The Tale of Love & Racing: Sarina’s Story – Chapter 338: California Dreamin’

Friday, February 28 – Auto Club Speedway

Sarina gets comfortable in the lounge, glancing over at the small playpen set-up in seeing that Abigail was enjoying her array of toys. It seemed as she got older, they needed to keep her amused more during these meetings. She knew it may be simpler to just have Cindy and Bill watch her for the entire day, but she wasn’t about to give up any time with her daughter.

Besides, it just added to the fun of the day as she was having fun thus far, having led the first Xfinity Series practice. Now it was just about carrying that through the rest of the weekend for another promising run, perhaps visiting victory lane once again.

“Did you say it felt better on the second run, or the third run?” Dave questions as he glances over his notes on the laptop. They had gone over their initial debrief together, along with their teammates, so now it was just perfecting the notes together.

“Second run as I felt too loose over the bumps on the third,” she replies, thinking back carefully. She knew navigating the bumps and tire wear were critical to being successful. “Wasn’t that where the quicker lap came?”

“Yep, but I just wanted to double check…” Sarina smiles as it was nice to be on the same page, whereas this time last year her and Dave were just working at feeling each other out.

With not much to do, her mind drifts to her e-mails, as she opens them up to see if anything stood out in particular.

Not seeing an e-mail from Wendy yet and being two weeks removed from Daytona wasn’t comforting, as she thought they would’ve heard something already. She tried to remind herself of what Chase said in there being a process, combined with other clients, however anything would’ve been better than where they stood.

She thought about sending an e-mail asking Wendy for an update, but didn’t want to overstep her boundaries. If Wendy was taking some time to think over everything, he didn’t want to rush her into making the wrong decision.

She then glanced through the e-mails that she had, with one catching her in particular. She knew the address, having reached out a couple days ago herself with a question. Upon opening the contents, she was pleased with the response that she had seen.

With worries that the adoption process would fall through, she had inquired about the surrogacy process through where her eggs were currently harvested. Although the idea of adopting was nice, she also didn’t want to close this door as having a second child with her and Chase mixed together was a nice option to consider.

“You should know that surrogacy is viewed as a legal contract in the eyes of the law in the state,” she reads to herself, not wanting to say any details out loud in case someone in the room asked questions. “Therefore once you’re ready to begin the process, you must sign a legal contract along with the surrogate. As far as choosing your mate, there are options – you can choose someone you trust, we can match you with someone within the organization, and you can search for someone yourself. From there, the process is a matter of how long it takes to work the details out, and implant the fertilized egg into the surrogate.”

Considering her options, she wasn’t too worried about everything as it was laid out.

She knew there were options in who to choose, with Lindsay having offered to carry her baby if warranted. While she trusted her cousin and certainly that’d be the top option, she didn’t want Lindsay to endure another pregnancy while taking care of the girls.

However, the other ideas on the table were certainly easy to consider – as long as she could convince herself to be trusting of whoever was chosen through the entire process. Taking a deep breath, she knew that involved some debate in her mind. Though once her mind was made up, she felt confident it could help rather quickly with the information being given.

“Can you hear me?” Chase questions as he gets ready to roll out of the garage for the first practice.

“Loud and clear,” Eddie answers as he gets set on the spotter stand.

“Sorry, I got you,” Alan replies after a couple minutes. “I had to get Matt to set the radio, couldn’t reach around.”

The practice would start out with some issues, as Chase complained about the splitter catching the bumps more than he would prefer, causing the condition to be darty. He would head in for adjustments, heading back out shortly thereafter for another run.

He would report that the car handled better, and it showed with the laps being slightly stronger.

Ultimately, he’d end up just 26^th quickest on the chart. While it was somewhat concerning as they would like to be in the teens, the team was confident with the progress made considering where they started. It was also promising having watched Alex Bowman lead the session, knowing that Hendrick had speed in the cars.

With practice over, Chase heads out of the garage quickly, ready to go get Abigail from Sarina so she could run her session, before intending to meet up with his teammates.

“Chase!!” Chase hears his name yelled, silently cursing to himself as he was on a tight schedule, though turned in the direction with a smile on his face.

“How may I help you, Christopher?” He questions, partially surprised by the approach though not quite much anymore with how close they had considerably gotten.

“Has Sarina mentioned anything about the midget schedule to you?” Chase thinks it over, shaking his head no. To be honest, he hadn’t heard a single mention in a couple weeks. “I remember that she was so excited about running the midget so it surprises me, to be honest. I just thought I’d ask because Chad was wondering last night, too.”

“She’s been a little distra-”

“Oh God….” Chase looks at him with a bit of shock, having caught where Christopher’s thoughts had gone.

“Relax, it’s nothing like that. Why does everybody think that, though?” Christopher crosses his arms as he glances around, before focusing his eyes back on Chase.

“Considering the past couple of years, can you blame me?” Chase lets out a sigh, and shakes his head no. This had certainly been a nice change of pace – even with the thoughts of Alison in the back of his mind every now and then.

“We began the adoption process, and part of that involved having one of the representatives down at Daytona with us. we haven’t heard anything back yet, so Sarina is getting concerned.” Christopher could already picture the thoughts that were probably swinging through the representative’s mind, considering the chaos of a weekend for Chase & Sarina, combined with Ryan’s wreck. “So focused on that process and everything, she hasn’t given much of anything else too much thought. If you want, I can bring it up to her.”

“Nah man, it’s all good. I totally understand how that comes first. I’ll just tell Chad that she’s had some things come up, but by summer, we should be stealing your girl.” Chase couldn’t help but smirk as he was excited to see what Sarina could do based on how well the test had gone.

“Looking forward to it.” He then heads off, knowing that the conversation would cause him to a couple minutes late.

The speed carried over from the first session to the second for Sarina, as she was able to post the second quickest lap. On top of that, the confidence seemed higher than ever, in the car feeling good through both lanes when running a long run through the second half of the session. Speed, combined with liking the balance of the car and ability to use the lines, was certainly a great feeling in knowing the recipe to be successful.

Just like they had done before, the JR Motorsports squad was back in the lounge, with Sarina available for any questions that the crew had. She then headed for the e-mails once again, fingers crossed for something, though came up empty-handed.

“If you were not a racecar fan and you saw Ryan Newman’s crash, what would you think?” She questions out loud, catching the squad in the room off-guard.

“Scared, freaked out, thinking the worse not realizing the safety measures that the sport takes,” Cory answers as calmly as possible, even though the confusion was felt while answering. “Just look at how Good Morning America and the mainstream America handled the aftermath in looking for all possible explanations and thinking it was a ‘miracle’ to see he wasn’t hurt worse.”

“You and Chase had a guest through the weekend at Daytona,” Dave starts, having seen the female following them around. He even remembered the brief introduction – Wendy was he name, forgot why she was there. “Is that why you’re asking?” Sarina nods her head, glad that the crew chief was filling the gaps of confusion as she didn’t feel like explaining everything at once. “Did you explain to her the safety of these racecars?”

“Chase gave her a tour of the interior of his car prior to the race, explaining all of the safety measures and why we normally don’t worry about that,” she recalls the process through the weekend, per Wendy’s request actually. “Heck, I even admit being worried after that happened and cuddling Chase a little closer that night and the couple days that followed. But I thought we covered all basis.”

“Why don’t you feel you did?” Sarina knew there was no way around it now, as what else was she to say except the truth?

“Wendy was there on behalf of the adoption agency to see if we’d get clearance for the next step – call it interview process. She hasn’t sent an approval or denial since then.” Cory and Dave trade concerning glances, already pondering what the other was thinking, but also not wanting to overstep the boundaries with Sarina here. “What if I lost my chance at adoption because of what happened?”

“You can’t single point one event over the other,” Cory begins, trying to find the best way to say this without pissing her off. “You can’t blame one thing due to another. It’s the same as we say about your history – what happened isn’t your fault. The same goes here as you can’t just single-handedly say that Ryan caused this to happen. Maybe it just wasn’t meant to be, or maybe she feels it won’t work within the racing schedul-”

“Or maybe she’s a Myatt Snider fan – oh wait, more like Justin Haley fan,” Dave tries to crack in there as Sarina rolls her eyes. She loved the attempts at humor to break the tension, but it didn’t make her feel better right now.

“Regardless, you can’t read it more than it is – and especially when you don’t even know the answer yet. All you can do is be patient, and hope for the best. If you get to move forward, then hey that’s great. If you don’t, then question as to why and try to figure out the best approach moving forward – whether changing something up, or a different avenue.” Sarina smiles as she was appreciating Cory’s perspective. Sure, it sounded just like something Chase would say to her, but it was nice to hear it from someone different to truly start to set in.

“No matter what, though, we both know that you’ll make it work and get what you want and everything will be fine. You don’t go through hell and come out on the other side to fail. You deserve the world on an oyster, beginning with a win tomorrow and a championship this season.” Sarina wasn’t about to argue with the crew chief as a full blown smile was there now. She loved the confidence that just seemed to be blossom from this room lately.

“I look forward to making those dreams come true for you,” she comments as she glances between the pair of them. “Thank you, both of you…”

The second practice would go smoother for Chase than the first, with both driver and team continuing to feel better about the process that they were making on the NAPA Chevrolet.

“Last lap was a little better,” he comments through the second run. “Last two laps have been better.” Alan couldn’t help but smile as he seemed to finally peg why they were having the handling issues, and how to solve them moving forward.

Even with losing the last 15 minutes of practice due to last week’s penalty, the team felt confident in the progress made in knowing that they could make something decent happen on Sunday – even being ranked 17^th in the session.

The post-practice brief would go smoothly, as well, with the notes being sorted and the direction being chosen for both qualifying tomorrow, and the race on Sunday.

“I was hoping I would’ve saw Sarina today actually,” Alan starts as Chase gets ready to head out following the debrief. “I was wanting to ask her how she was doing.”

“May I ask why in particular?” Chase wonders, as it wasn’t normal for Alan to ask that question – unless he knew something was going on.

“I know she had surgery in the off-season, and I was wondering how she was doing with everything now.” Chase takes a deep breath, as it was normal for a question of this nature to surface. It seemed whoever knew wanted to keep checking in, despite constant assurance that everything had gone smoothly with the hysterectomy.

“She’s doing fine, not feeling any tenderness or any issues regularly. It seems to have all healed accordingly and she’s ready to move forward as normal….” Though another deep breath, he knew that wasn’t all quite the case. They had fully come to grips with the fact that she wouldn’t carry her own child, and there was also the issue they came across a couple nights ago.

“So why are you freezing up?” Chase glances towards the crew chief, biting his lip. This wasn’t the conversation that you normally had with anybody, except your partner and advisor.

“Can I ask you something very personal?” Alan looks on slightly confused, though nods his head. He was always there for Chase as much as he needed him, and certainly through some personal things before. Even with nothing going on, he wasn’t about to change that. “She’s experiencing some vagina dryness during intercourse, which makes it a little sore. They suggested using lubricant or oil to make it easier. We’ve both never used any of those. Can I have a suggestion, perhaps?”

“I’ve heard that the K-Y Jelly is really good to use, and have perhaps had some success with it myself.” Chase nods his head, accepting, glad that the answer from Alan came smoother than he had been envisioning when trying to spit out the words. “Just for the record, you do know that you can come to me with any issues or problems – no matter how personal. I was there through everything, know more than most, so I can definitely offer some tips based on that.”

“Thanks, but I don’t think I’ll ever get used to these discussions.” Alan had to chuckle a little as he watched him head off with Abigail in his arms.

The Tale of Love & Racing: Sarina’s Story – Chapter 337: Boyd Gaming 300

“I don’t think (s)he meant to do it.” “You sure?”

Sunday, February 23 – Las Vegas Motor Speedway

Taking a deep breath, Chase knew he couldn’t let the frustration linger on his mind as the day was just getting started – with Sarina set to finish off her race. As he sat on the pit box, he knew it’d be a good distraction for the time being from what happened.

Despite having to start deep of the pack due to speeding on pit road yesterday, Sarina was able to work her way forward to finish the second stage in 11^th. It wasn’t the top-10 day that they envisioning, but certainly a solid comeback considering what happened. Besides, there was still lots of racing to go and action that could happen.

She wouldn’t make much progress as the race went beyond halfway, slipping and sliding around the 10^th spot as concerns mounted surrounding the left rear tire wear.

“Just take care of it….” Dave tells her, hopeful that it’ll last until the scheduled pit stop.

Their worries were averted as the tire stayed together, with her slipping and sliding her way to pit road – but under the speed limit thankfully. Returning back to the track, she wasn’t making much ground fast, though caught up to Myatt Snider, ready to challenge for the top-nine.

“What the fuck is his problem?” Sarina swears over the radio, getting frustrated very quickly. Chase could only shake his head as it seemed each move she made, he would throw a block, practically chopping her nose off down the backstretch in one instance. “Like, just hold your line. Seriously?!?”

“Stick with it, you’re doing good….” Earl tells her, obviously trying to keep everything in check. Chase could only shake his head as he knew if Myatt kept that up, it wasn’t going to end well given Sarina’s building frustration.

“That was only a matter of time,” Chase comments under his breath as he watches the No. 21 Chevrolet go around off of turn four.

On one hand, he wanted to be frustrated with her as certainly dumping a competitor on purpose wasn’t the way you wanted to race. However, he also admitted being proud as she hadn’t crashed him into a wall and simply gave him what he deserved after the blocks.

“Race people how you want to be raced,” Cory says to Dave, to which Chase couldn’t help but smile. He had lost count the amount of times that Ricky had told him those words, and knew Sarina probably was drilled with the same advice.

He knew he shouldn’t, but he glanced at his phone to see the response, curious by twitter. He was actually shocked by the amount of angry messages, but that was to be expected considering nobody knew what had happened prior to that.

Letting out a sigh, he knew he couldn’t dwell on the fact as there was still 38 laps to go, and salvaging a strong finish out of the night would certainly be a great way to cap off the day off.

Sarina would use the restart to her advantage, making her way up to fourth with 30 laps to go. she was then able to stay solidly there through the remaining laps, en route to her second straight top-five. it wasn’t the win that you would’ve wanted, but certainly a great way to start off the season after winning at Daytona.

Chase gets off the pit box, makes his way down pit road to where the No. 9 Chevrolet was parked, following suit with the crew. He watched as a couple crew guys already stood around, sharing handshakes and discussion on a good night. Though he notices a red firesuit making its way through the crowd and lets out a sigh.

“This isn’t going to be good,” he comments to himself, actually glad that he didn’t have Abigail in his arms in case things got ugly.

He continues his usual walk, stopping by the front of the car, one eye locked on Sarina, the other locked on Myatt as he makes his way over.

