Cruisin'
Chapter 16 Cruisin’
Carly had gone back to her coach. She was checking her email on her laptop, and doing a few other things. Teresa had emailed her a bunch of HR questions, and she was trying to answer them, and get them emailed back. Then she had to put her fire suit on, just in case she did have to drive. She was just finishing getting dressed, when there was a knock at the door of her coach. She peeked out the window to see who it was.
“Come on in, Scotty!” she called out.
Scotty had a huge smile on his face. “I got a proposition for ya!”
“Ooo! What could that be?” she said laughing. “Gosh Scotty, I haven’t seen you that happy in a while! What is it?”
“How would you like to drive tonight?” he grinned.
“Oh!! Did Pammy-Poo give up?? Is she gone??” Carly laughed.
“No, sadly, she still thinks she wants to run this race. But – the field isn’t full for tonight’s race. NASCAR came to us and asked us if we want to run the backup car. With you driving, of course. Junior’s crew will pit the car, if you want to drive!”
“No Joke??” Carly laughed.
“No Joke!” Scotty said. “But – if Pamela poops out, you’ll have to pull the backup car off the track, and hop into hers. For the sponsor, you know. So – what do you say?”
Carly was so excited. “Heck, yeah!!” she said jumping up and down. “I’ll do it! Oh – this is gonna be fun. Hehe. I get to teach Princess Formula One car about Rubbin’ in Racin”!! Oh, and I get to chase Justin Labonte and Steven Wallace around too! Oh, Scotty, this is gonna be a great race! But wait – doesn’t Princess Pam need any of my help?”
Scotty was laughing at her. “Hold on there a minute!!” he said. “You gotta promise to control yourself!! And, Princess Pam seems to think she can do this all by herself. So I say, go race!”
Dale had been over in his coach. He was planning on watching the race from the grandstands with a bunch of his friends and crew. He heard Carly laughing, and came over to see what the commotion was all about.
“What’s goin’ on? I could hear you celebrating something over here. What’s up, babe?” Dale grinned.
“Guess What!! I get to DRIVE the ARCA race TONIGHT!!” she chanted.
Dale laughed. “Did the Witch go home? Scotty, is she gone?”
“No, Junior, she’s still here. NASCAR just asked Carly to drive our backup car tonight, to help fill the field. Your crew generously offered to pit her car. So, it looks like she’s gonna race tonight!”
“Oh, Carly – put that bitch in the wall for me, ok?” Dale laughed. “I wanna see her whine about wrecking her car. Maybe she’ll even break a nail – heaven forbid!”
“Now Dale, we can’t be that mean – can we?” Carly giggled.
“NO!” Scotty lectured. “Come on, Carly. The car should be off the hauler by now. We gotta stick an extra number on it, and the officials are gonna let you take a couple of practice laps in it to make sure it’s set up ok. Lets get down there.”
“You took it off the hauler before you even talked to me?” Carly asked, smiling.
“Do I look stupid?” Scotty asked. “I already knew what your answer would be!” They all laughed.
“Hey – I wanna be on your pit crew!” Dale said.
“You don’t know anything about being on a pit crew!” Carly teased him as they walked down towards the garage area.
“I do too! You don’t know what I can and cannot do!” he laughed. “I am a damn good jack man. You watch. You gonna let me do it?” he asked her.
“Ok, if you want to. Just don’t hurt your ribs. You still sore?” She was skeptical.
“No!” He looked at her out of the corner of his eyes to see if she noticed he was lying.
“Yeah, right. Don’t over-do it!” She knew. And, he knew she knew.
~~**~~
The blue “Kannapolis Intimidators” car was sitting there, waiting in the garage for Carly. It still had her name above the window, but they had added a #1 in front of the #2 that was on it, making it a #12. Pamela’s #2 car was sitting in the garage bay next door, with the blue and gold “MMS” logos on it.
“My car looks better!” she whispered to Dale. He smiled.
