Short Track Lovin' ✅

Chapter 80: The Teammate Tangle

Chase watched as Sarina pulled ahead early, leading a chunk of the laps, before Christopher got back around her for the top spot, leading the rest of the way in the opening stage. The second stage went smoothly, as well, with Christopher leading the whole thing as she ended up second.

Chase watched the slew of pit stops, small fist pump in the air as the teammates came off pit road together 1-2. Could this go any better?

The start of the third stage worked out perfectly, as she pulled ahead, taking the top spot. A smile formed on his face as he watched her pull further away from Christopher and the rest of the field, destined for smooth sailing from here on out.

Of course, none of these races come that easily as the caution would fly with 27 laps to go for a truck slowing. Marcus immediately made the call for Sarina to stay out, sighting the importance of track position, lack of tire fall off, and having enough fuel to make it to the end.

The ensuing restart did not go smoothly, as a move by Austin Cindric, followed by a block from Ben Rhodes, saw Ben spin around and hit the inside barrier hard, before collecting Matt Crafton in the process.

"Are you kidding me?!?" Chase says out loud, disbelief forming between the late race incident to the fact the pair had collided in their battle for the final transfer spot in that way.

"Same thing that Carl and Joey did last year," Kyle comments from his vantage point, referring to the wreck at Homestead while battling for the championship. "Ben never should've blocked." Chase nods his head in agreement.

"He had to know that would happen as soon as he went down. But, does Austin make that move stick with enough room if they get to turn one? We'd probably see a repeat of Kenseth and Bowman here last year." Kyle smiles, as he thinks back to Martinsville a couple weeks ago.

"Desperate times call for desperate measures. Both were desperate to make a statement and get to the next round." Chase couldn't help but agree, and began to wonder if the same type of move would be what it would take to transfer tomorrow.

After a lengthy clean-up – including a red flag, everything was set to go for another attempt at the restart. This time, the green lasted a little longer as they were able to at least make a lap – but it didn't take long for the caution, either. Six-wide through the dog leg on the backstretch resulted in contact in turn three, and several torn up trucks.

"That definitely wasn't going to work," Kyle comments after seeing the replay, shaking his head in surprise. "Ridiculous..."

"Are we ever going to finish this race?" Chase wonders, glancing at the lap count. Through the chaos, Sarina had managed to hold the lead with Christopher in second. There wasn't much left now...

The restart came with 10 laps to go, and all eyes locked on the action in seeing Sarina and Christopher battle alongside each other for the lead. Both Chase and Kyle felt like they were going to jump out of their skin and nerves as they saw both trucks get a little sideways, followed by a little bit of bumping.

Neither driver lifted through the whole process, and finally with five laps to go, everything came to a head. Sarina got loose underneath Christopher off of turn four, truck spinning around, and backing into the outside wall, followed by Christopher slapping the wall with the right side of his truck. The wreck wasn't over there, yet, as Justin Haley was left nowhere to go, hitting just behind the driver's door of Sarina's truck as it rolled across the track.

"Are you fucking kidding me?!?" Kyle asked out loud, standing up in complete disbelief as he looked at the pair of torn up trucks. "They led all the laps to this point..."

Chase had his fair share of anger over the contact, almost set to give Christopher a piece of his mind, but that didn't matter in that very moment as he sat there, eyes closed, waiting for the familiar words over the radio.