“What the hell was that?” Myatt questions right away, to which he simply gets laughed at in return in his face from Sarina.

“What gives you the right to say that?” She asks back in response, to which Chase lets out a sigh. it was already sky-high confrontation level right from the beginning.

“You spun me through the grass. I think I deserve an explanation, perhaps an apolo-”

“Are you serious right now? An apology, really?” Sarina was practically in full laughing form in disbelief at his behavior. “I’m sorry, but what do you call the countless blocks? I had a run on you, and you kept chopping my nose off. Block me once fine, block me twice whatever, but three strikes you’re going around. I think I gave you more chances than that, buddy.” Chase couldn’t help but smile as that was the count that he thought the situation was given, and why he felt it was ultimately fair.

“You dumped me, plain and simple, dirty racing. Before that, it was just hard racing between us.” Sarina shakes her head no as she takes a sip of her water bottle.

“Hard racing is running side-by-side, giving each other room – not chopping the other guy’s nose off like an asshole. You made a wrong, I made a wrong – that’s how it ended.” Chase knew this was the turning point as either Myatt was going to realize his wrongs, or just walk away, or escalate things.

“Just so you know – I plan on racing you the same way moving forward so be ready.” Sarina couldn’t help but smirk back in response as he didn’t scare her.

“Bring it on…” She holds out fist for a fist-pump, though Myatt simply turns on his heels and walks away.

Chase takes a deep breath, using this as his cue to walk over to her as he had originally planned, thankful things hadn’t gotten uglier.

“Please don’t tell me that you agree with Mya-” She starts, to which Chase immediately shakes his head no.

“Race people how they race you,” he interrupts to which she smiles back in response as that was her thought process in the entire time. “Just don’t go read your twitter as it seems that FOX forgot to show what he did, and Austin Dillon in the booth put you on the burner immediately.”

“He’s just sassy because he’s got a silver spoon stuck up his ass.” Chase looks at her with a combination of shock and laughter. “I just hope NASCAR doesn’t chew my ass out.”

“They should see it the same wa-”

“They also have said that they’ll fine for deliberate incidents if you admit them. Look at Bubba. Look at Clint. Oh, and do I recall that stern warning for Dale back at Bristol a couple years ago?” Chase lets out a sigh as he recalled those incidents. However, there had been several since that had been clear, too – himself included.

“What about myself and Denny at Phoe-”

“You, sir, are an angel and it seems you did that in a sneaky fashion.” He had to smirk at himself for that as he was proud of how that played out.

“What about Alex at Bubba? He dumped him for sticking the middle finger out and NASCAR said nothing.” Sarina couldn’t help but laugh at that memory, simply by Alex’s audio about it.

“I’m not taking a chance. Besides, I just got loose over the seams…” Chase lets out a sigh as she walks away.

He understood her worries about the situation, however knew covering with a lie wasn’t always the best look either. Perhaps a proper explanation would get some of the fans to understand, whereas an excuse would just give them more reason to complain.

With a deep breath, he knew that he had to keep her off of social media for much of the week now.

Thursday, February 27 – Dawsonville, GA

Chase relaxes on the couch, having finished packing everything for the next trip of the NASCAR schedule, which would see them go back out west once again – this time to California. With Abigail down for her nap and all of her stuff together, it was just waiting for Sarina and they’d off once again.

“So I hear you’re going to be busy in a couple weeks,” Sarina comments as she comes down the stairs with bag in hand. He couldn’t help but chuckle a little, having seen and retweeted the announcement from GMS Racing an hour ago.

“I told you that I was intrigued by the bounty,” he replies with a smirk. “I figured might as well take a shot at it at home.” She lets out a sigh, not surprised, though also excited herself. The Truck Series was always fun to watch, and seeing Chase back in one once again would certainly add another layer. Knowing that GMS prepare good trucks, it’d be fun to see him take the bounty, too.

“I thought you were joking when you said you were going to message Mike (Beam).” Chase shakes his head no, bringing up their full set of chat messages on his phone. Sure enough, she saw the message that he sent the day after the bounty was issued with a screen shot of the tweet.

“He was on-board right away, just needed Maurice’s approval. Maurice said as long as we had sponsorship money and Mike could get the people aligned in the shop, it was a go. I then brought it up to Hooters when we were talking about the Spirits deal, and they jumped on-board right away. To be honest, I was surprised how quickly it came together.” She shakes her head in disbelief as she plops herself down beside him on the couch.

“So realistically, we could see an Elliott sweep of the Atlanta home weekend if you win the truck race, I do my job in the Xfinity race, and you win on Sunday.” Chase smiles with a nod of approval, as he certainly wouldn’t mind watching that happen.

“The last I drove for Maurice, I won (at Martinsville). We also finished fifth at Atlanta that same year, too. I figured it’s more fun than sitting on the couch.” She then looks at him a little shocked. “Don’t get me wrong, the company is great with my girls, but you know yourself that anytime behind the wheel is better.”

“I can’t complain, actually. I am actually looking forward to this as I am ready for you to take Kyle’s bounty. I was all for Kyle proving the point and beating everybody all the way through – until now. So go get ‘em and do your best. Perhaps someone will be shouting Dada in victory lane as you’re showered with money.” Chase couldn’t help but smile with that thought.

“Do you realize how close she is to talking? Like, all the sounds are there lately from the Mas to the Das to who knows what sometimes with her. I’m just ready for that first word!” Sarina nods her head in agreement as they were both expecting it with anticipation.

“Was she as cranky today as she was yesterday?” Chase shakes his head no as Sarina lets out a sigh of relief. “I still can’t believe how cranky she was on Wednesday. I’ve never seen her that cranky. I literally was wondering if she was coming down with something.”

“You know how much it hurts to cut your gums or your lip. Imagine something cutting through it. I stuck my finger in there this morning and could feel a little chicklet so I think it’s through now.” Sarina’s smile only grew as it was nice to discuss the small developments with her day-by-day.

“Did you pack her teething ring just in case?” Chase nods his head, pointing to the small cooler bag sitting by the diaper bag. He had been following the practice of getting it nice and cold, so that way it helped ease the pain for her when she was using it. “Look at Daddy, all prepared…”

“Do you remember where we were a year ago? We were both worried about her each week as we went to races, and scared that we were screwing things up.” Sarina then cuddles up to Chase a little more, laying her head on his chest.

“A year later, and I say we have this parenting thing figured out. I wouldn’t want to do it with anyone else, though. I just wish Wendy would get back to us already.” Chase runs his fingers through her hair with a sigh of his own. He was surprised that it’d been a week without a response.

“A lot happened in a matter of 24 hours in Daytona. It’s a lot to digest for someone whose not there regularly. There’s also paperwork and probably other parents that she’s working with to do. Relax, and take a deep breath. We’ll hear something soon….”

Friday, February 27 –Auto Club Speedway

Alan walks into the garage area, ready to get the day started, hopefully set to go smoother than his morning had gone with the complications of trying to simply get dressed and have a shower.

He was used to being at the track early, and was ready to simply meet with the guys and make sure things were being followed according to plan. Knowing that they were missing 15 minutes of practice, they couldn’t afford to miss anymore by sloppy preparations so it meant having the car ready to go through tech, getting through tech, and being ready when practice started.

“Alan?” Alan hears his name, recognizing the voice immediately, as he looks over at his fellow Hendrick Motorsports crew chief. “What happened to your arm?”

“Mountain biking accident yesterday,” Alan answers to which Chad looks at him with a mix of confusion and concern. “I was riding through the woods, and caught a rock, and went ass over tea kettle.”

“So what’s up with your arm?” Alan lets out a sigh, glancing at the new brace that he was required to wear. It was certainly a pain in the butt thus far having gotten in the way a little.

“Torn AC joint, hairline fracture in my clavicle. Oh, and there’s no skin left on my arms and elbows.” Chad makes a disgusted immediately as he glances over him.

“Dude, you need to be more careful. I mean, I know the guys talked about wrapping Chase in bubble wrap but maybe it’s you that we need to be concerned about.” Alan chuckles a little, shaking his head. “On that note, it was a total accident, right?”

“100% accident. Like I said, I caught a random rock the wrong way.” Alan takes a deep breath as he knew why Chad was asking the question. Even though there hadn’t been anything lately creeping up for Chase and Sarina, some people were still on-guard wondering if it was just a matter of time until the next shoe dropped. “Sometimes accidents happen, you know?”

“Oh yeah, I totally get it. I just wanted to make sure…”

The Tale of Love & Racing: Sarina’s Story – Chapter 336: Pennzoil 400

Saturday, February 22 – Las Vegas Motor Speedway

When the rain finally subsided, Sarina was able to start off the NASCAR Xfinity Series race strongly, running inside the top-10 solidly despite being a little loose.

“May have a tire going down,” she reports back as Chase taps his foot a little nervously. He knew that having a flat tire here wasn’t ever good news.

“10-4, be easy on it, five to go,” Earl Barbarn tells her, trying to keep everything in check. Everybody knew that it’d be better if she could hold on, as pitting under green would put them a lap down and that may not be easy to make-up.

She keep the words of advice in mind, though kept driving hard, ultimately scoring an eighth-place finish in the stage. She then came down pit road as scheduled, with the team changing all four tires, before sending her back out on track.

“Speeding,” Dave simply compliments as Chase lets out a sigh. That was the second week in a row that she had been caught speeding. He thought her spending time at HMS with simulated pit road practice would have changed things. Perhaps the engineers were setting the tack too close to the actual speed.

“10-4, sorry,” she replies, trying to curb her frustration to the side as she just wanted to kick herself in the ass.

She’d have more time to think about her mistake, though, as the rains began to fall once again, bringing everybody down pit road under the red flag.

“I may have to talk to the guys about the tack and maybe dial it back some,” Dave comments after she had walked over to where the pit box was, getting out of the rain. “But we have a good, solid car. We just need to be smart in how we make the ground back up.”

“Make passes when you can, but don’t push the envelope and get yourself in trouble,” she summarizes, having remembered being in similar scenarios past seasons. Taking a deep breath, it was certainly not the position she wanted to be in, but she knew that she could make it back up. She believed in not only herself, but the team surrounding her. “I didn’t think I was that close to speeding, to be honest. It may have bounced off the light once.”

“I’ll talk to the guys, but we’ll also check to see where you sped. It may be about you’re launching out of the box and maybe hitting the sector after.” She nods her head, already having the idea in her head to check out – perhaps during this very delay, to therefore prevent another occurrence once they did get back started.

The pair had been relaxing back at the motorcoach, as there wasn’t much else to do during the delay than spend time together with Abigail. Sarina honestly had no complaints as she sat playing with Abigail – until it was time for her to get ready for bed. Once they had her laid down for the night, the smiles continued from Sarina in watching Chase serenade her to sleep with a song, obviously putting the practice on the guitar to practice.

“I could’ve fallen to sleep as that was perfection,” Sarina comments once she’s asleep, giving him a quick kiss. He could only chuckle, knowing  her comments were far from the truth.

“I have a long way to go before I get there,” he replies as he puts the guitar up on the shelf. “There were a couple missed cords for sure.” She then lets out a sigh, knowing that no matter what it was, he was hard on himself.

“Fair, but you still did an amazing job and I stand by my comment.” She then hears her phone go off, pulling it out, not at all surprised by the text from Dave. “Race is postponed until tomorrow following your race. Looks we have a busy Sunday ahead of us.”

“It’s probably a good thing that Abigail wanted to go to bed early.” She nods her head as they cuddle up on the bed, as they knew the revised schedule should result in both of them being well-rested.

“Just promise me a smooth Sunday, please…” Chase glances at her a little caught off-guard by the comment, as normally they weren’t in that thinking realm – unless it was Daytona or Talladega.

“I plan on being up front all day long and scoring a win.” She smiles as it was nice to hear the confidence, but her mind wouldn’t exactly go to the normal place that it’d go in hearing those words. “Sarina, what’s wrong?”

“I didn’t want to think about, or even let my mind go there, but I can’t help it. After Ryan wrecked last week, I wondered what I would’ve done in the same situation. What about Abigail? What about everything? Wha-”

“Ryan is going to be oka-”

“I know, but what if it didn’t turn out that way? Chase, we’ve both been involved in racing for a long time – you for your entire life. We both know that it is a possibility, just as Wendy asked us straight out. I know that a driver doesn’t want to think about it, but being a mother, I can’t help but think about it.” Chase nods his head, understanding, as he takes her hands with his own.

“Everybody’s hearts and brains went to a different place when that happened, so it’s okay to be having these situations. You just have to remind yourself of how safe these cars are built, and how many hours the guys in the shop ensure that is the case. You just have to believe in the strength in yourself, myself, and everybody that things will always turn out okay.” She knew that, and had been reminding herself of that whenever the thoughts entered her mind. However, she couldn’t quite escape so easily right this moment.

“I know, and trust me, I know that we’re behind the wheel of the safest cars out there. But I can’t help but think about your wreck here just a couple years ago. What if that would’ve been wors-”

“We would’ve gotten through it, as no matter what happens, we’ll get through it together.” He then takes a deep breath, as he glances at their hands together. “You just have to remind yourself that everything will be okay for these reasons. You have to remind yourself of the reasons why you do this, and why you know that you can do this. But beyond that, believe in yourself, me, everybody. If something were to happen, we both know that we’d do whatever it takes to fight back from it for not only us, but for Abigail. You’re one of the strongest woman I know, and I know no matter what, everything will be okay.”

“I know you’re one of the strongest people in my life, but please don’t toy with my heart and make me worry…” He then leans over their hands together, kissing her lips slowly.

“Don’t worry, I won’t do that to you as I plan on having a great day tomorrow.”

Sunday, February 23 – Las Vegas Motor Speedway

Starting up front, Chase followed the words that he told Sarina without any issues, keeping himself in solid position as the competition yellow came out at Lap 25. Although he and Alan discussed possibly making some adjustments to the NAPA Chevrolet, they decided to leave it alone with Chase still “pleased” with the handling.

“Little wear on that left front,” Alan comments after the pit stop and checking in with Mason. It was to be expected due to no rubber on the track with the rain, but something to watch considering the new compound being used.

When the green flag came back out, Chase continued to work his way forward, moving into second with 20 laps left in the stage.

“Take care of what’s left of your tires, we got twenty to go,” Eddie reminds him over the radio. Sarina knew it was sound advice considering the original concern about the tires under the pit stop,

Though Chase felt confident and kept pushing his way forward, passing Kevin Harvick shortly thereafter and leading the rest of the way for the stage victory. There were certainly no complaints from Sarina in seeing them win a stage for the second week in a row.

