Page 22 of The Legend
Tommy wasstill heavily involved with Axel and was doing everything he could to get thatpoor kid a feature win but he was also the crew chief for Justin. He did anamazing job at dividing his time equally between everyone.
That firstwin for Axel came at the biggest race on the Outlaw schedule, Knoxville Nationals.With the cup series having a bi-week in between Bristol and Atlanta, I was ableto sneak away to Iowa and it was a good thing. Axel needed me that weekend.
Noah andCharlie were working on Axel’s outlaw team doing odd jobs when they were at theshop. Most of the time they were kept at the shop because it never failed, theyfound trouble at the track. Being dangerously inclined when it came to engines,we had to supervise them at all times. I will admit...the kids knew their shit when it came to anengine though and made CST Engines what it was today. Currently they were theonly engines used by the World of Outlaw series and the most of the USAC sprintcar teams. We also provided the engines to our cup teams and leased a handfulof them to other teams.
During hotlaps the final day, Axel mentioned a vibration he couldn’t place. “I can go inhard into three and four but come back around to one and two it’s vibrating sobad I can barely hold on.” he looked over the car as the boys went to work andthen looked at me, wide grass green eyes looking for reassurance, “Am I doingsomething wrong?”
“Nah, Idon’t think it’s you.” I assured him and went to work with Tommy trying todecipher what could be wrong.
HavingCharlie and Noah around ended up a good thing but Aiden warned them if theycaused any trouble they were off the team. Aiden’s threats never weighed ontheir decision making in the past. I don’t know what would have inclined him tothink this was any different. But he was confident this wouldn’t be a problem.
Me, and ahandful of others, were not so confident.
I knewthese little assholes well. After all, they had set more than one of my cars onfire and managed to drain all the oil out of my truck four times.
Axel endedup blowing the engine in the trophy dash so Noah and Charlie decided to stealan engine. The problem there was they didn’t steal just an engine. They decidedwhile they were at it to steal an entire car. Only problem, they stole anotherdriver’s back-up car. I think they did it as a joke because there was no way inhell we would have actually used that. But it did take the Travis Edward’s teaman hour to figure out where their back up car disappeared to.
“It’snothing their mom hasn’t done,” Jimi said to Aiden when we found out what theydid. “Where were you on that one?”
Aidenlooked to me for support. I had nothing.
“Don’tlook at me,” I told him stepping back, “I can’t even control my own kids.”
Willieappeared for the first time that night looking slightly worn out. Willie was afucking goofball but fit in well. He could also grow a beard in days. He stoodthere next to the hauler with a cigar hanging from his lips, shaking hands andslapping backs like he owned the place, weirdo.
“He’scomfortable.” Dad laughed watching Willie.
“Youain’tkidding.” My stare caught his and he winked at me.“There are times when I think Willie should sleep on his decisions before hemakes ‘em.” I wasn’t referring to his poker nightattitude tonight but more so his decisions on the road that had led to ahandful of arrests within the last few months.
“Youain’tkidding.”
About thattime, when everyone was in a panic about the engine, my favorite smart assshowed up. Brody Williams. He brought with him Easton Levi. I will say Eastonlost a little respect from me hanging out with Williams.
Most ofthe crew had gathered around the hauler setting up the cars for the main whenBrody approached with his friends.
“Heybeautiful,” he said to Lexi. His buddy, Brian Tyler, approached Arie standingnear Rager’s car.
I didn’tlike Brian either. He was a smart mouthed little shit and had no respect foranyone.
I knewthere was something going on between Arie and Brian but my secretive little girlkept her distance when I was around. Arie, who had shown up around time trialsthis afternoon, was a complete fucking brat all night. And now, she was hangingout with Brian, even better.
Williestood next to me looking over Axel’s car and then nodded to the hauler. “Weneed to talk later.” His eyes focused in the distance on Noah and Charliearguing. “It seems that a few thousand dollars’ worth of shocks is missing frominventory.”
I nodded.Last week I noticed a drop in inventory but didn’t want to deal with ittonight. “We’ll talk about that Tuesday.”
I’ll admitmy first instinct was to think Noah had stolen them, it wouldn’t be the firsttime but then again I would like to believe that family wouldn’t do that to me.I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt before I kicked his ass.
One of theoutlaw officials approached us, patted Jimi on the back and then looked atTommy and Axel. “Travis wants his engine and car back.” His expression wasamused.
Noahlaughed and Axel lunged at him.
I couldtell by my son’s expression that Axel was in no mood for Noah’s bullshittonight.
I had toseparate them for the third time tonight when Casten and Willie drove up in mytruck with the spare engine. “Special CST delivery,” He announced yanking thetailgate down.
No one sataround and waited for an invitation, we all scrambled to get the engine insidehis sprint car before the B-Feature was set to start.
I didhowever pull Casten aside to thank him. “Thanks for getting that buddy.”
