Page 183 of Trading Paint
“She said he kissed her. She didn’t say anything about hands.”
“See...” he sighed heavily opening the door to the fridge in the shop. He retrieved two beers before closing the door and handing me one. I waited for him to answer but it seemed he was taking his time.
“See what?” I pressed opening the beer and taking a drink.
“I don’t like getting in the middle of this shit.”
He was right, but I would be asking Sway about the touching later. Bile rose inside me thinking of another man touching her. Touching what I wanted badly.
I wasn’tmadat Tommy, I wasmadat myself for not being there for her. She didn’t deserve to be molested by that douche. No, she deserved to have a man around who would take care of her and not let things like this happen. She deserved someone to worship her in all the ways I did inside. I wanted to be that guy.Goddid I want to be him.
“When will you two wake up?”
“Probably never,” I answered without thinking.
“She is so in love with you that it’s revolting to be around.”
I smiled. “Nothing about her could be revolting.”
“Give me that wrench.” Tommy reached for the wrench as I held it above his head.
“Why?”
“So I can smack your pussy whipped ass.”
“I’m almost certain the term “pussy whipped” ensures you are getting pussy. That’s not happening.”
Conversation changed to sprint cars after that which was fine by me. Tommy and I ended up changing the weight around in both cars before loading them onto the hauler so Greg, Justin’s cousin could drive the truck to Grand Rapids.
“Did you get the new sponsor?” Tommy asked handing Greg and Rusty, one of the mechanics for the team, the directions to the track.
“Yeah, got Ayers as primary sponsor for the No. 19 car,”
“The one Tyler is driving?”
“Yeah,”
“Look at you business man,” Tommy teased, the guys laughed. “Raking in the sponsors left and right,”
“They see the name, Tommy. It has nothing to do with me.”
It was true. My name had become somewhat of a household name in just a matter of months. I now had sponsors approaching me.
When Wednesday rolled around, it was time to head for Charlotte for the Winston Open. Usually when I flew out to a track, most of the team was already there. Since this race was only thirty minutes from our shop in Mooresville, we all had an extra day. All but me, I had to be there for hospitality events. Simplex Shocks andSprings’ headquarters was located in Charlotte so any time we raced there, I was jammed full of commitments for them. When a primary sponsor shells out close $12 million dollars for an entire season, you don’t ask questions.
If Melissa, the rep for Simplex, told Alley I would be somewhere, I had better be at that somewhere if we wanted to keep our sponsor.
Puppet strings sound familiar?
All that aside, I don’t forget what those strings allow me to accomplish.Racing.So many drivers fight their entire careers to make it to where I am and I’m here living the dream. Controlled to the point that my life right now wasn’t even mine, but still, I was able to race.
The Winston (changes names depending on sponsorship) was an All-Star type race prior to the Coco-Cola 600 that consisted of past winners as well as current winners, plus the past five winners of the regular season championship—similar to the Budweiser Shootout before the Daytona 500. Drivers were also eligible if you qualified for it in the 40-lap qualifying run called the Winston Open.
The Winston, as you can guess was held in the heart of NASCAR, Charlotte North Carolina at Lowes Motor Speedway. With the nature of the race, much like the Shootout, no points were at stake so the drivers made crazy reckless moves that usually resulted in usually only a few cars finishing the race. On top of that, the winner receives a million dollars. If that doesn’t tempt you to lay it all on the line, I don’t know what will.
The race, like the shootout, has a different format and changes every year. This year they had a 90-lap segment with elimination. I think they watch a little too much ofSurvivorand came up with this one. This year they ran only past race winners from the previous year, and all former cup titleholders from the past five years, plus the winner of the qualifying races.
The first segment was forty-laps followed by a mandatory four-tire green flag stop on between laps 10-30. Only the top twenty cars advanced to the next segment. The second segment was thirty-laps, only twelve cars advanced to the final 20-lap shootout to determine the winner. And to make it interesting, they implemented a full-field inversion.