“Obviously, really really early,” Chase comments afterwards, which was a critical reminder to everybody in knowing that they still had a long way to go, and no getting overconfident with their chances. However, Sarina was having flashbacks to previous domination in seeing how strong the car got over the long run. “This is good, but we’ll see if we can keep up with it.”

Although he’d lose the lead on the initial restart courtesy of Kevin and Martin taking him three-wide, he was able to fight back and get it back, leading the rest of the way for the stage two victory. Although Chase had tried to dull expectations earlier, Sarina could already seeing the day ending very well.

“That’s a good pace right there,” Eddie comments, reflecting back on the previous run. It showed what they were capable of on the long run, something that had Sarina looking forward to the end stretch of the race.

“Tires are pretty much improved,” Alan adds, which just added to the confidence from Sarina’s standpoint.

Their great confidence took a small hit as over the next pair of back-to-back restarts, he wouldn’t make the moves necessary and fell back to sixth as a result.

“I couldn’t hear you Eddie for part of that lap,” Chase comments, pegging Sarina’s worries. Radio issues and the craziness of three-wide was never fun. “But that’s on me right there. Just wrong decisions. How’s the nose? I pushed the 22 down the backstretch.”

“Nose is fine, changed batteries here,” Eddie replies, which caused Sarina to calm right back down. They had a long way still to go, and a really good car. They could make up the ground and make it happen today.

Her prediction would be spot on as through the course of the run, Chase was able to pass each of those cars ahead of him back, finding his way back to the lead once again. Now it was just about making it work for the final run to the checkered.

“Feel just a tick to the tight side…” Chase says.

“10-4, pitting in five,” Alan replies. “Minor adjustments coming.”

Chase would head back out after the pit stop, with all eyes on seeing where they’d shake out in the running order. Though as Chase came back around to the frontstretch, Alan’s eyes immediately focused on the rear of the car as something looked odd.

“Left rear down, left rear down,” he begins repeating over the radio, causing an immediate internal freak out for Sarina, though bit of confusion.

That was quickly erased, though, as he entered the corner, sliding sideways, getting up into the outside wall, before spinning down the track. Sarina takes a series of deep breathes, glad that it wasn’t worse – though there was certainly anger seething underneath. Of course this would happen why they had a very dominant car and looked to be on the road to winning.

“Freaking flat tire!” Chase immediately lets out on the radio afterwards. “Fuck, something might be broke, I don’t know.” Alan and Sarina trade a glance of confusion in hearing his rant.

“I knew you had a flat, saw it on the front straightaway,” Alan starts as calmly as possible despite being ultra confused. “Did you hear me tell you?” Sarina wasn’t about to argue as she heard the call, remembering her eyes focused right to the left rear upon Alan’s words.

“I did not hear you tell me,” Chase replies, which brought a bit of confusion for Sarina. Everybody else seemed to hear except for him.

Chase would make his way down pit road, with the team making the necessary repairs to the slight damage made to the rear of the car by the contact with the wall. Unfortunately, they’d fall a lap down in the process, which certainly didn’t make facing this uphill battle and disappointment for anybody involved easier.

“There was an issue with the radio as I said it,” Alan comments, as Sarina thinks it over. Chase had made a comment earlier about having an issue hearing Eddie down the backstretch.

“There isn’t, Eddie was talking when you said it,” Chase replies, to which Sarina couldn’t help but glance towards Alan even more confused. Perhaps with the radio breaking in and out, he got the voices mixed it up as it seemed to be the only explanation in her eyes.

“Team heard me, Eddie was silent….” Sarina hated to hear them debating as normally they were on the same page with each other.

“Did we run over something?” Sarina had actually wondered the cause, too, as it sucked to see the race thrown away over something like this.

“No, valve stem knocked off under the pit stop.” Sarina lets out a sigh as she could only shake her head. She wanted to go down and yell at the pit crew, but knew it was very accidental as the gun probably just caught the stem as Chad Avrit ran around the car.

Between the damage and a lack of cautions, they were unable to make much ground to the checkered flag, credited with a 26^th-place finish. it was certainly not the way they wanted to remember having a dominant racecar through the first half.

“Sorry bud, we should’ve executed a better race than that,” Alan comments, knowing there wasn’t much else he could do at this point. They just needed to continue perfecting the pit crew work more, cleaning up any potential for mistakes like today, and work on bringing strong cars to the track each week.

“It happens, hate to throw one away,” Chase replies as Sarina lets out a sigh. She knew that he wasn’t taking it so lightly, disappointed obviously.

She wanted to stick around and perhaps offer some words of encouragement, remind him of how strong they started the day and the fact that this was a better start than last season. It was all about taking things in stride, right?

Though she couldn’t do that as she had a race to run herself. Perhaps she could change the tune on the day with her own trip to victory lane.

The Tale of Love & Racing: Sarina’s Story – Chapter 335: Viva Las Vegas

Friday, February 21 – Las Vegas Motor Speedway

The day would start off with Sarina heading out for practice, set on getting the No. 9 Chevrolet running as strong as she was able to be last week at Daytona.

The team would work through the session, trying a couple different changes, in hopes of finding the sweet spot that she needed. It wasn’t easy, as you had to contend with the bumps, aged pavement, and weather conditions all in one. One of Dave’s guesses would be a little over the comfort zone, with Sarina getting right sideways off of turn four.

“Lucky we’re not going to a back-up,” she comments after taking a deep breath afterwards to get her composure back. If that was how the car would drive on Saturday, they were certainly going to be in trouble.

“Oh trust me, I saw,” Dave replies, already making notes of changes to make.

They would work for the rest of the session, making two more attempts at it, ultimately ending up seventh on the speed chart.

With practice over, she knew that she needed to go get Abigail from Chase, so he could focus on his first practice session while she debriefed with Dave and the crew. That came to be no problem, with the pair sharing a quick kiss in the process before he headed off to the Cup garage.

She then makes her way back through the infield, with her sight set on her Xfinity Series hauler as she knew Dave and the crew would be waiting.

Though as she kept walking, she felt as though she was being followed, but immediately brushed it off as there could be nobody posing a threat. However, the feeling didn’t go away. She tried to keep her eyes forward, focused on the goal in her mind and her daughter, but she couldn’t help the unease that she was feeling.

Not wanting to be caught off-guard especially with Abigail in her arms, she stops dead in her tracks and turns around to check. She immediately came face-to-face with a mid-aged gentleman.

“Can I help you?” She says sharply, though feels a bit of hesitation right after. She didn’t need to cause any issues with Abigail in her arms.

“I was wondering if I could get an autograph,” the gentleman says, holding out one of her diecast cars from last season and a sharpie marker. “I was following you, hoping to get your attention, but didn’t want to catch you off-guard due to carrying your daughter.” She then takes a deep breath, ultimately a sigh of relief immediately escaping in hearing that he just wanted to get her attention for an autograph.

“Absolutely, that’s not a problem.” She carefully accepts the sharpie, using it to sign the diecast as the gentleman holds it while keeping Abigail situated in her arms. “I appreciate your concern…”

“No problem, ma’am. Very cute daughter by the way.” Sarina glances at the little girl in her arms and smiles herself. Those compliments never got old as Abigail was certainly special.

“Thank you.”

After putting his first run in the books, Chase reported he was “pretty pleased” with the handling of the NAPA Chevrolet, knowing that they started off on a solid note.

They would continue with a couple more qualifying trim runs, finishing off with a “hot pit” to finish off the session in eighth.

“So I think we should start off with another mock qualifying run with the new tires, and then shift into race trim to see what we have over the long run,” Alan suggests as they debrief following practice.

“I’m fine with that,” Chase replies as he takes a sip of his Gatorade. “I mean, I told you that I was pleased with the handling and I still am. it feels like a solid car with the laps that we did run. I think we’ll be fine Sunday.” Alan couldn’t help but smile as he always liked when his driver had good predictions for race day.

“So how is Sarina’s book coming?” Chase was admittedly at first caught off-guard by the question being asked, but had come to expect these discussions as Alan always liked to check-in. it was something that he had done since everything started.

“To be honest, she’s taken a break from writing it. She was spending a couple days straight, putting a lot of notes in the journal, but she took a step back. It seems that it’s harder than she originally believed.” Alan wasn’t about to argue, remembering everything that happened.

“It’s like when you go to talk about everything, because you’re reliving what happened and the emotions. But yet perhaps even worse because you know the world is ready to read these words.” Chase nods his head, having gathered that from their discussions.

“It’s the same reason why I don’t feel comfortable doing an interview about everything, you know? Once again, I had a reporter ask me this week if I wanted to discuss everything openly. I just about chopped his head off-”

“I bet that made Morgan very happy.” Chase chuckles a little, knowing where Alan was going.

“Actually, she didn’t say much because the reporter didn’t whine too much and it was a discussion between just him and myself. But I thought about it afterwards. I understand why Sarina wants to do this – she wants to help people with her story. She feels that she can educate, be a sounding block for those struggling with similar issues. So that’s why I fully support her if she wants to do it. But for me, I’ll be supportive where I can, but that’s not my style.” Alan wasn’t about to argue, knowing how much Chase was usually willing to share and how he liked to keep certain things personal.

“Everybody is different in where they draw the lines, how they handle things, and their decisions. For a couple, it’s all about finding that balance together and you and Sarina have that with the book, right?” Chase nods his head, as several discussions had led to that. “Hopefully if she really wants to do this, then she can accomplish her end goal. Though don’t be hesitant to suggest slight changes to fit what you want, and perhaps help her get through the stumbling blocks. If one thing is too hard to write, then what about not including that?”

“I told her that, and she said she’d think about it, but she wants to have as complete as a story as she can because if she’s going to do it, she’s going to do it properly. That was her words. She wants her full history in there so people understand who she is, and she wants all the struggles we had before Abigail. She also wants to include those struggles since, and touch briefly on what happened without specifics per my request.” Alan smiles as it was nice to hear the pair had been discussing, with full breakdown of everything.

“I imagine that she’s gotten stuck on what happened over the past year, right?” Chase lets out a sigh, nodding his head. Was it that obvious? “So what if to make the story feel complete, but yet avoid until comfortable, she goes from when she was younger to having Abigail? Then say the rest could come in a future book when she is ready, or let that be the story of how she became the mother that she is today.”

“I’ll suggest that to her, and see what she thinks.”

Just as they discussed, they began with a mock qualifying trim run, before getting into race trim right away to try and maximize the time that they had on track today.

“May have hurt the right rear there,” he comments as he brings the car back in, before fully describing what he was dealing with.

“10-4, new tires and adjustments coming,” Alan replies, making a note for Mason to check the tires, specifically the right rear, as the team took them off.

They would send him back out shortly thereafter, hopeful that they were closer to having the handling the way they wanted it.

“Problems still there,” Chase reports afterwards as Alan glances over his notes. What could he adjust to help the back end of the car? “Figure we might as well try and do something. The front has good grip, the back just can’t take it.”

He would bring the car in, with Alan having a couple ideas in mind to make the back end more secure, from adjusting the track bar to rear tire pressures. He would go to head back out on-track for another run, though was unable to get out there in the final three minutes after practice.

“They closed the gate, not letting anyone through,” he tells Alan as he turns around and heads back to the garage.

“10-4,” Alan replies, defeated, as he would’ve liked to see what the car would’ve done, even if briefly. A glance up at the speed chart and seeing them ranked 22^nd wasn’t the most hopeful feeling after struggling with the car through the session.

However, he knew that they had made ground as there were some positives to take away in some aspects to the car’s handling, and it was clear that HMS had speed with Jimmie leading the session.

After spending time debriefing together, followed by a mega debrief with his teammates, Chase headed back to the motorcoach, ready to relax for the rest of the night. Despite some testy moments through the session, he was still confident in their ability for Sunday.

“Are you just getting back?” He questions as he sees Sarina standing outside at the keypad, with key and Abigail in her arms. She then glances back at him with a smile, thinking he would’ve been a little later.

“I debriefed with Dave, then my teammates, and then we came back so Abigail could have a nap,” she fills him in, which was no surprise as that was the normal schedule each week. “Then once Cup practice was over, I headed back out to the garage. I wanted to catch-up with Jimmie for a bit and ask him for some tips before tomorrow.”

“Oh, so he leads practice and boom, he’s your new confident?” She just rolls her eyes in response, chuckling.

“It doesn’t hurt, does it? Actually, he’s got a good way of explaining things differently than you do that sometimes makes it easier. I find his advice is more so on point as to what I am looking for. Please don’t tell me your offended.” Chase shakes his head no.

“Why do you think I ask him for advice and tips? I lean on him probably just as much as you do sometimes. He’s seven-time, he’s done it all, so he’s the perfect person to talk to. I’m actually going to miss those conversations next year.” Sarina nods her head in agreement as they head inside.

“It’s going to feel weird without him at the track.” Chase wasn’t about to argue, as it certainly would be different at the shop, too.

Saturday, February 22 – Las Vegas Motor Speedway

“Three weeks of racing, and three weeks of rain,” Sarina comments as she walks into the hauler lounge, slipping off the top of her firesuit and tying it around her waist. “Does mother nature have something against NASCAR this year?”

The day had been started off very wet, with qualifying being cancelled for both of them that morning. The showers had only continued since, with the NASCAR Xfinity Series currently delayed as track drying efforts continued.

“It could be worse, you could be in the cold and having to shovel snow,” Chase replies as she looks over at him with a bit of confusion. “Do I need to take you back to Martinsville?” She then lets out a sigh, shaking her head no. She would prefer to forget those delays in her mind.

“Let your racecar sit all night out covered by a single tarp in the snow and then ask yourself how you feel,” she retorts. “Besides, that wasn’t a memorable experience…” Chase knew exactly where she was coming from, as he could still remember the pain that he felt that night.

“It proves my point – it could be worse.” She then grabs a snack from the cupboard, before sitting down on the couch beside him and Abigail. “At least someone isn’t being cranky through the delay.”

“She’s always an angel, and you know that she’ll never be cranky when she’s in her daddy’s arms.” Chase glances down with a smile as she had been daddy’s princess since she was born, and that hadn’t changed. Even when she got cranky when cutting new teeth, a simple cuddle and her teething ring seemed to ease their worries away.

“She also loves spending time with her mommy, too.” Sarina smiles as she certainly already had some special memories of her own in these first 13 months.

“I noticed you talking to Alan while I was in the meeting and it didn’t seem like a pleasant conversation. Is something up?” Chase would rather not think about that, knowing that it was a reoccurring theme from last year. However, he wasn’t about to bitch as he knew the team was always pushing the envelope, and appreciated that despite NASCAR’s room for adjustments being very slim.