“Every thing about you looks better than her, honey. And I do mean everything…” he whispered back, grinning.
“Ooo – now who’s naughty!” she grinned, and stood on her toes to give him a kiss.
“Ahem, oh my! What have we here!” Pamela said, entering the garage with Juan.
Dale and Carly both turned to look at Pamela and Juan at the same time. “Just two happy people.” Dale answered.
“Are you ready for tonight, Pamela?” Carly asked politely.
“Yes, quite ready actually. I think I have a good shot at winning tonight, after seeing the competition in practice this morning. Oh- who’s car is this?” she asked, looking at Carly’s car.
“Mine, actually. NASCAR has asked me to drive also tonight, to fill out the short field. So, we took the backup car off the hauler.” Carly smiled.
“But you didn’t qualify! How can you possibly race tonight?” Pamela looked disturbed.
“Oh, I’ll start at the back of the field. But I don’t mind. I’ll do all right. I have a couple of wins racked up in the ARCA division. I’ll make my way around. Don’t worry about me.” Carly smiled.
“Oh, rest assured, I won’t. Robby Gordon told me that you weren’t actually that competitive when you raced ARCA. I imagine I still have a good shot at a win, even with a Winston Cup driver in the field.”
Dale grabbed a hold of Carly’s arm. She could feel the tension in his grip. But Carly remained calm. “There are three Winston Cup drivers in the field tonight. And one Busch driver. It should be a fun race.” She smiled and immediately turned her attention to Juan. “So, Juan, how was Laguna Seca?”
“Fine, thanks. The weather was nice, a little fog in the morning, but the sun came out by about 9:00 AM and everything became quite pleasant. Are you familiar with that track?” He queried.
“Yes, I’m from that area. I have attended many races as a fan, and driven several non-competition rallies there.” Carly smiled. “I’ve wound up in the hay bales at the bottom of the chute a few times!”
Juan laughed. “Yes, Ralf, my teammate wound up in the bales yesterday. It was quite comical, actually. Carly, how come you never tried Formula One?”
Carly could see Pamela steaming in the background. Dale had a smirk on his face. “I love stock cars. This is my “thing” as they say. I dabble in the open wheel courses as training for the two road courses we drive here in NASCAR. So Juan, how come you don’t try stock car racing?”
He laughed. “I did. The IROC. Not my bag, I’m afraid. Ask your boyfriend about my experience.” He waved at Dale.
Carly laughed. “Actually, I saw that race.”
“Then you know why I stick with Formula One.” He gave a fake half smile.
“Hey, that’s racin’!” Dale commented.
“So you NASCAR drivers say.” Juan commented.
“Carly, Lets get this car out onto the track real quick. Run about 5 laps, Ok?” Scotty said. He handed her her helmet, and helped her into the car. He buckled her in. “Listen, run 3 or so laps, swing her in for a mock pit stop. We’ll put 4 tires on her, make any adjustments you need, then get back out for a couple more turns. Got that?”
“Got it. Hey Dale!” she called out to him. “You better get a fire suit on if you’re gonna…” She stopped and realized that Pamela was still there. She motioned for him to come close to her window. He came right over.
“Oops- I didn’t know if you want them to know about your debut as a jack man! Sorry!” she whispered.
Dale smiled. He leaned in and kissed her. “It’s ok, honey. I don’t care what they think. I just can’t wait for you to beat the crap out of her in this race. Drive safe, ok?”
“I love you.” She whispered.
“Love you too.” He said softly. She then put her helmet on. Dale fastened her Hutchins Device on securely. He then clipped her window net into place, and tapped the top of the car a couple of times. Carly flipped the ignition on, and watched Pamela and Juan jump out of the way. She backed it out, and drove down onto the track. There were no other cars out there, so Carly had the blacktop to herself.
“Radio Check.” Scotty called.
“All ok. 10-4” Carly answered.
“How’s she runnin’?” Scotty asked.
