Jaded

Chapter 5

I had not heard from Alex for the past couple of days. If I was being honest, I was a little hurt but I had to remember we did not owe each other our time. I had spent time assembling furniture, setting up my home office, and getting everything situated. With the house being furnished for the most part, I was excited to finally be able to relax next week. I was heading into the office today with the intention of helping prep everything for the weekend. From my understanding, haulers left in the early afternoon on Thursday and would get to the track later that night. 

I arrived at Headquarters and quickly headed up to my office. When I entered the office I set my bag down and started to go through the things I bought and set up my computer with the monitors. I plugged my laptop into the dock and my screensaver came up on all of the screens. I started unpacking the organizers and placing them on either my desk or the bookshelf on the back wall. I sat down and logged into the computer. I reviewed my emails, getting rid of either junk or spam. I had a couple of meetings to catch up on that were recorded, and there were two meetings I needed to join today.

Grabbing my laptop and phone, I headed out for the main floor where everyone was set to be prepping. I made a checklist of the people I wanted to check on including the pit crew chiefs and the technicians that are working on the cars.  The floor was buzzing and it was amazing to see a different kind of hustle from Monday. everyone was working together to make sure everything was going smoothly. I was nervous to insert myself, but I knew that they wouldn't bring me in if there wasn't an importance to my position. 

I saw Marshall Carlson, my direct report, and headed toward him. "Hi Mr. Carlson, how is everything going?" 

He shrugs, "Pretty good, it will become chaotic near the end of the day honestly. Have you seen anything?" The technicians were focused on the 9 car currently, prepping them for the track.

"Not much, that I would correct. Although this week will be mostly me observing everything. Are the haulers leaving today or tomorrow?" I noticed a couple of people heading towards us, quickly recognizing them as Alan and Cliff. They were among the people I met on Monday. 

"I think it should be later this afternoon, but possibly tomorrow. I recommend focusing on getting familiar with the teams this week. They will be your main focus," He smiled at me and acknowledged Alan and Cliff. 

"All of the Drivers should be visiting today and the pit crew members will be coming in as well actually. In our meetings earlier this week, Mr. H said that he wanted everyone to come in to meet with Dalia." Alan stated, nodding his head at me in greeting. Alan was the Chief for the 9 car and Cliff was with the 5 team. "Of course, Chase will be here hopefully next week. He is the driver for the 9 car," I had heard that we were missing a driver, and had Josh Berry an Xfinity driver filling in. Bill Elliott was a legend and knowing that I could potentially meet him had me fangirling inside. I had spent some time on Tuesday evening researching the drivers and after reviewing everyone I felt ready to face everyone.

"When will Chase get examined by the doctor? Martinsville is a tough track to come back to on a leg injury." I started as I watched them pull the 9 car outside along with the equipment boxes. 

"He just visited the doctor yesterday and will be going on Tuesday as well. He feels okay to come back this week actually, but they want to give him an extra week so he has next week to practice on the simulator," Alan started walking outside, and I followed among the others. 

"Well I am happy to hear he is feeling better, I am going to go upstairs to my office and review the meetings I missed. Let me know if you guys need anything, I will see you in the meetings later today." I walked back to my office to get some work done. I went through the meetings I missed, noting important details such as vendors I would need to check in with. The driver meetings were definitely interesting to watch. I was able to go over any trouble they may have on the trackside, as well as personal concerns. All drivers had personnel assigned to get them through the weekend, whether it was the security detail or personal assistants. This left them pretty well cared for but there was definitely room for improvement. If a driver did not feel great, they did not perform great.