“We failed pre-race technical inspection twice due to the right door measurements being slightly out of whack. So we lose 15 minutes (in practice) next week, and they sent Matt home.” Sarina couldn’t help but let out a sigh as she knew the boys would weather through, but it still sucked to see it happen.

“Matt is learning how Josh felt last season already.” Chase nods his head, though certainly that was something they hoped to not teach him.

As the pair sat there discussing things with Abigial now having her afternoon nap, Chase’s mind kept wandering to Alison’s words and her last warning that she shared for him in the court room. Why did those words still bug him now a couple weeks later, still?

“Have you heard anything from Wen-” Sarina goes to question, trying to think of more things to talk about in their boredom.

“What would you say if I wanted answers to Alison’s comment?” He cuts her off, catching her by surprise immediately. “She said that it wasn’t her fault, it wasn’t Chris’ fault. What if I wanted answers?”

“I would tell you that she’s played this game befo-”

“But what if?” Sarina lets out a sigh as she tries to not explode on him in that very moment as she wished to never hear or involve that witch in their lives ever again.

“I would damn well tell you that curiosity killed the cat, Chase! How many times does she have to hurt you, physically and mentally, sometimes bring us to the point that we wonder how close we are to death? I’m sorry, but I do not want to take a damn chance on anything or be anywhere near that woman after everything that she’s done!” Chase respected that, and truthfully didn’t want to pursue this avenue as he knew that brought him back to her once again. However, the words wouldn’t leave his mind.

“She can’t hurt me as she’s locked awa-”

“Recall that she escaped once, and she found a way to hurt you within one of those facilities. I’m sorry for those barriers haven’t always stopped her, and I don’t want to open one and give her a window. Chase, this is what she does. She has done this all the way through – manipulating your thoughts, your actions by her words; that’s how she plays her games. Her saying those words was just another chapter, to make wonder, possibly forgive and give her another chance at freed-”

“There’s no way in the hell that I would do that!” Sarina was relieved to hear those words, but still wished that they were not having this discussion.

“Then why do you want to do this?” Chase takes a deep breath, thinking over why the thoughts were still in his mind.

“I’m just worried that she’s right in her words, and there’s someone else out there. I’m worried that they’re going pop up and we’ll be in the middle of the cycle once again. What if they’re lying low to give us a false sense of security? I can’t help but wonder because of what we’ve gone through, and wanting to make sure that we keep safe moving for-”

“Chase, I understand. Trust me when I understand where you’re coming from.” She then takes a deep breath, remembering the instance in the garage on Friday. “That’s why we probably worry about someone following us, or checking over our shoulders more than we should. But we have to believe that everything is over, and has been over since we locked both her and Carter away. That’s why I believe that we should just close this chapter and focus on moving forward. the more you wonder, the more you let her in, the more you stop yourself from moving on. It’s time that we live our lives and not let them control us anymore…”

Though on the same token, Sarina found herself wondering about those words, too. What if there was a true chance at saving her brother as she originally wanted to do?

The Tale of Love & Racing: Sarina’s Story – Chapter 334: Hometown Hero

Wednesday, February 19 – Dawsonville County Middle School

Certain tracks and sponsors had appearances, and normally it was just par for the course. However, being able to head back to school and brighten the day of young faces never got old. It always brought a smile to Chase’s face when they did these appearances each year.

It was also entertaining in an aspect, too. He got the chance to learn something new, such as details surrounding the school’s robotics program this time around. It was an interesting experience trying out one of the robots, too, as it definitely took some skill. Though it was more impressive to see what technology they were using and adapting already.

This trip around would see him end the day with a select group of students, who had stood out in the school with certain things done through the year. According to the teachers and principals, they earned the opportunity for some one-on-one time, with Chase fielding answers to the questions they asked. It was also fun revealing afterwards to them that they each would get tickets for their family for the upcoming race at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

With the school part of the day winding down, it was time to leave and head up to the Dawsonville Racing Hall of Fame for part two of the activities. Though Chase could not help and stop when he saw someone sitting off to the side.

“She was supposed to be part of the group that you just spent time with, but said that she wasn’t up to it today,” the school advisor fills him in as he glances over to where she was sitting in. “These past couple weeks haven’t been easy on her.”

“Can you possibly elaborate?” Chase questions, feeling bad as he kept his eyes over in her direction, though his curiosity perked.

“Unfortunately, we are not allowed to share that with student confidentiality reasons.” Chase wasn’t about to argue, easily understanding the reasoning. He actually respected the school for ensuring that stance was taken.

“Can I have a couple minutes?” The nods of approval around the group were given, which was all he needed. Truthfully, he was ready to approach whether there was time on the schedule or not.

He then takes a deep breath, making his way over to where she was sitting, debating whether to sit down beside her or to just lean on the wall before her. How were you supposed to handle these situations? Taking a deep breath, he wondered what he’d do if upon seeing Abigail upset about something.

“I saw you sitting over here upset, and thought that I’d come over to say hello,” he starts, which slowly catches her attention as she looks up at him. “I heard that you were supposed to be one of the chosen few to get to spend time with me. I didn’t want you to miss out on that.” He had hoped for some sort of reaction thus far, or response, but it didn’t seem to be bringing anything. “I understand if you’re having a bad day, or a couple, and wanting some time to yourself. A friend of mine is actually in the midst of that because of what happened on Mond-”

“Ryan?” She questions, which causes him to look at her with a bit of surprise. Was it that obvious? It was also easy to see that she was probably a racing fan in knowing what happened, and who was involved. “I saw Bubba’s tweet that he was taking some time. It’s great to see that Ryan is doing better, and was able to leave the hospital today.”

“Absolutely.” He had seen the tweet shared by Krissie and couldn’t had been happier in response. “Anyways, I did not want you to miss out in the time so I thought I’d come over and say hello, offer a hero card if you want.” A small smile comes across her face as she easily accepts the hero card from his hands.

“Thank you. it’s nice to see someone who cares.”  Chase felt a bit of profound surprise in seeing a deep thought of that nature from someone her age, combined with a bit of confusion. Should he continue down this trail, or just follow the original plan?

“I can assure you that there are probably people who care about you, and would be willing to help you, listen to you.” A lack of response caught him off-guard further as he takes the opportunity to sit down beside her. “Do you want to share what’s going on?”

“You wouldn’t understa-”

“Maybe, or maybe I will. Try me, either way, it gets it off your chest.” She takes a careful deep breath as she debates continuing.

“When we were told that you were coming, Mrs. Henderson was like, ‘I’m sure you’re excited to tell your family about this, and I can’t wait to hear what they have to say’ and some other business about family relations. To be honest, that struck a cord with me actually because I’m not like those other kids in that group, or really many of the kids here in this school. I don’t have a family to share those stories with.” It seemed the more she spoke, the more he grew confused.

“May I ask why?” He didn’t want to push the boundaries, but felt intrigue in finding the route to her feelings.

“I’ve been in the adoption system since I was a baby. I couldn’t have told you or realized that until just a couple years ago when they told me, but hey, here I am. Perhaps my parents just gave me up – I don’t know; they won’t tell me until I am 16.” Chase lets out a sigh, knowing that was normal policy with most of the adoption agencies from the research he and Sarina had done. “So currently, I am with a foster family – my third mom and dad if you’d call it that. I almost found my forever home a year ago, but it fell through for some reason. You almost end up feeling unwanted because here you are, just a number, hoping you get a family, like a puppy in a shelter. I know my foster parents and the other two girls I am with are great and caring, and sure I could tell them, but it’s not the same. Ms. Henderson’s words were like a punch in the gut.”

“I am sorry to hear that things have not been easy, but I am also equally happy that you have someone who cares for you in the meanwhile.” He then takes a deep breath, debating saying something of his own. For all he knew, she could tell someone and it could spread like wild fire. “Fortunately, I never went through that, but I know what the adoption system can be like. Sarina and I have began the process of looking for a child to adopt. We’ve heard the stories, seen the inner workings of the system and how tough it can be, so I sympathize with kids like you who want a home, and sympathize with parents who want to have a child of their own but get stuck in the process.”

“I shouldn’t ask, but could you adopt me?” Chase had to chuckle as it was a good question, and he truthfully wouldn’t mind it as she seemed like a good girl based on the conversation. “I mean, I’ll start off the process by properly introducing myself as my name is Bridget Vail.”

“Bridget, it is very nice to meet you and I think you’re wonderful. But right now, we’re looking for a baby, someone to be around Abigail’s age. There’s also age restrictions around who we can adopt as you have to be so many years apart.” He could see the disappointment in her face, even if the comment seemed half-joking. “But Bridget, I am going to tell you this. Just as I am hopeful that Sarina and I will find our happy child, I am hopeful that you will find your family. Give it the right amount of time and you’ll be blessed in more ways than you’ll realize. Just like they say people wait to find the perfect soulmate, we’re just making sure that you have the perfect family to love and care for you.”

“Thank you, and good luck yourself.” Chase smiles as it was nice to hear the words of encouragement.  It certainly caused a couple thoughts to cross his mind quickly, knowing that there’d be some strings to be pulled with Morgan once he continued talking.

“Thank you. I also want you to know that you’re one of the strongest people that I know, to be able to share your story and stand up and do what you’ve done here at the school despite what you have going on. And sure, it’s okay to have days that aren’t so great and feelings, but know that you are wonderful and beautiful and can rise above anything.” He then takes a deep breath, curious as to her reaction. “Along with the hero cards, I was surprising the students with tickets to the Atlanta race with their family. Now, I want to do you one better. I know that things aren’t easy for you, and probably not for the others in the house due to similar thoughts. Besides, your foster parents deserve a big applause for taking care of yo-”

“They do an incredible job, even if one is a fan of Denny Hamlin and the other cheers for Joey Logano.” Chase admittedly had to stick his tongue out a little as that certainly wasn’t the greatest the combination.

“Whose your favourite?” He was actually intrigued as to who she would say, hopeful it was him.

“Rowdy Busch of course.” He had to chuckle a little as he knew Kyle had a following of fans. “But don’t worry, you’re the hometown hero so you’re a close second.”

“Kyle is pretty cool, actually. I got to know him when Sarina drove for him. Anyways, along with the tickets, I want to offer all five of you in the house full access to the entire race weekend at the track. I want you to come experience the race, but also wander the garage and get behind the scenes access. I’ll even convince Kyle to come and say hello to you.” She looks at him with a bit of a surprise.

“Seriously?” He nods his head. “Are you seriously doing this for me right now?” He nods his head once again. “I can’t believe…..I don’t even know….Wow, really?” He had to chuckle but absolutely loved the reaction. “Thank you so much. I can’t believe that you would do this, but thank you….”

“You’ve been strong and got to this point. It’s time to allow you to have a fun weekend and forget everything else for a couple days. Now, I need to go before they yell at me for being late, but I look forward to seeing you in a couple weeks.”

They then share a hug before he walks away and heads through the doors, ready to leave the school.

“That was a pretty sweet gesture, commendable,” Morgan comments after hearing the details. “I just hope you know what you’re doing.” He then glances over slightly confused. “I saw the connection there immediately, how you felt for her and such. I know that you’re also looking to adopt. Don’t try and make something happen that’s not allowed.”

“Trust me, I assured her right away that I could not do that,” Chase replies, though he couldn’t help but wonder in the back of his mind.

What if the meeting was for a reason?

Wednesday, February 19 – Dawsonville Racing Hall of Fame

The second part of the day was certainly just as much fun, with another bunch of fans to meet up with as they signed autographs.

The highlight of the visit was the pace car unveil, which Chase had to admit they’d done a good job with. As Atlanta celebrates their 60^th anniversary, they decided to base the scheme on one of his dad’s iconic schemes. Once the cover pulled off and he took a glance around the Camaro, he certainly had to give it his seal of approval as it certainly fit the car perfectly and they did the scheme justice.

“it would’ve been cooler with your dad here, too,” someone had randomly commented in the process.

Chase had to nod his head in agreement, actually surprised that had not been worked in the deal in the process. He knew his dad would appreciate the nod from the home track, as he texted a photo to his mom.

The day was set to end off with an interview with Cody, a local news reporter. It seemed to be the yearly tradition that they’d do a sit-down session once all of his other activities for the day in promoting the race were complete.

In hearing the TV crew was still getting everything set-up, from the right placement to the lighting, he took the time for reflection easily as he made his way through the museum, thinking to himself some of the fun moments experienced through the years. Even being young at time, he could still see some slight images from his dad’s victory at Indianapolis in his mind as he looked over the racecar.

“Here we go again….” Chase hears and almost wanted to chuckle as he watched Cody walk over to where he was standing. “It’s nice to see that things are calmer this time around without anything extra going on.”

“I can’t complain,” Chase comments in response with a sigh. Why did everyone want to drop reminders of what had happened the past couple years all the time? If he could, he never wanted to think about Alison or Carter ever again. However, that wasn’t possible virtue of the reminders from people like Cody. It wasn’t possible because Alison had left a couple words trailing in his mind from their last meeting.

“So everything is completely locked up in regards to Alison Reynolds and Cart-”

“Both found guilty, sent to prison, justice served.” Why were they still talking about this?

“Well, I am glad to see that for you and Sarina both as I know it wasn’t an easy situation to deal with.” Chase almost wanted to laugh, maybe lash out, as it was growing frustration in hearing his commentary. Weren’t they supposed to be talking about the season ahead? “I know you haven’t discussed everything publically, but I was wondering if we cou-”

“I am not talking about what happened at all on camera, no matter the aspects of what happened. I’ve said that multiple times, with Morgan sending that out to anybody who asked. If you included that in your original request, she would’ve told you.” Chase was ready to draw Morgan’s attention to where they were standing, actually wondering why she hadn’t wandered that way already.

“I absolutely understand, but it’d certainly clear up any confus-”

“The answer is no, period, no questions or comments allowed. Morgan told me that we were doing an interview and I agreed because I thought we were doing our usual spell – previewing the year ahead from comparisons to last year to the goals we want to accomplish. If you go off that path, I am not doing the interview.” He hated to be blunt and draw the line in this nature, but what other choice did he have?

“I understand, and will follow your request. I just thought that I would ask. Are you ready to get started?” Chase takes a couple deep breathes,  trying to shake all of the thoughts he had in the past five minutes to the side, reminding himself that they were past what happened and ready to move forward.

“Yes.”

The Tale of Love & Racing: Sarina’s Story – Chapter 333: Daytona 500 Part 2

Monday, February 17 – Daytona International Speedway

“Alright bud, let’s go get ‘em,” Alan says over the radio as they head down the backstretch, ready to get the green flag when they came back around.

Sarina takes another deep breath, knowing things were about to get crazy, but ready to see what Chase had up his sleeve.

