Page 207 of Trading Paint
Yeah, somethinglikethat. It was similar to my first few test sessions with Harry, only now I just felt angry. I was angry that someone put the additive in the tank and angry that Gordon felt the need to make the entire drivers meeting about cheating never taking his eyes off Kyle and me.
Staring at my hands, I fidgeted with a callous on my thumb, picking at the skin obsessively trying not to stand up and speak my mind.
My thoughts soon turned to Sway and tonight. We had been apart for far too long and I couldn’t wait to hold her, feel her against me, and in the most intimate ways. I wanted to skip the race and just be with her, which was surprising. Never in my life had I wanted to miss a race, and now I was thinking with my dick.
Before long I found myself heading for driver introductions, Bobby caught up with me.
“Good luck today, teammate.”
“You too,” I smiled at him.
“For all the shit that’s gone down today, you’re awfully cheery.” His elbow nudged me. “You feelingokay?”
I just waggled my eyebrows adjusting my hat.
“I see your girl’s here.”
Again, I only nodded with a smug smile. I think Bobby knew I wasn’t opening up about Sway so he moved on to talk with Andy Crockett and Paul Leighty who caught up with us.
Soon driver introductions were over and we were firing the engines up to start the race. I always got a sense of butterflies in the pit of my stomach but adrenaline always outshined to the point I never noticed, until today.
I don’t know why this race was making me nervous but it was. Or maybe it was after the race that had me so edgy. Either way, I pushed all thoughts aside and did what I did best—raced.
Spencer leaned inside the car as he always did before the race to wish me luck.
“You got this!” he handed me a picture with tape on it.
Glancing at the picture, I smiled sticking it to the dash where I could see it throughout the race. It was one of me, Sway, Spencer, and Emma after I won the track championship the year I met Sway. Under the picture Spencer had written:This is where you came from.
Without a doubt, that is where I came from.
I may be a NASCAR racer now but I’d never forget how I got here.
“All right Jameson, two laps to green bud,” Kyle said to me as I turned the wheel back-and-forth sharply cleaning the tires during the warm up laps. “You’re pit road speed is going to be 5400.”
“Copy that, 5400.” I told them glancing at the gauges and then back toward the lines on the track. “When I come out of three...that yellow line...is that the line for pit road?”
“Yeah,” Aiden replied. “Start breaking after the wall when pitting. You’re pitting right after the No. 16 pit.”
“Copy,” I saw Spencer standing on the wall waving.
Pulling on my belts once more, my heart was pounding—my hands trembled with excitement. The rumbling over the cars provided just the right amount of vibration to soothe me. If there’s any race you need to stay calm and relaxed for, it was NASCAR’s longest night, the Coca-Cola 600.
After a long green flag run, the caution came out. I was leading until we pitted. My car was absolutely perfected. I could run high, low, sideways if I wanted and it went anywhere.
Only problem was going into the stop, I was leading. When I came out, I was fifth.
I have certain expectations from a pit crew and right now, theywere notmeeting them.
I’ll admit, I was somewhat fired up but I had good reason to be.
“You guys act as though you’ve never performed a pit stop before!” I shouted. “What the fuck?” Blending in with the lapped cars, I made me way behind the pace car in myfifthposition. Not only was I fifth, but I had to fight a handful of lapped cars as well.
“Sorry bud, there was loose lug nuts on the left rear.” Kyle offered.
I understand they had off nights, just as I did. Sometimes a jack man is going to miss his pegs, a tire changer may knock off a lug, or a tire carrier will miss the hang, it’s going to happen but it doesn’t make you feel any better when you’re leading going into the stop and then you come out having lost positions.
Having to spend forty-hours a week working on this, I expected more from them.
