“Come down this time,” Shoulderman calls over the radio.
“Ten-four,” I confirm.
“How’s it handling?”
“A bit tight. Need to loosen it up.”
I come down pit road and stop in my box. The crew gets to work on changing tires, adding fuel, and doing adjustments. I’m still waiting for the jack to drop, to signal I’m good to leave the pit box. It shouldn’t be taking this long.
“What's the hold up?” I ask Shoulderman, confused.
“Lug nut got stuck.”
Of course it did. Finally, the jack drops, and I’m able to take off down the lane. Once the cycle is complete, I lose five spots; so, not great, but not the worst thing that could happen.
“Keep cool. There’s still time to come back from that mishap,” Shoulderman says. He’s right. I have to keep calm, just like Dad said.
The handling is finally starting to come to me and I’m able to make it into the top fifteen again. This is where I wanted to hopefully end up. Now is the time to see how much further up I can get before this race is over.
“Caution is out. Caution is out,” my spotter calls as the yellow lights come on around the track. “Looks like Leslie and Hicks got together.”
That sucks for Leslie, but I’m not too upset about Hicks wrecking out of the race. Serves him right.
“When pit road is open, come down. Four tires and fuel. Need any adjustments?”
“Still a little tight, but leave it, see if it fixes itself over time,” I respond.
“Ten-four.”
Maybe Shoulderman and I can learn to work together, after all. We have a perfect stop, and I’m off again to line up to restart this race. I make it into the top eight, and there is still about a third of this race to go. I know I can hold it here as long as things go smoothly.
Once the race restarts, I get a good launch out into the first set of turns, making it three wide across the track. With my momentum, I’m able to pass them fairly easily. I’m picking off cars one by one, and I can see Hart and Sanford battling for the lead, with Dixon gaining on them. Slowly, I start to reel Dixon in, and soon, I’m on his bumper.
Another caution and another round of stops occur. Most of the top cars, including me, stay out to keep our track positions. With this restart, there are ten laps to go, and anything can happen. I didn’t think I’d make it into the top fifteen, let alone the top five.
My heart is pounding in my chest. I’m putting my all into the last laps as they start to wind down to finish this race, and I’m still not able to pass Dixon.
“Save fuel. We may be short a lap,” Shoulderman calls.
Fuck!
“Dixon may also be short. Ease up, but don’t lose sight of him,” he adds.
I keep pace with Dixon, but I don’t gain any ground on him. Five laps to go and Sanford passes Hart for the lead. I notice that I’m starting to gain some ground on Dixon. He’s letting up to save fuel.
White flag is in the air, and I take a risk. I punch it to get around Dixon and hope we can make it around this track one more time. I glimpse into my rearview mirror and see that Dixon is wiggling back and forth, and one, two, three cars pass him.
He’s out of fuel.
I pull out a third place finish while Dixon drops to tenth. With all things considered, it’s a good day. And we finished in front of Dixon to keep him from gaining points on us in the championship standings.
FIFTEEN
DEAN
I slammy hands down on my steering wheel after running out of fuel.
Damn it!