Restarting third with 10 laps to go, things started smoothly with him and Denny working together, though that’d be thrown away as a result of Denny throwing a crossover, resulting in Chase fall back in the process to eighth before the caution for Menard and someone else on the backstretch.

Sarina wanted to scream, hating to see the move, but understood Denny’s reasoning as it was every man – and lady at times – for themselves when it came to the final laps. It was why Denny had won this race before. She knew that there was still plenty of time, even with the laps running out, as things would probably get crazy yet.

“When it’s open, we can pit for tires,” Alan instructs over the radio, causing a little bit of confusion on Sarina’s face. She normally stood by his decisions, but didn’t know if they wanted to put themselves further back even with fresh rubber for better traction. Typically that was not where you wanted to be at these tracks.

“That sucked man,” Chase comments, obviously reflecting over what happened with Denny.

“Nothing you can do, you can’t block runs that fast. It’s not over yet. We have a fast car.” Taking a couple deep breathes, trying to push the nerves aside, Sarina knew that the crew chief was right and believed they could possibly get back up there once again.

Unfortunately, the restart would go haywire, with Justin Haley getting into Joey Logano, triggering a wreck on the frontstretch. Chase would catch a piece of it in the process, though was lucky as the damage to the NAPA Chevrolet was very minimal considering.

“This is why I didn’t want to be back there,” she comments to herself, almost wanting to smack Alan upside the head right now. “You know idiots like Justin and Joey are going to cause shit.”

“I take it you’re not Justin’s biggest fan…” She glances to her right, surprised her comments had caught Scott’s attention as she thought she said them quiet enough to herself.

“Let’s just say that he made some comments a couple years ago about me that didn’t sit well – something about how he expected me to make some dumb move. Oh, and he also hid the fact that he saw a woman in Chase’s motorcoach shortly before a race of mine without us when there were reports spread of us being followed and tormented. But oh no, I’ll cheer his ass on and wish him the best of success because that’s what people expect, right?” Scott looks on a little surprised, honestly taken back by both her revelations and added opinion afterwards. Was he really ready to get used to this each week? Did she do this previously with Jordan?

“Actually no, people should totally understand your stance considering what you told me. He deserves whatever karma does bite him in the ass.” Sarina couldn’t help but smile, as she offered a high-five for Scott. It was going to be a good year if each week was like this.

The second restart would go no smoother, with another wreck triggered by Clint and John Hunter. Thankfully, they were able to avoid this go around.

Unfortunately, their luck ran out on the next restart, as the field would actually get around to take the white flag this time – with Chase getting spun shortly thereafter as they headed for turn one.

“Just cross the start-finish for me,” Alan states afterwards in watching him get it straightened back around. Sarina could only shake her head in disgust, having seen all the promise shown early and not feeling every bit of disappointment and anger hitting together at the same time.

Knowing that he was out of the running, her eyes still peeled to the front of the field, as she wanted to see how things would ultimately go down for the win. Her heart hoped for Ryan Blaney seeing him in position to make a move, but her brain wanted to say Denny with how strong his car was and how smart he was playing the whole event.

“Oh my gosh….” was the only words that escaped her mouth in watching the events transpire before her, beginning with the contact, followed by Ryan Newman’s car spinning, then flipping and being hit while in the air by Ross Chastain. “Oh my gosh….”

“Oh shit,” Scott echoed her thoughts as he turned his eyes to see Ryan’s car come to a stop on the frontstretch. “What in the hell?”

“Gosh I hope he’s okay….” He had to be okay, right? She had watched Austin Dillon and Kyle Larson climb out from wrecks coming to the line in flipping fashion without a single scratch. It was par for the course at Daytona Speedweeks to see something spectacular and watch the driver just hop out shortly thereafter. “Please be okay Ryan…”

“He hasn’t said anything on the radio yet…” Sarina didn’t want to ingest those words, as that could mean simply knocked unconscious or worse. She didn’t want to think about it being worse than it already seemed. “Corey (LaJoie) is out of his car.”

“That’s good, at least…” She then takes a deep breath, though, as her eyes hadn’t left where Ryan’s car had stopped as every though began flashing through her mind. What if?

She takes another deep breath as she knew herself as a racer, this was the dangers they accepted and risked each time they strapped in the car each week. They knew what could happen, as it was just part of the game. The thrill for the race, and the need for speed seemingly made that seem so distant normally.

However, she couldn’t help but feel a knot in her stomach. What if that was her? What if that was Chase, as he was running up front not long ago? Her worries then turned to herself as a mother, wondering what could be going through Ryan’s daughter’s minds right now. She hoped that they had good company to keep them calm.

Why hadn’t he said anything? Why hadn’t NASCAR said anything? Why was this taking so long? Feeling the pit in her stomach begin growing more, the worst feeling seemed to becoming a reality – but she couldn’t let herself think that. he had to be okay. This wasn’t happening.

Still in somewhat of a shock as to what happened, hopeful for some news, Sarina makes her way down pit road as she would normally to go see Chase. Truthfully, she wanted to wrap her arms around him and just hold him with the thoughts swirling around.

She couldn’t help but stop along her walk in seeing Ryan Blaney with his crew chief, and felt the somber mood pick up that much more in seeing the reaction from him. She knew that he didn’t mean to trigger the incident, and she knew he probably right now shouldered it more than anyone else – well, except Corey.

She debated going over, though didn’t know what she would say or do to even remotely feel better. It was like her voice was taken away immediately in watching the scene before her. What could you do to make someone feel better in that moment?

She notices Lindsay walking over his way, as she was following usual practice despite everything, and headed her way. Even though she couldn’t find words for Ryan, she and Lindsay could always find words for each other.

“Do you have any update?” Lindsay asks as the pair share an embrace, to which Sarina shakes her head no. She wished that she did, but glimpse that way towards turn one and it seemed the sea of people continued to surround the car with screens put up to block everyone from seeing. “I can’t believe it. I mean, I know it’s possible, but I can’t….”

“He has to be okay,” Sarina adds as she still couldn’t find a way to stomach everything flooding through her at once. “If you or Ryan need anything tonight, don’t hesitate to ask. I mean, if you want to just be you two alone tonight, Chase and I could watch the girls for you. We’ll do anything, come hold a hand if necessary.”

“Thank you, I’ll keep that in mind. Ryan’s mother has the girls right now so that way I could come out here. I’ll see what Ryan and she wants to do and let you know if we need anything. Just please let me know if you hear any updates.” Sarina nods her head, though firmly believed they’d probably go down the pipeline at Lindsay’s line before hers based on friendships and everything.

“Anything I hear, I will send to you immediately.” The girls then share one more hug, before separating, as they both knew that Lindsay needed to be with Ryan right now.

Sarina continued her walk down the grid, coming upon where the No. 9 crew stood surrounding the car, the same shock over their faces. She then walks over to where Chase stood, wrapping both arms around him, just holding him as she tried to keep all her thoughts in check.

“I love you,” he comments simply, obviously picking up on where her emotions were going in that moment. He couldn’t help but ask himself that very question as well not only for his own, but for their daughter’s. Everything Wendy pushed on them earlier in the week was now right before their eyes and truth to be told, he didn’t know if he could deliver the same straight answer as then.

Monday, February 17 – Dawsonville, Georgia

The flight home was quiet as both of them could only wonder about Ryan’s condition and how things were. It carried over to when they walked into the front doors of the house, and made their way upstairs to the bedsroom. They just seemingly laid there quiet, amusing Abigail between them almost as a distraction.

They only moved when both of their phones went off, reaching to see if there was a update. For most  of the night, it was just simply others wondering if they heard something or family checking in on them. Though finally Chase got the message that they had been waiting for all night.

“No specifics on his condition, but he’s listed as serious, non-life threatening,” Chase states as he reads out the message, before forwarding it to a couple people who were close.

“I know he’s not out of the woods yet, but I want to still say thank you to the angels and everything,” Sarina comments to which Chase nods his head. “The fact that he’s still with us, and will get to be with his girls is all that matters right now.”

“He’s a strong guy, but you are right. Hopefully the injuries aren’t too serious.” He then glances back at his phone, seeing a couple notifications. “Have you heard from Lindsay or Ryan?”

“Lindsay said that Ryan initially wanted to go back to the house for just a quiet night with them, but her parents insisted that they be at the house with them. His mom figured that she could keep an eye on the girls while Ryan and Lindsay talked about things, and were there for each other.” Chase nods his head, glad that the support system was in place as he couldn’t imagine being in Ryan’s shoes. “I told her after the race that if she wanted someone to watch the girls, we’d be willing. I hope I didn’t overste-”

“No, you absolutely did the right thing as I would have no issue doing that for them. I texted him and said that I know it’s tough, but you’re going to get through this and Ryan is going to get through this. I told him if he wanted to talk or vent or just get everything off of his chest, he knew where to find me.” Sarina smiles as it seemed to follow the exact lines of what she had offered Lindsay. “Delana (Harvick) and Janice (Almirola) took the girls and were being there comforting, whatever for them. Krissie is on her way down.”

“I can’t imagine what went through all of their minds. I mean, my stomach sank when I saw it happen. I mean, truthfully if it was you, I don’t know what I’d do Chase.” Chase reaches over, placing a hand on top of hers as they look into each other’s eyes.

“Trust me when I say this, I’d hate to see something like this happen to you, too. We both know the risk that we accept in doing this and this was a reality check. But will it change my decision to go racing next weekend? No, because I know that I want to do this. I believe that I am safe, everything will work out if something happens, and that thrill just takes over.” Sarina nods her head, already reached the same assumption herself. “But I am going to tell you that if anything ever did happen, I do whatever it took in my own power to fight to be with you and Abigail.”

“You don’t need to tell me twice, Chase. I think we proved that already with what we’ve been through.” Chase nods his head as he reaches over, snagging a kiss.

“It was totally worth it, as you’re both amazing.” He then glances down in seeing Abigail had fallen asleep between them.

“Chase, do we have to put her to bed tonight?” Chase looks over at Sarina, before another glance towards Abigail.

“If you want, she can stay with both of us tonight.” She smiles a little as she gets comfortable on her side.

“Good, because I want to just be here with both of you…”

She then takes a deep breath, knowing everything she thought about through the past six hours was still there. It used to be easy to brush off. Though with a family, it seemed a little tougher. This was going to take a bit to shake off this time around.

Tuesday, February 18 – JR Motorsports

Sarina walks through the halls of JR Motorsports, finally stopping and smiling as she glances at the familiar trophy sitting on top of the racecar.

“You missed a pretty cool celebration yesterday,” she hears and couldn’t help but smile in recognizing Dale’s voice right away as he made his way over. She knew that she had missed the honorary winner’s beer toast at JRM virtue of being down in Daytona with Chase.

“I hate that I missed my first one, but I couldn’t dare leave Daytona.” A nod of approval could be seen by Dale as he smiled a little.

“I know, and I would never force you to do so as I know how much you want to be there for Chase. Thankfully, I do not like when drivers missing their first toast, so I kept some for you.” She then smiles as he places a pair of beer cans on either side of the trophy. “I figured we could share a toast of our own to your victory.”

“I appreciate the offer a lot, Dale, but just for the record, I don’t drink beer.” Dale knew that already, having seen that with previous team win toasts last season. However, he had made a couple phone calls and came up with a trusty back-up plan.

“Thankfully, for you, I come prepared.” He takes away the can that he had set down, replacing it with a bottle of Goose Island. She couldn’t help but chuckle, as that’d been the flavor she fell in love while in Amsterdam with Chase and Ryan. “It took a bit to get Chase to reveal your secrets, and then it took me even longer to ensure how I could get some. I made the phone calls a couple weeks ago, as I knew that we wouldn’t go a whole season without you winning again. Hopefully I have to make a couple more orders.”

“I wouldn’t mind that either.” She then takes the can, popping it open as he does the same with his own. They then glance towards each other as she holds hers out with a toast. “Thank you for this opportunity, and making my dreams come true. You’re a pretty amazing boss.”

“Congratulations once again.” They then share a toast, before having a sip each. “This isn’t that bad, actually.” She chuckles, having remembered the first reactions from Chase and Ryan that night. “So when you finally get to drive that midget with Christopher, are you going to make sure that he has some for toasting your eventual win there?”

“I may have to give him an early heads-up if that be the case, but we both know that no other team does a tradition like this. But for what’s it worth, it’s perfect.”

The Tale of Love & Racing: Sarina’s Story – Chapter 332: Daytona 500

Sunday, February 16 – Daytona International Speedway

Sarina lets out a sigh as she watches the cars ride around the track. Here began another season of racing.

Though she couldn’t help but shed a smile in seeing the president’s car roll around the 2.5-mile oval. It was certainly a spectacular way to begin a race season on a high note, even if his appearance shuffled the schedule more than warranted.

“Riding around waiting on the here,” Chase comments as they continue to make pace laps around the speedway. As much as she wanted to see the race get started, she couldn’t help but agree with a glance towards the radar. She even was shaking her head at them climbing into the cars after the anthem, but knew it was all about maintaining a certain image with the president on the grounds. “It’s sprinkling now.”

“Looks like it’s picking up down there,” Eddie D’Hondt comments shortly thereafter, causing Sarina to let out a long sigh. After the rain they dealt with on Thursday, this certainly sucked.

“Yeah, it’s over her – like wet wet…”

NASCAR would make the decision to bring the field down pit road, giving up hope on the green flag for the time being. Nobody was about to argue as they saw the rain drops getting harder. Sarina could only cross her fingers that it stopped sooner than later and they got started.

After watching the rain fall down, followed by a delay drying the track surface, it was time to once again give it another try. Shock was written on Chase and Sarina’s faces as they made their way to pit road as any common sense and a glance at the radar said that this wouldn’t be lasting long.

“You should’ve just stayed back with Abigail,” Chase comments as they reach the race car. Sarina had thought about that, certainly wanting to savor every moment with her, but knew that she couldn’t stand to watch a restrictor plate race from that vantage point. She barely got through that experience last year.

“I want to be out here to support you,” she replies, leaning in to kiss his lips. “Besides, she’ll be happy spending time with Cindy. I love you. Be safe.”

“Love you, too.” Chase leans in, snagging another kiss, before climbing back into the No. 9 Chevrolet.

Sarina climbs the steps, assuming her usual spot on the pit box, with a nod traded between a couple of the crew members. Taking a deep breath, she just hoped everybody was smart for whatever laps they got in before the next wave of rain.

“Radio check, can you hear me?” Chase says once he is out on the track for pace laps.

“10-4 I got you,” Eddie comments, which was off-course as normally Alan handled the first response. However, Sarina couldn’t help but chuckle as she glanced towards the crew chief on the pit box.

