Page 114 of The Legend
“He saidhe’d be here around noon.”
“Well it’sthree so we’re fucked.” Tommy snapped standing from his place on the shopfloor. “We should call Rusty...because ifthese two cars are not in Barberville come Wednesday, Jameson will kill all ofus.”
“It’s kindof hard to do that when he can’t move without grunting in pain.” Casten addedpushing the last of the pit equipment inside the 18-wheeler.
“He doeshave a point.” I added with a chuckle. “But we really should call Greg and seewhere the hell he’s at.”
We wereheading into the first week of the Outlaw tour at Volusia Speedway Park inBarberville Florida for the DIRTcar Nationals. We needed those cars there.
Casten,Tommy and me left on Wednesday night, a few days after dad woke up and it hadbeen non-stop work since we landed in Mooresville. It helped keep our mind offeverything but it didn’t wash away the pain we felt. We missed grandpa and itwas gut-wrenching to watch dad be in so much pain over his injuries and withlosing grandpa.
Not onlywere we busy with the sprint cars but Kyle, Mason and Spencer had to deal withthe Cup team and CST Engines, which was closely related to both teams. They hadcars to test, engines to put on the dyno and sponsorship obligations for dadthat were now on hold until Easton could attend them.
We wereall overwhelmed but I think it helped us all deal with the loss. We weren’tover it, no. I don’t know that we ever would be. But it kept us distracted.
Charlieand Noah pulled their heads out of their asses and helped with the dyno testingfor not only the 410 engines that went in the sprint cars but also the 358engines that went in the cup cars for Riley-Simplex Racing. We also ended uphiring a few guys, only family recommended, to help out since most of us werealready spread so thin we barely had time to sleep.
Thank godLily understood. We weren’t even married a month yet and already we hadn’t seeneach other in a week.
Lily andAmi refused to leave my mom and grandma alone at the hospital. I was thankfulfor that.
So everyonepulled together and kept not only the business and racing going but our supportsystem from falling apart.
Cole andLane showed up after we finished loading the trailers. “Hey,” Cole smiled.“Rusty is on his way with Greg to get the trailers.”
“Thank god,”Tommy huffed rising from the floor to toss a few shop rags in the garbage fromthe oil spilled after changing the gears in Tyler’s car. “Where were they?”
“Hell if Iknow.” Cole said handing my bag to me. “Something about traffic and...” he smiled. “I wasn’t really listening tohim.”
Lanewalked up to me. “How’s Uncle Jameson doing?”
It neverentered my mind that my dad would never race again because that wasn’t him.
“Momcalled a few hours ago and said they were getting ready to do another CT. He’s stilldisoriented and mumbling a lot. I guess he had another seizure too.”
“It takestime. He’ll be fine.”
“I know,but it’s easy to think the worst after grandpa.”
Lanegrimaced when I said grandpa. Aside from me, he was the closest of thegrandkids with him and took it very hard.
“I don’thave to be in River Ranch for round one until early March...I can help out.”
I was justabout to respond when Charlie pushed Cole. “Do it yourself then!”
Lane rolledhis eyes. “It’s like working with a bunch of children.”
The truthwas we were all children aside from Tommy and Willie. I just turned nineteen,Casten was fifteen, Noah, and Charlie were eighteen. Lane was only twenty-twoand had his own career in the motocross racing. We had no clue what we weredoing.
We knewthis wasn’t going to be easy but we had to try. We couldn’t leave this all toour parents to figure out when we were all more than capable of dealing withit.
Surprisingly,Tommy was the adult in the situation. “Listen assholes,” he separated the twoof them by yanking on the hoods of their sweatshirts. “Get your shit together.Cole, you come with us. Charlie, stay out of trouble and get those engines onthe dyno before tomorrow. Kerry will be here in the morning. Do not let anyoneelse in the shop.”
Tommyrarely gave orders so when he did, they listened.
Youwouldn’t believe the work that goes into building a sprint car and a Cup car.Thankfully, the NASCAR side of the business was taken care of. We had peoplefor everything as it was a business that Jimi took great pride in and Randyquickly stepped in as well as Tate.
The sprintcar team with JAR Racing was a smaller scale and kept that way by my dad.That’s where family came in. We were determined to keep it that way and to dothat, we needed everyone to worktogether.
