Page 14 of The Legend
He wasalways around, telling me what to do, asking me questions, yelling...you name it, he was doing it and it annoyedme.
“We needto make some changes around here,” he said in his rough tone. The tone thatmeant “Boy, you better be listening to me or else.”
“I don’tthink so;” standing from my position at the table in our conference room, Istarted to walk away, “the team is fine. Stop messing with things.”
He rammedhis wheel chair into my shin for the third time. “No, I think we need torestructure. Maybe start with a driver change.”
He wasalways hinting at replacing me but never did.
“Listenyou old bastard,” I kicked his wheelchair away from me and he laughed as if itwas his goal this morning to piss me off and he had succeeded, “Stop that.”
All thesame, this was our argument most of the time. If I was being honest with you, Iwas convinced he enjoyed it. Not racing was making him cranky. He claimed hehad too much time on his hands and I couldn’t agree more. I didn’t like himbothering me all the time. These days I had enough people bothering me and Ididn’t need any more.
After mytime in Florida, I had a feeling Axel felt the same way, but the kid wouldnever say anything.
Grady metme at the door as I was leaving, his eyes focused on his feet rather than me.“Hey Jameson,” he seemed to consider his words for a moment, “I was wonderingif you needed help in Daytona this week?”
“We got apretty full crew right now Grady. The JAR guys might need you though.” I handedhim a card with Tommy’s name and cell phone number on it. “Call Tommy and let himknow I said you needed some work.”
His eyesshifted from the floor to mine with a smile. Looking at him now I noticed hiseyes had a familiarity that I couldn’t place.
“Thanks.”He said moving his eyes to the floor again when he caught me looking at him.
Spencerapproached behind him eyeing Grady just as the rest of my family did. Like Isaid before, we didn’t hire outside of family after Kerry.
Gradywalked back to the engine he was cleaning and then busied himself loading pitcarts for Rockingham. Spencer watched Grady and then looked at me for anexplanation. “Who’s the kid?”
“Grady.He’s a sprint car racer outta Kannapolis that needed some work.”
“Gradyhuh, let’s hope he’s nothing like the last Grady we knew.”
He wasreferring to a guy we knew in high school, Dylan Grady, who took Sway’svirginity and then never talked to her again.
Spencergave me a nod and then looked back at Grady again, “What’s he doing here?”
“I hiredhim to help around the shop. He’s got some fabrication experience and we needit with four sprint cars running this year. Tommy and Willie are overloaded asit is.”
“So youhired someone you don’t know?”
“Yeah, so?”
I knew itwasn’t something I ever did but still, couldn’t these guys give me a break?
Spencershrugged and then followed me outside. “I just want you to be careful man. Wedon’t know him and to have him here at the shop when none of us are here isn’tideal.”
“What doesit matter? If he breaks something Igottapay for it,not you.”
I’ll admitI was a little irritated when I said that and it had nothing to do withSpencer. As my brother, he was looking out for me. I understood that but I wasalso irritated that no one would listen to me.
Spencerlet out a disgusted snort and walked past me purposely bumping my shoulder withhis, “See you on Tuesday.”
I knew Iwould hear about that later. I knew I had pissed him off but then again thatalso wasn’t unheard of for me.
Sway tookoff to Elma that morning with Andrea, our General Manager at Grays HarborRaceway. Grays Harbor Raceway was the track Sway’s father, Charlie Reins, hadpurchased soon after the passing of her mother, Rachel. The first year I racedin the cup series, and the year Sway and I eventually got our shit together andstarted dating, was when Charlie informed me he was dying of brain cancer. Tokeep the track in the family, I bought it from him. After his passing thefollowing year, track ownership got to be a little much once we had Axel so weended up hiring Andrea Lancer. Andrea was in need of Sway’s help before theseason began so she took Casten and Arie with her and said they would meet mein Daytona.
This leftme flying alone to Daytona.
At the endof last season, my team plane crashed outside of Lancaster Ohio when it was inroute to Eldora Speedway. Members of my team and a few other teams in the Cup,Nationwide and the Truck series were killed; along with my pilot I had known myentire life. Fourteen people, all gone at one time.