“We can hear you down here,” Matt adds. “Alan is just busy stuffing his face.” A chuckle could be heard through the team as a result, as Alan glances over at Matt rolling his eyes.

“One to go at the line, one to go at the line.” Sarina could only let out a sigh as she knew that this could get very interesting with everybody knowing that rain was coming, again.

“Sure don’t look very promising,” Chase comments, to which she had to agree as she took another glance at the sky above them. You could see the dark clouds not far away beginning to close in.

“10 laps.” Everybody on the team was certain that Alan would be close on his prediction, as they watched the field get set for the green flag in the Daytona 500.

From the drop of the green flag, Chase would try to work his way forward through the pack, but nobody seemed to want to work with him. As a result, frustration could be heard on the radio from both driver and also Eddie as he tried to work some alliance on the roof.

“Nobody wants to go,” Eddie relays, to which Sarina couldn’t help but roll her eyes. She was beginning to quickly get annoyed at these restrictor plate races watching this repeatedly happen every time.

“Rain’s close, let me know your temps,” Alan tells him as they put 18 laps on the board.

“It’s raining…” Chase reports shortly thereafter, as it seemed everybody was surprise by a lack of caution on NASCAR’s part yet.

“I can feel it, too.” Alan glances towards the pit road officials down below them, with Sarina half-expecting him to throw something at them.

The caution would ultimately come out a couple laps later – Lap 20 – as NASCAR finally recognized the weather situation. It did not take long for them to once again bring the cars down pit road, parking them once again.

“I should’ve bet you double or nothing,” Sarina comments as she climbs off the pit box with Alan, who could only chuckle in response.

“We seem to be the only smart people in Daytona.”

Chase lets out a sigh as he stands up, walking to the back of the motorcoach.

“Where are you going?” Sarina wonders as she takes her eyes off of Abigail just for a second.

“Drivers have been called to their cars,” Chase answers, to which she looks at him full of confusion. “Morgan just text-”

“Has NASCAR lost their minds tonight?” Chase glances over at her a little confused as he slips his shorts off. “Have you seen the radar?” Chase nods his head as he slips off his t-shirt, reaching for the firesuit.

“That’s why I gave up hours ago and took the suit off. But they want to try and I can’t just not listen or else everybody from Morgan to their officials will be on my ass. So here I go, changing once again.” Sarina knew what he was saying, but couldn’t help but let out a sigh as she looks over the radar.

“There’s a storm mere miles out and Chase, we haven’t seen rain yet if this is any indication. It’s getting set to pour.” He nods his head as he walks over, leaning in to give both Sarina and Abigail a kiss.

“That’s why I think you should just stay here because I’ll be back in a matter of time.” He grabs his phone followed by the umbrella, before heading out for the walk towards pit road.

The prediction that both he and Sarina had was right on cue, as the skies opened up halfway through that very walk, dumping what seemed like buckets of rain at once. He could only let out a sigh and roll his eyes as he turned on his heels, beginning the walk back to the motorcoach, feeling bad for the crew guys in knowing they were probably out on pit road right now.

Monday, February 17 – Daytona International Speedway

With a pre-race bathroom trip out of the way and knowing they were getting back started soon, Chase made his way back towards to where the No. 9 NAPA Chevrolet was sitting on the grid. After having to wait all night long, it was certainly worth it with the weather taking a total 180 degree turn and no rain in sight. Now it was just about getting the job done when it counted today.

As he almost reaches the car, he feels a tug on his pant leg, catching his attention. He couldn’t help but smile as he knelt down to Lydia’s level, always loving the time they spent together, but felt a bit of concern in not seeing Jimmie and Chandra.

“Does your dad know where you are?” He questions, catching her attention. He felt a bit of concern in not seeing the usual smile on her face.

“I told him Chase,” she answers with a shrug of the shoulders, as if that didn’t matter. Though Chase knew that wasn’t the best way to teaching her moving forward, either.

“That’s good, but is he coming with you? Or is your mommy coming over?” She then shrugs her shoulders once again as Chase takes a deep breath. He hated to ruin the spur of the moment, but couldn’t help but feel the parent in him coming out if Abigail would pull a similar stunt when she was older. Besides, you could never be too careful. “You can’t be just running off without an adult. There’s a lot of people and things happening, okay?”

“I was watching her the whole time,” Jimmie interrupts the pair, finally joining them. While she took the running approach, he had walked over. “She saw you walking by, shouted your name like twice in my ear and asked to come say hello. I couldn’t say no.”  Chase was glad as their pre-race discussions were always fun.

“As long as she told an adult and they were watching, that’s what matters,” he comments, to which Jimmie couldn’t help but smile in response. It was fun watching Chase grow up watch before his eyes. “So you wanted to come see me, huh?” Lydia nods her head. “Why?”

“I wanted to say good luck!” She lets out, before wrapping her arms around his legs, to which he easily wraps his arms around her in return. “I hope you win.”

“Hey, what about me?” Jimmie questions, to which Chase had to chuckle in response.

“Daddy can finish second.” Chase couldn’t help but chuckle a little more as Jimmie just smiled in response.

“Well thank you, and I hope that we can do that today – or maybe if I can’t then daddy can win with me second,” Chase comments, to which Jimmie nods in response. It’d be nice to see the teammates work together.

“Okay,” Lydia says as she glances between the pair of adults surrounding her. “I love you, Chase.”

“Love you too, princess.” He then stands up, locking his eyes on his teammate. “I am going to miss these moments next year. You’re going to need to come to some races just so I can spend time with her.”

“Don’t worry – I won’t be totally disappearing,” Jimmie replies as he scoops Lydia back up in his arms. “Besides, maybe she can come for some sleepovers and play with Abigail.”

“Yay!” Lydia lets out as it seemed no sleepover with Chase was a bad thing for her.

It didn’t take much longer for the call to be made to have drivers get in the cars, and resume the race from where they left off. Sarina couldn’t help but take a couple deep breathes, knowing that no rain in sight meant it was going to be full throttle from here on out to the end.

“There’s water in the car,” Chase comments as they run under the caution flag. Sarina couldn’t help but be slightly confused in knowing that the team got the chance to wipe everything down between last night and today, among a couple other things. Weren’t they done with rain? “Something to do with the hatch.”

“10-4, we’ll give you a rag here to help,” Alan replies with a glance towards Scott as they both knew the reason for the water. Sarina could only wish that they’d share the details with her, too. “Come to us, we’ll stop you back, four tires and fuel.” Chase makes his way down pit road, with the No. 9 team putting together a flawless pit stop before he rolled back out on the track.

“Good work boys,” Eddie offers, to which Sarina had to nod in agreement.

“Come on back to us here. We’ll top you up quick.” Sarina couldn’t help but roll her eyes she hated these strategy games on the plate tracks, and wished they’d have track position rather than at the back. However, she knew the plan was to stick with their Chevrolet running mates.

The plan worked out accordingly, though, as they were able to get lined up together and make progress moving forward with Chase taking the top spot ahead of Jimmie and Alex. It seemed his pre-race prediction with Lydia was paying off right away.

“We okay on gas?” Chase questions, as Sarina immediately has flashbacks to the crazy strategy tried in The Clash. She hoped the Chevrolets weren’t doing that mess all over again.

“We’re right on the number,” Alan answers, to which Sarina let out a sigh of relief. That just meant that he needed to do his job and lead the train to the stage checkered, which seemed easy of enough given how they were running.

It wouldn’t turn out that smoothly, though, as the caution came out for contact between Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and William Byron, ending William’s Daytona 500 right then and there.

“It never fails with Ricky,” she comments, to which Scott and Matt chuckle beside her.

The restart would go smoothly, though, as the HMS teammates left in the event worked well together with Chase scoring the stage victory. Not a bad way to start the season.

“What you did there was great,” Alan tells him, to which Sarina had to nod her head in agreement in seeing some very smart and calculated moves. She hoped those continued through the rest of the way as she knew they’d end up well if that was the case. “Four tires and fuel.”

Restarting mid-pack after the pit stop, Chase once again made his way back forward the top-five.

“I feel like we’re learning a lot for the end,” Eddie comments, to which Sarina couldn’t help but nod in agreement. It was nice to see the moves out of the No. 9 thus far through the event as it showed more promise than the Clash and the Duel.

There’d be a small incident on the backstretch, bringing them down pit road for “right sides and fuel” under the yellow flag. He would restart fourth, and battled hard to the checkered, though ultimately fell back a couple spots to finish seventh.

Coming down pit road under the caution, the crew would go to work once again for four tires and fuel, though the fuel can was caught in the car as Chase left pit road. As a result, he would be penalized for removing equipment from the box.

“Come to us, we’ll top you off,” Alan instructs, to which Sarina figured was all they could do now. With a deep breath, she felt confident in their ability to move their way back forward as Chase had been making moves all day long. However, it was never comforting seeing him running middle of the pack. “You need anything else while you’re here?”

“Not at the moment my friend,” Chase replies, to which Sarina couldn’t help but smile. That meant he was comfortable and ready to go work, and she was ready for the show – as long as she could keep her nerves under control.

Restarting at the tail of the field, he work his way back to the front carefully, ultimately back up to fifth with 40 laps to go in the event. Any nerves that she had rumbling through her slowly removed in seeing how confident and easily the moves seemed to come here.

The pit cycle would begin under green, with the Toyotas beginning the cycle, followed by the Chevrolets. Everything would go smoothly under the pit stop, with the group getting back together relatively quickly.

“Here we go – game on,” Eddie offers the cheering words of the day. Sarina couldn’t help but get pumped as she knew things were rolling right if Eddie was getting excited. “We are coming to the party, boys!”

He was would get himself back up to fourth with 20 laps to go, barely avoiding the big one five laps later. Logano would give Almirola a shove, causing him to go forward and into Keselowski. The contact would then cause Keselowski to go sideways into the outside wall, before Almirola came back down across the track, taking the car running in sixth behind Chase with him. Sarina couldn’t help but take multiple deep breathes, in knowing just how close they were to their Daytona 500 chances ending right there.

“That was close….”  Eddie comments, to which Sarina couldn’t help but agree.

“When we stop here, turn things off one at a time,” Alan reminds Chase as they put the red flag out. “Then turn back on one at a time when we get going again.” Sarina knew the procedure as it was the typical recommendation due to everything being hot and just being careful, though knew a reminder in the thick of the battle was always a good thing.

Knowing they’d restart third with 10 laps to go, she couldn’t help but feel the nerves building through her as she tries to takes a series of deep breathes. She just needed to believe in him, as he was talented and knew he was doing. Everything was going to be okay.

The Tale of Love & Racing: Sarina’s Story – Chapter 331: Ready to Celebrate!

Saturday, February 15 – Daytona International Speedway

It seemed pure elation took over the No. 9 JR Motorsports team, with high-fives and hugs between traded amongst all the crew members on pit road. The scene was repeated on the pit box, as Cory and Dave immediately shared a high-five, with Dave turning around to offer one to Chase, as well.

“Can you believe it?” Cory questions afterwards as Chase just shakes his head in disbelief.

“I knew it was a matter of time, but this is awesome!” He lets out, as they quickly share a hug together. The scene was repeated with Kelley and the sponsor representatives, before the climb down the pit box steps began.

As more high-fives began to be spread once they were all on level ground with the team, they were caught off-guard with a spin of a burnout right before them on pit road.

“Damn girl!” Chase could only let out, as it seemed Sarina quickly perfected how to do a burn-out down right away.

The amazement only continued in watching her go out to the frontstretch, laying down the rubber right before the fans in the tri-oval – absolutely ripping the right rear off the car.

“Did you teach her that?” Dave questions, to which Chase shakes his head no with a wide smile on his face. It was clear that everything was coming out for Sarina in that moment.

The crew then began running through the infield as she climbed up on the table, pumping her fists in the air, taking it all in as she looked in disbelief. Was this really happening? Had she actually won her first Xfinity Series race? Was she really a winner at Daytona?

The adrenaline seemingly continued to take over, as she ran her way to the fence, climbing up as she waved out to the crowd. Chase knew it was pure tradition for her celebration, having watched at Martinsville and other places, but couldn’t help but have a couple nerves in the process.

“This girl is on fire!!” Cory lets out as he is the first person to get out there with her, grabbing her for a big hug once she was down off the fence. “Hell yeah! You did an amazing job!”

“You, Dave, the entire team – you’re all amazing,” she replies back with a wide smile on her face. “Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! That car was absolutely spectacular!”  She then goes and snatches the checkered flag as she glances towards the crowd. She thought about handing it to the small fan, but another glance and she knew this was something she did not want to let go of anytime soon. It was certainly going to be a special souvenir from her first win.

“You’re so hot – you set the track on fire…” She then glances back Cory’s direction, chuckling as she saw a portion of the rubber she burnt off laying on the track burning away. She then walks over, placing her hands over, admittedly wanting to warm them up a bit after grabbing the cold fence.

“Please tell me that I am not dreaming, Cory….” Cory laughs as he looks over at her, placing a hand on her shoulder.

“You’re not dreaming. You won Daytona. You are an Xfinity Series race winner. you will get the victory lane kiss from your husband.” Sarina couldn’t help but swarm as she thought about the fun to come in victory with not only Chase, but her daughter there as well. “Say, how about we head to victory lane and get this party started?”

“I can’t wait!” She then stands up, sliding across the hood Dukes of Hazard style, before placing the flag in the C-post of the racecar. She looks towards the crowd on pit road, letting out a fist pump in their direction, absolutely excited to join them in victory lane as soon as possible as she climbs back in the car.

Pulling into victory lane, her eyes immediately set on a couple of people who had already gathered waiting for her there. She couldn’t help but smile in seeing Dave, Chase, and Dale standing there waiting for the fun begin.

“Make sure you savor every single moment of this,” Dale comments as he reaches in before she climbs out. “I mean – take it in every single moment because you have worked your ass off to get here and deserve every bit of this celebration. Don’t let it just go over your head.”

“Trust me, I plan on partying tonight,” she replies back as she places her hand on top of his. “And Dale, thank you and Kelley for believing me and sticking with me through everything. Oh, and thank you for all those tips before we got here this weekend. I appreciate you taking that time with me as your support means everything.”

“I figured you were alright if Chase was ready to marry you.” She couldn’t help but chuckle with an eye roll back in return as he backed away.

Once giving the cue from the NASCAR official, she climbs out of the car, standing on the window edge with both fists in the air as confetti and drinks go flying all around her. Still in partial disbelief, she couldn’t help but turn back to the rest of the crew with a smile.

She then hops off, easily accepting the first hug from Dave.

“Thank you for such a great car and believing me,” she tells him to which he smiles in return.

“You were absolutely amazing to watch all day,” he replies. “I can’t wait for this year.” She couldn’t argue with him.

