Adopted by Ryan Blaney

Chapter 8

Ryan pov:

I held Jess's hand as we walked through the infield. It was her first race and she was looking around at everything with wide, sparkling eyes. I had insisted she had to hold my hand, I was scared of losing her in the crowd. At first Jess had been hesitant but had it got more crowded around us she started to grip my hand tighter and move closer to me. Once we were out of the crowd and into the garage I introduced Jess to the team before showing her the car. I grinned as she smiled excitedly has I explained different parts of the car to her.

After spending half an hour in the garage we went to the stage in the infield where most of the drivers had to do an interview all together. I spotted Erin talking with William by the stage and walked over.
"Can I leave Jess with you during the interview?" I asked Erin, Erin smiled and gave Jess a hug.
"Of course! We can hang, do some people watching. NASCAR races really have the weirdest dressed people." Erin said with a laugh. I smiled, confident that Jess was okay I walked over to Chase.

Chase and I had talked the plan over last night when we found out about this interview, it was the perfect opportunity. It had taken a bit of convincing to get Jess to agree to it, I figuring out that she was quite shy. But after lots of reassurance from me that she wouldn't have to say much, she agreed.

Kim Koon and Chuck Busch were doing the interview, which was good. Some interviewers were so annoying but I knew these two eel from the glass case of emotion so I knew there wouldn't be too many annoying questions. Kim called us out into the stage and we all found our seats and were handed microphones. Chase was below me in the first row of seats and Kevin was next to me. I made a mental note to introduce Jess to Kevin, since she was a fan of his.

Kim smiled and turned to the camera, "today we are here with most of the drivers in the grid.  So we'll start with the current champ, Joey, how is life as a two time champ going?" Kim asked.
Joey lifted his mic, "Great! There's not that many drivers left with championships and there's even fewer with more than one so it's a real honour." Joey answered,
Kim looked down at her cards before glancing up at me, "Ryan you've shown more aggression this year then the previous years, is there any particular reason?" I smiled a bit, I tried to think of something funny to respond with,
"Well I guess with a few more aggressive drivers on the grid, *cough* ross *cough* you have to be." I said, I smiled at ross who just rolled his eyes with a small smile, everybody else laughed.

The interview continued like that, some questions for a certain driver or some for more then one driver.

Half way through the interview Chuck pulled out some more cards, "we've got some fan questions here, so the first question is for chase, who would you say is the driver your the closest to?" I looked at chase with a expectant look, which got some chuckles.
"Well I would have to say," Chase paused and pretended to think about it, "definitely Denny." That got a massive round of laughter,
"I'm insulted!" I said dramatically.
Chase laughed, "yeah in all seriousness it is Ryan, we've known each other for so long and especially recently we've been spending a lot of time together. His most recent addition to his house has definitely helped that as well." Chase said, perfectly lining it up just liked we'd planned. We'd hoped for some sort of question about our friendship so that we could some how tie in Jess.

Kim and chuck looked at me curiously along with several other drivers.
"Most recent addition? Care to elaborate?" Kim asked, I glanced over at Jess who was standing next to Erin just off the stage.
"Yeah, sturgill and I were getting lonely." I said as casually as possible.
"Another dog?" Chuck asked, I shook my head.
"Did you get a cat?" Joey asked, I gave him a disgusted look.
"What do I look like? Of course I didn't get a cat!" I said shaking my head.
"Well then what's the new addition?" Alex asked.
I grinned, "she's here, wanna meet her?" This got some raised eyebrows, I gave Jess a small nod and she climbed up onto the stage and came and stood next to me. She waved shyly at the camera, the rest of the drivers looked confused at her.

"So this is my daughter, Jessica." I said, Chase, William and I laughed as everyone stared at Jess in shock.
"Your WHAT?" Denny asked,
"My daughter, she's 12." I explained, after a second of stunned silence Kim managed to compose herself.
"Well then, Jessica, who's your favourite driver?" Kim asked, Jess gave me a nervous look as I held my mic for her.
"Kevin Harvick." Jess said shyly, Kevin grinned and leaned over me to give her a high five,
"Great choice!" He said,
"I'm her second favourite!" Chase said proudly, this brought some laughs.
"Where's Ryan on the list?" Martin asked Jess,
"Maybe third." She said with a shrug, I rolled my eyes with a smile.

Jess ended up staying the entire interview, I was happy to see that it didn't take to much for her to warm up and get comfortable around the other drivers.