Page 147 of Trading Paint

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Page 147 of Trading Paint

“That’s my little buddy.” Jameson replied spinning Lane around.

Alley took Lane back as they got the announcement to get inside the cars. My heart started pounding hard, my tummy tied in knots. I never got nervous per se when he raced but I did now. This was so much bigger than dirt tracks and though you could easily get hurt racing sprints, these speeds were higher. That frightened me for about a half a second before my mind caught up with me and I reminded myself that I couldn’t think about what could go wrong. I had to trust that nothing would and know that he did this because he loved racing, that’s all that mattered...he was happy.

I kissed him on the cheek before he got inside the car. He had other plans and openly kissed me on the lips in front of everyone. I wasn’t sure how to reply to it so I kissed himback,trying to guard any feelings I had from the hundreds of thousands of people watching.

Diffuser – Jameson

Strapping myself into the car, that’s when the nervesreallyhit me.

I’d never been claustrophobic before but with the panic attack I was having, it seemed like the only clinical definition that came to mind. I’ll admit,I was intimidated by this race at first. If I screwed up the first time I raced full-sized sprint cars, no big deal.

Now if I screwed up at the Daytona 500 that wasdifferent.

It was Sway’s words that calmed me, as always.

She leaned inside the car, her grin wide. “Just remember...it’s just like any other race.”

Anyone could have said that to me and I’d still be freaking out but because it came from my best friend, my counterpoint, it meant everything. It wasn’t just any race though. I kept telling people it was but it wasn’t.

It was bigger than those races like the Chili Bowl or Turkey Night...it was the Daytona 500.

Kyle did exactly what a crew chief should do—he kept me steady. Just before I fired up the engine, he leaned in and said, “Just treat today like another practice session. That’s all this is.”

That was exactly the right thing to say to me. It reminded me of all the training I had and all the test sessions we did. The important thing was to remain focused and smooth.

“You guys copy?” I tapped into our radio frequency.

“Yep, we gotcha bud,” Kyle said. “Fire it up.”

“Aiden, you copy?” I adjusted my helmet and flicked the ignition switch, pulling my visor down. I usually ran tinted tear-offs on my helmet to aide in the changing of the sun by the end of the race. Now I didn’t have to worry about mud on my helmet but visibility could be just as harsh with the sun here at Daytona.

“So you’re coming up on pit lane. Check your speed.” Kyle said. “That will tell us your pit road speed.”

“Where’s the line? I don’t see it.”

I peered to the left, with the limited visibility I had, I tried to find my pit and the line for pit road. These were things I wanted to find before I was speeding down pit road in attempt to make it on and off quickly and without spinning myself.

“How can it be more obvious?” Aiden laughed. “Spencer is standing on the wall.”

I glanced toward the wall to see Spencer waving his arms over his large egg shaped head. “Pace car is at pit road speed.”

I checked my RPM’s. “Four thousand second gear.”

“Let’s havea good race boys,” Jimi said. “It’s a long day, stayfocused.”

“Lights are out,comin’ to the green.” Aiden announced and my mouth was suddenly dry and that panic attack feeling had returned.

My entire body seemed to be jittery and uncontrollable, I couldn’t understand the feelings I was having so I took a few deep breaths, pulled on my belts once more and griped the steering wheel. I was lined up fourth in the second row behind Tate on the outside. Guess who was beside me?

Yep, Darrin, in the numberfourteen.

“Watch you’re shift.” Kyle said. “Harris lags back on therestarts,you saw that in the Duels.”

The problem with lagging back on tracks like Daytona was that you have forty-two other drivers setting pace by your car when you’re the leader. When you lag back so do they. Sure, those first few cars see what you’re doing back the back half can’t. It’s an easy way to get smashed into from behind on the restarts and the last thing you want to do is get bumped when you’re trying to get up to speed and miss a shift or somethingsimilar,or worse, hit the car in front of you and smash in the nose. Aerodynamics were everything at Daytona, mess that up and you can pretty much forget your changes at the front. Not only will you not be able to cut a hole in the air needed to draft but you won’t be able to draft with anyone else. You need to be able to get right on them, the nose of your car pushed against their bumper so if you’re car is torn up, the contact will be harder to reach and maintain.

So there I was trying to anticipate Tate’s jump on the line. I shifted into third when we came out of three.

Aiden came on the radio.


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