters stopped me outside the care center to ask
my thoughts and see if I was okay.
I gave
Spencer a nod that I was all right and then turned in the seat to offer the
reporter a quick interview.
“Jameson,
how are you feeling? You took a nasty hit out there when Paul got into you.”
“I’m fine,
sore, but fine. That’s the craziest finish I’ve ever seen here.”
The
reporter laughed. “Can you feel those big wrecks coming like that?”
“Oh yeah,
you can feel it, see it, even sense that it’s coming. It’s just a matter of
who’s gonna make it and who’s not.”
“Rough
fines and rough race huh?” he asked bringing up the fines again. To reporters it
doesn’t matter whether you had a good race or a bad race. It doesn’t matter if
you won or wrecked. They still wanted their story and focused on where that
was. To them interviewing me, was about the fines issued this morning. They
wouldn’t forget.
“You know,
there’s NASCAR’s theory on this and there’s mine and our teams. Somewhere in
the middle is the truth and that‘ll be decided by someone else.”
I left my
remarks at that; I couldn’t offer them more.
Back at
the hauler, everything was loaded and ready to go within an hour as the crew
slowly disappeared to board the team plane and my private jet waited for my
family and me.
Looking
around, I watched Kyle and Mason trudge off to SUV waiting to take them to the
airport as well, already looking over notes and contemplating the next race.
Just like me, even if they weren’t at the track, their lives were here.
Sway found
me again, bags in hand ready to head out when I noticed Brody Williams standing
beside his hauler, a large crowd had gathered. Again, I wasn’t sure why I
didn’t like Brody but I didn’t. Mostly right then because I saw Lexi and Arie
standing beside him laughing.