Whole Lot More

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fourteen

With five laps to go, Brynne and Julie found themselves on their feet, cheering wildly with the rest of Martin’s crew as he led the race.

He’d swapped the lead all day long with various other drivers including his best friend – Dale Junior – who’d made a miraculous recovery just to be able to race that day.

No one really believed that he was better, just that he wasn’t going to miss a restrictor plate track for a simple case of the flu.

They listened as he was instructed over the headset that there were only five laps remaining, and that said best friend was right behind him.  They all weren’t sure whether Junior was just going to follow Martin and take a second, or try and pass him at the last minute.

“He’s been better than you coming out of turn two and four... that’s where he’s been passing everyone,” they strategized into the headset, “So watch him there... anywhere he goes, you go... I don’t think anyone has anything for the two of you, now it’s your race to win or lose... your choice.”

Coming out of turn four, Martin looked in his mirror to see where Dale was going to go... was he going to try and pass him as they came to four to go, or would he follow him?  The car stayed directly behind him, giving him a little bump to keep him going.

That’s when all hell broke loose.  But luckily for Martin, he was watching it all out of his mirror, as was Dale.  Everyone behind him... well, he couldn’t say the same for him.

“Caution’s out.”

He slowed down and slammed his fist into his steering wheel as the pace car pulled in front of him and started their parade laps around the track.

“Restart will be green, white, checkered.  They’re red flagging the race, too, so stop where you are.  Might be a good thing, them doing that too... because I’m not sure we could have handled twenty caution laps without running out of gas.”

Martin chuckled.  “What all happened back there?”

“Elliott got into Keselowski and from there, I couldn’t tell you.  All I know is there’s about twenty cars in it and Elliott is resting on his roof in the infield grass.”  Martin figured it served him well, he’d been driving like an ass all weekend in practices.

“Junior wants to talk to you, Martin.”

“Patch him through,” Martin told his crew chief.

He sat in silence for a moment before his best friend’s voice came over the channel.  “Hey MT, so which one of us is gonna be in victory lane at the end of this one?”

“That would be me.  You had your chance in Daytona there, buddy... now it’s my turn.”

“You just gotta keep me behind ya, then.”

“Trust me, I plan on it.”

“Well then, I’ll see ya in victory lane after the race... either way.”

“See ya.”

The two girl’s giggled behind the pit box, knowing that either way more than likely one of the two of them definitely was going to be in victory lane at the end of the day unless something weird happened.  But then again, it was Talladega, anything could and most times did happen...

“Is Brynne listening?” Martin asked.

His crew chief turned around on the pit box and looked below on the ground, watching as she eagerly nodded her head, the headset bouncing up and down slightly.  “That she is... her and Julie both.”