“Like a dream. No problems so far. A tad loose out of turn two. Can we fix that?”
“10-4. At the pit stop. Man, the track is empty save for you. Must be fun!” He remarked.
“Yeah! It is fun! Free and easy. The open road.” Then Carly began to sing.
“She’s real fine, my 409..., She’s real fine, my 409, my Four – Oh – Nine….”
“Carly?” Scotty called.
“Oh, I saved my pennies and I saved my dimes…”
“CARLY!” he yelled again.
“Giddy-up, Giddy-up 409…”
“for I knew there would be a time… Giddy-up Giddy-up 409…”
“Carly…if you did that again…” Scotty lectured.
“that I would buy a brand new 409…409…”
Now Scotty was pissed. “Carly Grant, you get that racecar right back into the pits right now. Tony? Are you listening??”
Tony Eury Jr., who was Dale Jr.’s car chief, was acting as crew chief tonight for Carly. By now the whole pit crew had their earphones on, including Dale.
“10-4 Scotty. Why? What’s the problem?” Tony answered.
“When ever she sings, especially the Beach Boys, get her into the pits right away!” Scotty climbed down from where he was watching her drive.
“A four speed, dual-quad, posi-traction 409…” She continued.
“CARLY- PITS – NOW!” Scotty yelled. Carly was just coming up on pit road.
“Aw, Scotty. It’s only practice. If everybody had an ocean, like Californ-I-Ay,…” She slid her car into her pit box. Her crew jumped over the wall, but Scotty stopped them from servicing the car. He went up to her window and ripped the net down. He held out his hand.
“Hand it over.” He demanded. Dale and Tony came closer to see what was going on.
“What?” she said, flipping up her visor. Dale laughed as she batted her eyelashes at Scotty.
“You know what. Take off your helmet.”
She complied. Scotty noticed that she had left her hair down, around her shoulders, instead of pulling it back in a ponytail like she usually does. He brushed her hair back, revealing tiny flesh colored earphone wires running up into her ears. He pulled them out.
“Hand over the rest of it. You know it’s not allowed. I cannot believe you’re trying to pull this again.”
“But Scotty…”
Scotty looked at Dale, and the others. “If I am ever not here, and you notice her singing Beach Boy songs, and her hair is down, you know she’s got something she shouldn’t.” He looked back at Carly. Dale and the other guys were laughing.
“But Scotty…” she whined again.
Scotty held out his hand. “Now.”
She just sat there, and gave Scotty a dirty look.
“Fine. Dale, get over here and un-zip her fire suit.” Scotty ordered. Carly started to laugh.
Dale reached in, and undid her Velcro collar and unzipped her firesuit, and pulled out a tiny MP3 player she had hidden in her bra. He started laughing with her.
“Oh, this is RICH!!” Dale laughed. “Hah! I love it. Carly’s contraband. You got a good hiding place there, girl. I’ll just take this now!” he was still laughing as he slipped it into his pocket. She put her helmet back on, put her radio earphones back in and zipped up her suit.
“shit.” Was all she said. She looked back at Dale. He was still laughing. She started to laugh again too.
“OK! So I like to sing. It’s good car music! And the Beach Boys are my homies!”
Dale reached over, and flipped her visor down. He clipped her window net back into place. “Bye!” he said. “Two more laps, then pit stop!” He put his earphones back on.
“10-4” She answered. She pulled back out onto the track. She saw him in her rear view mirror, just standing and watching her drive off. She couldn’t help but fall deeper in love. She never used to think she could have loved anyone more than she had loved Jeff, but just now, she realized that she did. She pulled out onto the track, and got her car up to speed.
Two laps later, she was headed back down pit road. “Loose in turn two.” She said. She had been silent since her music had been taken away. But, Scotty was right, it was against the rules. She slid to a stop. Her temporary crew jumped over the wall, and she saw Dale run to her right side and slide the jack under the car. He did his job perfectly. She couldn’t take her eyes off of him. When they had finished the other side, she was signaled to go. She saw Dale jump back over the wall with the floor jack. She spun the new tires taking off, and got back out on the track.