“I love you,” she then hears, catching her attention as Chase wraps both arms around her, pulling her close. “I love you, and I’m proud of you. You did an absolutely amazing job and deserve this. Way to go!”

“I love you, too,” she replies before they both share a kiss together. “Can you believe it?” He laughs as he slowly lets her go.

“I knew you could do it….”  Chase then backs away as Regan Smith comes in to do the interview for FOX.

“Sarina Elliott, you’re an Xfinity Series race winner….” Regan states, to which Sarina nods her head back in response with a big smile on her face. She wanted to hear that repeated over and over as then it may sink in that she had actually gotten the job done today.

“That was badass!” She lets out immediately, to which Chase couldn’t help but laugh as it such a surprise to see this much emotion pouring out of her all at once. “I had some of that Black Riffle Coffee before the race, and had the jitters, and needed to do some meditation. But damn, it was worth it as this is absolutely amazing. I still can’t believe it, Regan. This car was amazing as everybody on this team is amazing. I could not have a better team around me. I also have to thank Bass Pro Shops, and all the sponsors for their support. I am still in disbelief.”

“Trust me, this is reality – you are a winner at Daytona in the Xfinity Series.” She nods her head as she watches Regan turn to the group that surrounded her. “I’m sure this man here can attest to what it takes to win at Daytona as he’s been here plenty of times. It’s not easy to do.”

“She did a great job all race long,” Dale comments as Sarina couldn’t help but smile back in response in hearing the compliments from the boss. “She did everything that she was supposed to do up front, and deserves this.”

“I couldn’t have done it without your support – or advice for that matter,” Sarina repeats her sentiments from earlier. “Not many car owners will sit down and answer every single question that you have and offer advice. I’ve had the blessing to drive for some pretty amazing people who will do that from me, from Chase’s late model team, to Kyle in the trucks. Now working with Dale, his advice was everything.”

“What do you think of your young driver here?” Regan then questions as Sarina watches Dale intently. She was actually intrigued to see what he would say.

“I know she’s been really wanting to win,” Dale starts. “She’s been working really hard. She’s got a lot of going on in her life, but she’s kept her head on straight. Great kid. She’ll come to me sometimes for advice, but she’s doing what she needs to do. I trust that when she’s not in our hands that will continue as she’s got a great future.”

“Those are some great words of confidence from the boss. Matt….”

“You didn’t have to say all that…” Sarina says after Regan and the camera crew begin to walk away. “That was beyond what I thought you’d say, Dale. But I appreciate it so much. Thank you.” They then share another hug together.

“I meant what I said,” Dale replies afterwards with a glance towards Chase. “I have a feeling you may be kicking his butt in a few years.” Both Sarina and Chase looked back towards him with a bit of surprise.

“She knows from experience that’s not easy-” Chase starts as Sarina focuses her eyes on him.

“But I know it’s damn well possible, because I’ve done it before.”  He just rolls his eyes as they head up on stage together to begin the trophy presentation.

Once done the trophy presentation, there were group photos and time spent in the media center. Now they were back in victory lane, beginning the process of going through the rest of the photo requests that were required following a win.

Once the marketing people were satisfied with everything for the sponsors, it was left up to Sarina to get anything else that she wanted.

“Somebody has been waiting to see her Momma,” Sarina hears as she looks over towards the edge of the stage. The smile widens as Chase walks over, holding Abigail in her arms. “Guess what sweetheart? Your mommy won!”

“Sweetheart, I finally got to bring you to victory lane,” she comments as she easily takes Abigail from his arms. They then pose together for a photo as a family, with Abigail even having a small smile on her face as she is cuddled in her mommy’s arms. “Do you realize where this trophy is going when we get home?”

“It’ll look absolutely great in there.” Chase didn’t need to be reminded of the initial promise they made each other in that Abigail’s first win with each of them in victory lane would see the trophy placed in her room. Now Sarina’s trophy from Daytona would join Chase’s trophy from Talladega – along with Miles the Monster.

“I still think Miles is coolest trophy ever, but this is certainly special.” Chase then backs out to allow the photographers to take a photo of just Sarina and Abigail in victory lane together.

“Sarina Elliott, don’t you ever forget it – but you’re an Xfinity Series race winner!!” She then spins Abigail around in her arms so the little girl was looking straight at her.

“Your momma is a Daytona winner!!”

Sunday, February 16 – Daytona International Speedway

Chase walks out of the bedsroom, dressed in his NAPA sweatshirt and jeans, walking over to where Sarina sat on the couch with her laptop in lap. He couldn’t help but stop and tickle Abigail a little as she bounced in her exersaucer.

“Are you still in disbelief?” He questions, noticing the photo that Sarina had loaded on the screen before her.

“Is that wrong?” She replies, to which he shakes his head no.

“I will tell you  as many times as you need to hear it – you’re an Xfinity Series race winner, having scored your first win at Daytona. I will pinch you if necessary.” She chuckles a little as she looks back towards the photo.

“I admit when I initially woke up this morning, I was like, ‘Did I really win yesterday?’ It didn’t take long for assurance, though, as the messages on my phone were a quick reminder. But I admit it, Chase, I still can’t believe it. We’ve both said that it’s going to happen and I know what I am capable of, but who gets their first win on the biggest stage?” Chase leans in, kissing her lips.

“That’s of course you, my dear.” He then looks towards the screen, as she flips through the rest of the photos. “Do you want to see my favourite?”

“Be my guest.” He then takes her laptop, finding the photo of them in victory lane together with Abigail in her arms. “That’s certainly one of my top-fives for sure – actually top-two.” He then stands up, and walks over by the door, slipping on his shoes. “Where are you going?”

“I have an appearance with NAPA’s gues-”

“Isn’t that not for another couple hours?” He shakes his head no, having received the notification of the re-scheduling last night from Morgan.

“It was moved up an hour and a half, thanks to the president’s arrival. Security is going to be tight and it’ll be tough to get around so we want to do it early to make it as easy as possible.” Sarina couldn’t help but let out a sigh, knowing that’d make things interesting for her once she was ready to venture out of the motorcoach with Abigial today.

“Don’t get me wrong – I love that Donald Trump is coming to the race as it’s great to see the president taking the time to come here. I mean, it’s great for the sport in that we’ve attracted such an appearance and certainly it’ll bring a lot of attention to the race today. But I could do without the added security headaches.”

“I agree. I’ll see you after…” He then walks over, snagging one more kiss from both Sarina and Abigail. “Look at it this way, top-notch security, nothing is possible to happen.” She just rolls her eyes as he makes his way out of the motorcoach.

Certainly they’d gone a good while now without much drama in their lives, but she could do without the reminders. There were still times that she looked over her back too much, extra cautious or wondering about what someone’s plans were. You could never be too careful, right?

The Tale of Love & Racing: Sarina’s Story – Chapter 330: NASCAR Racing Experience 300

“If the yellow comes out, you’re gonna save fuel. If it doesn’t, you’re gonna block like hell and win this race.” – Earl Barban, 20 laps to go, NASCAR Racing Experience 300

Saturday, February 15 – Daytona International Speedway

It seemed like the oddest experience, but it did not surprise Chase one bit that Marty and Ryan were filming their latest episode of Marty and McGee on a boat in Lake Lloyd as they seemed to always do things uniquely. He still remembered the face he made when he was given the details from Morgan, and then the facial expression repeated by Sarina when he told her the details.

Though the whole experience would go smoothly, as the interview went according to plan. It was always fun with Marty and Ryan, and this time did not disappoint as they talked about tomorrow’s race, followed by Chase’s love for country music and select artists.

“Thanks once again man,” Marty says afterwards. “You’re becoming our resident NASCAR driver.” Chase chuckles as that was fine by him on all standards.

“Anytime,” he replies back afterwards. “You’re both always a good time.”

“How’s that daughter of yours by the way?” The question only caused Chase’s smile to grow, as he pulled up a photo on his phone to show Marty. “Ah man, she’s beyond adorable. Good luck with the boys as she gets older.”

“Please don’t go there….” Both Marty and Ryan chuckle back in response. “Actually, I told Sarina that she isn’t dating until she’s 18 – at least.”

“Dude, you’re going to have to worry about boys in kindergarten nowadays.” Chase lets out a sigh as that wasn’t certainly on the things that he looked forward to. “So I know you have to get back to watch her during qualifying, but are you watching her during Sarina’s race, too?”

“Nah, I’ll be on her pit box as always. My mom is handling those duties.” Marty was not about to complain, having known the family for years and knowing Cindy had that well under control.

“Well I hope it turns into two great days for both of you then.” They share a fist each, before getting the off the boat as it returned to shore.

Sarina glances up at the scoreboard, not even letting the starting position of 12^th bother her. Although she would’ve preferred to start closer to the front, it didn’t burst the confidence bubble that formed after practice yesterday. She just needed to make the right moves when it counted, work with her teammates, and she’d be fine today.

knowing that she was tight on time, she made her way back to the garage area and to her hauler, heading up inside the lounge. She quickly undoes the firesuit, pulling her t-shirt off, letting out a sigh with a glance down at her bra. She had been uncomfortable all morning, and it was clear to see why as she looked down, knowing that she had grabbed the wrong one.

She reaches into the cupboard, knowing the right one should be on the shelf as she always kept one there in case. A smile appeared as she grabbed it, beginning to slip it on. Almost set, she begins to hear some hustle by the door, cursing herself that she hadn’t closed it all the way.

She reaches over, placing her left hand on it to knock it shut, though a hand grabs it as it heads towards closing.

“I’m changing,” she states back in return. “Give me some privacy – five minutes, and you can have the lounge to yourself.”

The hand lets go, allowing the door to close, as she returns back to the process that she was following. Though as she slips her firesuit back on, she glances towards the door and takes a deep breath. She should’ve known to be more careful with that door from experience. She should’ve known that people could sneak into haulers and have their way if they wanted. she should know the dangers by now through her experience.

She then sits back on the couch, running her hands through her messy hair as she tries to compose herself and rid of those thoughts entering her mind.

 “Hello Sweet Thang.”

“Hel-” She goes to scream, but feels a hand push against her mouth immediately as an arm wraps around her waist. Fighting with everything she could muster against him came to no avail as she was forced inside the lounge, with the door shut behind her.

“It’d be so much easier if you didn’t fight me, sweetheart…” He then pins her back against the wall, in which she immediately brings her leg up to knee him in the nuts. “Son of a bitch!”

“Help! Help!” She then makes a straight line for the door, working to get it open, only to be grabbed by the shoulder and pulled back.

“You’re going to pay for that, bitch.” With his arms wrapped tightly around her, he pins her down on the couch with his body, using his one free hand to unzip her jeans.

“Sarina, are you done?!?” The question snaps her out of her thoughts, as she takes a couple deep breathes.

“Yeah,” she says, reaching over to unlock the door, though remaining partially frozen on the couch. The door slowly opens with both Dave and Cory standing there, eyes now focused on her. “Sorry, I got caug-”

“Are you okay?” She simply nods her head in return as Dave sits down beside her on the couch. “Are you sure?” She simply nods her head once again.

“Chase came by looking for you, saying that you were going to watch Abigail,” Cory starts as he enters with her little girl in his arms. “I told him that you were changing, but I’m gladly spend time with the angel.”

“She certainly puts a smile on everybody’s face easily,” Sarina comments as she easily accepts her daughter from Cory’s arms. “And Dave, trust me, I am okay. I would tell you if something was wrong.”

“I know, I trust you,” Dave assures her as his eyes don’t leave her for a single moment. “It’s just you caught me off-guard.” She then takes a deep breath, knowing that she couldn’t make this discussion disappear.

“The whole situation – you coming into the hauler as I was changing, reaching for the door – it just caught me off-guard. I know it shouldn’t because obviously you’d want to come up here and do a quick pre-race brief with Cory, but it took me back to last year at Atlanta.” Dave nods his head, understanding, as he remembered that situation wasn’t the best.

“I’m sorr-”

“You don’t need to apologize, as you were just doing your job. It’s just part of still dealing with the after effects of what happened. But I’m okay, and I’m ready to kick some ass today – after I spend a bit of time with this princess.”  She then places a kiss on Abigail’s cheek, as the little girl begins babbling on.

“I think that’s her way of saying that you are going to have a good day.” Sarina smiles as she was hopeful of the same thing today.

With having gotten a lot of practice already ahead of the Daytona 500, Alan was keeping things short for today. That was why they began running in a small train with a couple Chevrolet teammates, just to ensure they were headed the right direction.

“A couple timed laps and we’ll be done here,” Alan tells him as Chase heads out for his second run of the session.

Whether it mattered or not, he wound up with the 13^th quickest speed on the day.

With practice complete, he was ready and set to meet up with Sarina for pre-race ceremonies, and the Xfinity race. Considering the confidence that she shared with him last night, he had belief that she’d be up front all day long.

“I sense that you’re a little nervous right now,” Chase hears as he goes to grab his phone off of the pit cart before leaving the garage area. The comment caused him to look at Tom a little confused.

“May I ask where you got that idea?” He questions to which Tom stands there with a bit of a smile on his face.

“Just looking at you, the look on your face as you contemplate whatever it is on your mind. There was a couple extra deep breathes there. I know that you’ve got some lady here from the adoption agen-”

“Wendy Arnold is her name.” Tom could care less on the finer details, as he had no dealings with her. instead, he was just set to remain focused on his job as an engineer. However, it wasn’t lost on him the conversation that Chase had with her, along with Alan and Scott, before practice.

“Are you worried about her and what she will have to say after this weekend?” Chase couldn’t deny that there were a couple small worries, as it was never easy having someone standing around second guessing everything you were doing. However, there was more confidence there than anything after a solid meeting with her on Wednesday.

“I’m not too worried as I think she’ll be fine with whatever observations she has and we’ll be approved to move forward.” However, that thought did not mean the crew chief was totally wrong in his observations. “It just reminds me of all those times when we had someone watching us, observing everything to do with us and around us, while Alison was on the loose. Like, it feels like that crazy security all over again when we both know that’s not why Wendy is here.”

“So you’re having reminders of Alison because of her?” Chase lets out a sigh as it wasn’t quite that direct, although a thought or two had entered his mind.

“Ever since Sarina and I got together, we haven’t had a smooth Daytona Speedweeks down here as it seems something always happens. It feels weird to be all the way to Saturday and nothing too crazy having happened. I can’t help but wonder what if at times – even though I know there’s nothing to worry about, Tom.” Tom glances over with a sly smile, understanding his driver’s perspective. Though for good measure, he took Chase’s hand and made him tap it on a piece of wood.

“I just have to be safe because with you, I’m not taking any chances…” Chase couldn’t help but smile, considering everything going on. “Tell Sarina that I wish her the best of luck today.”

