Short Track Lovin' ✅

Chapter 50: Indianapolis

Saturday, July 22 – Indianapolis

Chase and Sarina lay awake that morning in the motorcoach, with her clutched close to him as he kept his arms wrapped firmly around her. Since their discussion last night, the pair hadn't spent a minute apart, wanting to feel every inch of each other. they had just spent a week apart, followed by a fight. Could you blame them?

"Do we have to get up?" Sarina questions as she sees the sun shining through the window. Chase chuckles and shakes his head no, knowing he would prefer to stay there. It was an odd thought for him on a race weekend, but he was quite comfortable and didn't want to chance distance between them.

"I could just not qualify the car and start last on Sunday," he answers as she chuckles. She could just imagine the endless phone calls and pounding at the door, surprised his phone hadn't gone off yet actually.

"Could you imagine if you didn't go out to qualify and the reason was because you didn't want to let me go? Alan would kill me." Chase chuckles, shaking his head. Considering their rocky history, there was one constant – one of the reasons why Chase knew to keep fighting for her in trusting his friend's judgment.

"Actually, Alan likes you more than you realize. He says you help keep me in a good mood on weekends, and easier to deal with at times. He also says I am happier when you're around so he wants to make sure that doesn't change. Besides, you already know the crew likes you." She couldn't help but shake her head as she remembered the antics of the crew at times. They worked hard, but they were also great to hang around with – even if crazy at sometimes. It was great how quickly she had bonded with a couple of the guys already, too.

"I still can't believe Jacob called me and insisted that I call you because of how upset you were..." Chase didn't want to admit it, but he was glad Jacob had mingled. He didn't want to imagine more weeks of them spending time apart, and wondering what it'd take to rekindle things.

"The guys care about me. What can I say?" She nods her head, knowing that feeling as she had already grown close to all of her guys at KBM, too. "Look at it this way – all I have to do is get up, get my firesuit on, walk out to pit road, qualify the car, and then we can do whatever we want."

"Oh yeah. Watch you get the pole and then be delayed a half hour due to photos and media." Chase shakes his head, remembering how practice went. It was another reason why he probably wanted to stay here instead.

"That'd be a miracle, actually." She then lifts her head off of him, looking up at his eyes with surprise. That was certainly not the Chase Elliott attitude she was used to. What was happening?

"Excuse me?"

"You saw how the car was in practic-"

"I don't give a shit what you thought of the damn car in practice. Where's the belief that you're the best damn racecar driver and can get the job done? Where's the confidence in Alan and the guys making the right adjustments? I mean, they could make the perfect changes and boom – you start up front. Don't ever give me that type of answer, ever." Chase knew she was right as a smile formed on his face. It was another great reason to keep her around as she was one of a few that knew exactly what to say to break him out of his self funk moment.

"Alright, that's fair. I will make sure to push it 100%, and believe it's the best car I've ever driven and I can get the job done." She then smiles, going back to her position with her head against his chest. "But if I am going to do that, I need to get up now so I can grab a shower and get ready..."

"5 minutes?" He was set to protest, though remembered the discussion last night as he kept his arm wrapped around her. Being a little late for qualifying was much better than the feeling of having to be apart from her forever.