Love in Victory Lane (A Chase Elliott FanFic)

Chapter Forty-Two

"Alright, Hunter, are you ready for this interview?" Darrell Waltrip asked me as he shook my hand.

I smiled politely at him, my stomach swirling not only because I was meeting a NASCAR legend but also because my first ever interview was about to happen. "I'm as ready as I'll ever be," I said smoothing out the fabric of my short dark blue dress. I wore it with yellow jewelry to support Chase's car colors. Cheesy, but I knew Chase loved it.

"You'll do fine!" Darrell assured me. "Just act like the cameras aren't here and tell me how you feel."

"I'll try to," I replied as I sat down in the director-style chair.

Chase walked up to me and took my hand in his, instantly putting me at ease, somewhat. "Hey, don't think about it too much. Just go with the flow. You'll do great, baby girl," he winked at me before kissing me on the forehead. All my nerves flew out the window until Darrell sat in front of me.

"First off, I'm sure the fans would love to know...how did you and Chase meet?" he asked.

I smiled at the memory of the first time we met and began telling the story. "It was at Atlanta Motor Speedway. I was in the pits before the race and we saw each other. We started talking at the speedway diner, and my friend and I continued hanging out with Chase, Ryan, and Dylan until the race began. It just went from there," I finished and laughed lightly.

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"See. I told you you would do great!" Chase congratulated me as we left the interview. "You looked gorgeous and all of your answers were amazing. You made me blush a few times though," he laughed.

I slipped my small hand into his big, strong one and pulled myself closer to his arm. "I couldn't have done it if you weren't there, and all I did was tell the truth."

"I'm proud of you. I can't wait for the world to know you're all mine," he said lowly.

I sighed and sat down beside him on the golf cart that was going to carry us back to the RV. "What do you want to do until I have to go meet up with Greg?" he asked. He had about an hour before he needed to meet with Greg to discuss strategy and final details for the race.

"What about some Black Ops 2?" I suggested.

"That's my girl," he smirked and put his hand on my thigh.

We played Call of Duty for a little while, until Chase had to change into his fire suit for the race. I loved seeing him in his fire suit, something about it just made me melt. He let the top of it fall around his waist and showing off how his t-shirt clung to his muscular shoulders. I would never get tired of seeing my boy in his racing gear.

"Let's get going, babe," he said to me as he walked to the door. I got up and followed him out of the trailer, and he shut the door behind me. We made our way down to the track, and while he talked to Greg and the crew and looked over the car, I called Cindy to find out where she was.

"Cindy! Hi!" I said when she answered.

"Hey, Hunter," she answered sweetly. "What's up, sweetie?"

"I was just wondering if you wanted to meet up and spend some time together while Chase is busy with Greg and the crew," I stated. Cindy and I had grown close since Chase and I had gotten together; we had texted almost every day for a while now.

"Yeah!" she replied enthusiastically. "I'm always ready for some down time with my favorite future daughter," she laughed. "I'll meet you at Chase's garage stall and we'll go get lunch."

"Alright! I'll be waiting." We hung up and I told Chase my plans. I kissed him goodbye, and when his mom came, we headed to get some lunch.

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Before the engines were fired, I gave Chase one last kiss and we did our special "rock and roll" hand signal to each other. The crew fastened the safety net, Chase fired the engine, and I walked to the out box to watch the race with Cindy and Bill.

As the race began, I started feeling nervous. Feeling nervous was something I was used to when I came to Chase racing, but it was for a different reason. I was familiar with an exciting, anticipating, "he's going to win" nervousness. But this time it was foreign. I was the scared sick kind of nervous. It's because of the dream last night I told myself. But no matter how much I told myself that it was nothing, I could not shake the feeling.

By lap 93 Chase was in third, fighting with Kyle Busch for second place. I was on the edge of my seat, cringing at every move Chase and Kyle made. At lap 95 Chase had a tiny advantage over Kyle, and as Chase went around the 54, I gripped Cindy's hand for dear life. I was scared to death. I was so afraid something was about to happen. I looked to Cindy for a split second to listen to her talk about chases driving. When I turned back around I saw my nightmare coming true.

Chase was sliding across the track at an extremely fast rate. "I DON'T HAVE ANY BRAKES!" Chase screamed across the radio. I felt as if I was about to faint as I saw him approaching the wall. The area he was about to hit was not equipped with safety barrier; therefore the impact would be extremely rough. Greg began talking back to Chase trying to figure out what happened. All I could hear, however was Chase screaming, "I can't stop!"

He turned the car around right before it slammed into the wall at about 180 and the right side of the car crinkled under the impact. The force of the crash sent the car back up the track, where other cars were continuing to race. The 60 car of Chris Buescher slammed into Chase's right rear fender, spinning him around and sending him air born. Chase flipped over and landed back on his wheels and the wreck was over as soon as it happened.

All of this occurred in a few seconds, but it seemed to be an eternity for me. Greg radioed Chase, but received no answer. Chase's window net stayed up and officials and medical crews made their way to his car. Greg's facial expression was all I needed to see. This crash was bad and Chase was not okay. My intuition was right. I jumped up and ran down the stairs of the pit box and headed towards the track, screaming and crying for Chase.

I suddenly came to a halt as Chase's gas man wrapped his arms around me to stop me from running onto the track. I crumbled in his arms and he went down with me as I watched them take Chase from the car. He was unconscious and they were loading him onto the ambulance. "You can't go out there," his gas man said to me. "I know you want to, but he's going to be okay. He'll be okay."

Tears started streaming down my face as I realized what was happening. My worst nightmare had come true, and my whole word was being loaded onto an ambulance. As I felt the gas man's arms leave me and Cindy's arms envelope me, I let the tears fall even harder. "He has to be okay. He has to be okay," I kept repeating.

"He will be, darling," Cindy consoled me. I prayed to God she was right.