“14.9” Tony read off their time. “Great time. Carly, did you read that?”
“Sure did, Tony. Thanks, you guys are awesome. We’ll do okay tonight. Car feels good now, the loose problem is gone. And I guess Dale knows what he can do if he decides not to drive anymore. He’s a decent jack man.”
Tony laughed. “I dunno, I think he’s a pretty decent driver. I think we’ll keep him behind the wheel. Bring the car back to the garages now, Carly. Almost time for the driver meeting.”
~~**~~
The driver meeting went well. Carly, Tony and Dale sat together. Scotty looked forlorn sitting next to Pamela and Juan. Carly felt sorry for him! Scotty was such a good guy, he didn’t deserve to have to deal with Princess Pamela. Juan was kind of miffed that he didn’t receive more celebrity attention. Especially since Dale did! All the ARCA drivers wanted to talk to Dale and get advice. Ken Schrader and Stacey Compton were also driving tonight, in addition to Randy LaJoie from the Busch series. Rusty Wallace and Terry Labonte were also there with their sons, and they received a fair amount of attention. The meeting finally ended, and they all walked down to the pits, where their cars awaited. Dale strolled over to talk with Rusty and Terry. Carly went over to check on Pamela.
“You gonna be ok?” Carly asked her.
Pamela gave her an icy glare. “Of Course! Why wouldn’t I?” she snapped.
“Just offering my help, that’s all!” Carly responded. “I ju…”
“I don’t need your help!” she sneered. “And I can’t believe how Dale Jr. is ignoring me! I would have thought he’d be more helpful. And you – you had better not mess with my car in the race tonight. I heard all about how you crash into people intentionally. If there’s one tire mark on this racecar, my father will sue you…”
Carly burst out laughing. “Who did you hear that from? Oh let me guess…Robby Gordon?” she laughed again. “Robby Gordon is the king of fender bashing. Both during and after the race. You have to watch him on pit road too. Boy, talk about the pot calling the kettle black!”
Pamela put her hand up in front of Carly’s face. “I’m through with you. Go. And stay away from me on the track.” She turned and walked over to Juan. He had his earphones with him, he was ready to go up to the top of the grandstands and spot for her.
Carly looked at Scotty. “Can he sue me?” she whispered.
“No.” Scotty laughed. “Can you imagine the lawsuits there would be after every race if they could?”
“Ok!” She said. “Hey – Tony Sr. said he’d spot for me. Have you seen him?” Carly asked. “Oh- there he is. In my pit. Scotty, it’s really hard for me to go over there and not have you as my crew chief. I’m kinda nervous.” She gave him a hug.
He squeezed her tight. “You’ll do fine. I’m right here. And Tony takes good care of Junior, doesn’t he?” he smiled.
She looked him in the eye. “I never want you not to be my crew chief. This is a one time fluke, ok?”
“You got it, CrackerJack. No go drive. And be safe. And be nice.”
Meanwhile, Dale was telling his crew “You guys take as good care of her as you would me, ok?”
They laughed. “Junior – we’re gonna take better care of her. She didn’t wreck her racecar today.” They teased.
~~**~~
The race started with the usual fanfare. Carly just stayed at the back for the first several laps. Then she couldn’t help but pass slower cars, and got up to about the middle of the pack. Her car was good, and she could have gotten to the front easily, but she just hung back to see what the others were doing. Especially Pamela. Carly drafted off of Justin Labonte for a couple of laps. Then she passed him, and Steven Wallace, then she got up behind Pamela. Carly tried not to hit her, but she wound up tapping Pam’s rear bumper because Steven Wallace got into the back of her.
“Oh, damn Uncle Tony. I didn’t mean to do that. I got rearended! Please tell Juan!” Carly pleaded.
“I’ll tell him – but it’s too late – she’s livid!”