“I’ll pass the message along, and Tom, thank you..” Tom gives Chase a slight pat on the back as he watches him head out of the garage stall with a sigh.

Sarina would start off the race strong, ruining up front throughout the first stage working with her teammates, scoring a fourth as Jeb was first ahead of Michael and Justin. However, things would hit a bit of a brick wall when she came down pit road, and was nabbed with a speeding penalty.

“Deep breath sweetheart,” Chase says to himself as he watches her drop to the back of the field. “Deep breath and stay calm. You have a strong car and a lot of laps left; you can work your way back up there.”

“Should I give you the keys to the radio so you can offer the pep talks?” Cory questions catching Chase’s attention as he just chuckles back in response.

She would work her way back to the front through the second stage, scoring a solid seventh for four more points on the standings. The strength of her teammates could still be seen, though, as Justin scored the stage victory with Jeb in second.

As they got into the last stage, everybody knew it’d be a combination of making the right moves and a bit of pit strategy and things went green. As everybody began to peel off, Sarina stuck with her group and was able to pull together the perfect stop. They then did as they were supposed to do once back on-track, keeping in a single-file line of their own to gain a six-second advantage over the field with her pacing the group. It seemed everything was falling in place as you would want heading into these final laps.

However, the advantage would be wiped away with the caution flying with 16 laps to go as Josh Bilicki spun, collecting both Justin and Jeremy Clements in the process.

“Damn it!” Chase lets out for more reasons than one as he hated to see the damage for Justin after starting off strong, though hated it even more in watching Sarina’s advantage erased. He knew it wouldn’t be easy holding off Jeb Burton, Chase Briscoe, Austin Cindric, Brandon Jones, and Ryan Sieg on the restart.

“If the yellow comes out, you’re gonna save fuel,” Earl Barban tells her under the yellow flag. Chase knew the reason why, as he knew there wasn’t much extra fuel in the tank if they went past the scheduled race distance. Certainly it was a good possibility for that to happen considering how crazy things were about to get. “If it doesn’t, you’re gonna block like hell and win this race.”

“How is the restart going to look?” She then questions, knowing that it’d be her JR Motorsports teammate Jeb Burton alongside her. Considering they’d worked together most of the day, she wanted to continue doing that and realigning together would be the best bet. However, depending who was behind her, that wasn’t going to be the easiest situation.

“Inside will be 98 (Briscoe) and 19 (Jones), outside will be 22 (Cindric) and 39 (Sieg).” Chase knew both lines would be probably strong, with both Briscoe and Cindric both knowing for being aggressive. In his mind, it came down to where you felt most comfortable. “The 98 will do a better job, but he’s most likely to fake you.”

“The 22 doesn’t look like as good of a pusher, but the 11 (Justin Haley) is really good,” Dave adds, trying to help in the decision that they were trying to make together. While everybody knew that the 11 was strong, it didn’t matter drastically at this moment with the focus being on the first two rows.

“I want to work with Jeb, but the only way is if I take the bottom and he lets me come up,” Sarina throws out her theory, to which couldn’t be argued about by both Chase or Dave. The JR Motorsports cars were all strong, and working together usually paid off on these types of tracks. “I hope he doesn’t dick me around because we can run 1-2 instead of 15^th.”

The decision was made with Sarina taking the bottom for the restart. While they had a plan in motion, Chase Briscoe would give her a bigger shove than anticipated, and ultimately was able to grab the lead through the attempted the JRM shuffle.

They would get it back figured out, with Sarina getting a run up against the wall. Briscoe would come up to block – though wasn’t quite clear in the process with a small bump traded between the pair. Behind them, that’d cause the pack could get squirrelly a little – with Jeb Burton coming down and making contact with Brandon Jones, before coming back across the track, hitting the wall and collecting several others in the process.

“Great job Briscoe, great job,” were the only comments from Chase Elliott sitting on the pit box as he tried to stay as calm as possible, despite every nerve going crazy inside of him watching the insanity. He knew a little more contact between Sarina and Briscoe, and it could’ve been game over for them right then and there.

“Tell NASCAR there’s nothing I can do as the leader to detach bumpers!” Sarina begins shouting on the radio under caution. Chase knew about the worries going through her mind, as she feared a penalty for locked bumpers after the push that Briscoe gave her. It was one of those deals where you’re in position and now you fear everything going wrong. “I’m wide open and he’s pushing me. I can’t go any faster.”

“10-4, we hear ya,” Earl replies in the most calm manner possible as Chase could only shake his head in disbelief. How was it that spotters stayed so calm in these situations? “There’s been nothing said, you’re fine. Just focus on doing what you’re doing as you’re doing a great job. Do that once again, and we’re going to be fine.”

Once the wreck was cleaned up, it was back green for the final restart of the day. This time it would go much smoother with Harrison giving her the right push she needed for both of them to clear and slide up in front of Briscoe. They’d then lead the single-file train to the white flag, followed by around turns one and two. with everybody on the edge of their seat, Chase knew that the move from Harrison was coming. He just hoped that Sarina timed her moves right to hold on for the win.

“Wrecking behind you,” Earl comes over the radio as they go on the pit box, with contact happening around the fifth-place position as Michael Annett made heavy contact with the backstretch wall. “Wrecking behind… Caution. Just bring it back around. It’s ours.”

“Are you serious?!?” She practically screams on the radio as she comes around turns three and four. “Are you serious?” Fist pumps and screams would fill the No. 9 pit as she brought it back around, officially taking the checkered flag.

“Sarina Elliott, you’re officially a NASCAR Xfinity Series race winner!”

“Woooohoooo! It’s a privilege to be a part of this team. Dave, Earl, everybody – thank you, thank you so much!”

The Tale of Love & Racing: Sarina’s Story – Chapter 329: Bluegreen Vacation Duels

Thursday, February 13 – Daytona International Speedway

All the anticipation for that night’s Bluegreen Vacation Duels was put on hold, with a light rain show bringing forth a brief delay as the officials dried the track.

Although the situation sucked, Chase figured that he might well as make the most of it, spending time with Abigail and Sarina. As they were hanging out, Jimmie came over to join them.

“Someone convinced me to come say hello,” Jimmie comments, catching Chase’s attention as he smiles. He glances over at Lydia, easily accepting the hug from her.

“She knows that she can always come see me,” he replies, as he keeps an arm wrapped around her shoulders. “Are you ready for tonight’s race?” She nods her head yes.

“Will you win?” She questions, to which Chase smiles back in response. It was the usual question that she posed him each week.

“I’m going to do my best, okay?” She once again nods her head in agreement. “I heard that you had fun at Walt Disney World.”

“I saw Mickey Mouse, Minnie, and Goofy. Goofy was the best.” Chase had to chuckle, knowing how much she loved dogs. It was what led to Jimmie getting his puppy.

“I think Goofy is pretty cool, too. Was Abigail a good girl for mommy and daddy?” Lydia glances over at Abigail in Sarina’s arms, and nods her head yes.

“We played together.” Chase couldn’t help but smile it was nice to already see the bonds being formed. Though a glance at Jimmie, and he knew this was going to be one of the many things that he missed next year. “Can she come over again?”

“I’m certain that we can find some time to spend together tomorrow, okay?” A big smile forms on Lydia’s face as she nods her head in response.  “Thank you, Jimmie, once again.”

“It’s not a problem,” Jimmie replies as he glances over at the female watching the group from a small distance. “I am going to assume that she’s the lady you met with.” Chase follows Jimmie’s lead, nodding his head. “Well then excus-”

“Jim-”

“I am just going to say hel-”

“You don’t need to do anything.” Jimmie takes a deep breath, as he realized the intentions from his teammate.

“I know, but I want to do this – for you and for Sarina.” He then makes his way over to where she was standing, holding out his hand. “I would like to introduce myself, Jimmie Johnson. I heard that you met with Chase and Sarina yesterday about the potential adoption.”

“Wendy Arnold, and you are correct,” Wendy replies as she shakes Jimmie’s hand, having watched the whole scene just before her. “It’s nice to meet you, Mr. Johns-”

“Please, just call me Jimmie,” he easily starts as he looks back towards where Chase and Sarina were with Abigail and Lydia. “I just wanted to come over here and say thank you. Thank you for giving them a chance at expanding their family, and thank you for taking the time to come down here and spend it with them. I can assure you that they have the best intentions in mind, and they’re easily two people that you can trust. As a matter of fact, I would trust them watching my daughters any day.”

“I appreciate the vouch of character, Jimmie. I can see that your daughter there has formed quite the bond with Chase.” Jimmie looks over, and nods his head. He had to smile as he thought back to some of the moments the past couple years.

“Chase is always up for spending time with her, and treating her not as just some kid, but yet someone special. He really gets down to her level and appreciates the time. He’s actually babysat for me a couple times, too, and Lydia always has fun at their sleepovers. Oh, and not for the reasons that may come to mind in thinking he spoils her as he doesn’t. But rather, the games that they play together and bed time stories.” Jimmie notices a smile form on Wendy’s face in hearing his compliments.

“I will keep your vouch of character in mind when it comes to any decisions that I make moving forward. Actually, may I ask you a question?” Jimmie nods his head, though hoped it was nothing serious. “It’s obvious that this is a dangerous job as accidents can happen. What do you tell your daughters?”

“I’ve had some bad wrecks that have stunned me, and certainly it has caused them to worry. Each time, though, I just hold them close and assure them that no matter what, it is going to be okay. I recognize the danger with them, but I show them how safe the racecars are, and make sure they know no matter what that my wife and I are there for them.” Wendy smiles as it seemed easy enough, and it was clear that Lydia wasn’t phased in the time she was spending with Chase right now.

“Thank you for taking the time to answer my question. It’s just one of those things that comes up when we’re trying to look at candidates.” Jimmie silently said a prayer, hopeful that did not stand in the way of them getting accepted.

“I perfectly understand, but just remember – you can get hurt in any professions just as easy, as we see construction workers fall every day. Truthfully, you could get hurt as you leave here tonight, from a car accident to getting caught in the middle of a shootout. It’s just part of life, honestly.” He then walks away, hoping those sentiments sat with her as she contemplated any decisions moving forward.

Starting up front, Chase would challenge for the top spot for awhile, and had an interesting fun time going back and forth with Denny for a bit. Ultimately, though, it did not pan out as they would have hoped, with Ford grabbing the manufacture advantage and dominating, as Chase fell back to finish 13^th.

He would start 25^th for the Daytona 500 on Sunday as a result.

“The whole manufacture BS and riding around screwed you,” Sarina comments afterwards as she hands Chase a drink. “Truthfully, Denny is my hero because he at least made it interesting with continued attempted moves throughout the whole race.”

“He’s got a good car, too,” Chase replies back to which Sarina could not argue. “He’s going to be tough to beat on Sunday. But that just proved one thing – we’re going to need to work together and make it work to have a chance, because those Fords know what they’re doing.”

“I’m not giving up, though. I believe you and the boys can get the job done.” She then leans over, placing a kiss on his lips, as they continue the walk back to the motorcoach lot to meet up with his parents.

Friday, February 14 – Daytona International Speedway

Chase lies on the bed, eyes focused forward on the pair that laid there along with him.

“I could spend the whole day like this with you both,” he comments, tickling Abigail’s belly, which causes her to break out laughing. “Those giggles are so adorable.”

“I hope she never loses those as she gets older,” Sarina replies as she looks on admiring the pair together.

With it being Valentine’s Day, Chase started off things on a romantic note with breakfast in bed for them, with Abigail in her highchair. Once she was done eating, they brought her on the bed between them so they could relax together as a family.

“If it is up to me, I’d spoil you both today for Valentine’s Day,” he continues as he goes in for another tickle. “I’d spend all day in here, tickling you, admiring you, and telling your mommy how much I love her.”

“Thankfully, I finally get to spend time with my other baby today,” Sarina comments, to which a smile forms on both of their faces. Finally, it was time for the Xfinity Series to get their first practice on the track. “Have I told you lately how much I am excited to get my first practice of the year in the books?”

“Trust me, I know the feeling…” He then lets out a sigh as he glances at the time, hearing his phone go off with a text. “Why did Morgan schedule that for this morning?”

“Schedule what?” Chase gets up, going into the closet to grab his sweater, pulling it over his t-shirt.

“I have to give Nick and Spyher a tour of the infield today, and do the IRacing demo.” He then glances back down at the bed, in seeing his girls lying there together. “She should know that for Valentine’s Day, I want to shower you both with love and spend time together.”

“Look at it this way – you have your tour, we each have a couple practices, and then we can spend the whole night together enjoying the truck race together.” Chase couldn’t argue with that as the trucks always put on an exciting show at Daytona.

“It still doesn’t make up for the lost time this morning. I love you, both of you.” He then gives them each a kiss, before tickling Abigail one last time for good measure. “You be a good girl for momma.”

She then glances up at the scoreboard after practice, with a big smile written over her face at the sight before her.

“I don’t care if it is Daytona or not, that is such a pretty sight to see,” she comments, seeing her name on top of the leaderboard with the quickest lap of the session. “Speeds may not better, but damn, I could get used to seeing that.”

“Isn’t that the plan all season long?” Dave questions as he walks over joining his driver, to which she nods her head in return. “The car felt good when you were in the draft, right?”

“The handling was pretty dang close to where I would want – like I would say 9/10, just a tick loose when Justin (Allgaier) started bumping me. In honesty, that’s the best car that we’ve probably brought to a restrictor plate track. I could easily slip out, change lanes, do what I wanted – without a single issue. Like I felt like Dale Jr. out there when he was in dominating form.”

“Some people would say that you were seeing air then,” a new voice chimes in the garage area and she couldn’t help but smile as she recognized it immediately.

“Okay, then I take that comment back as I could not see the air,” she replies to Dale, who simply chuckles back in response.

“If you could actually see lines in the air, then I may be a little concerned and wonder how you’re doing.” She then lets out a sigh, hopeful that they weren’t returning down that path of everyone bugging her about her health. “I’m glad to see that you’re happy with the car, though, and for the record – I think we’re going to see that sight a lot more this year.”

“God I hope so.” She then leans back against the pit box, taking a long sip of the bottle of Gatorade that was sitting there.

“This may not be the right time and place to ask, but I actually came here to ask you something.” Sarina could only glance at her boss a little confused, but was ready to roll with it. “How is your book coming?”

“To be honest, it’s a lot damn harder than I thought it was going to be. Do you remember the advice that you told me last year? That’s certainly starting to hit a lot more than I realized lately. I got the first part – the mere details, speaking of how the pregnancy came about – without any issues. Then after debating between the miscarriage and Carter, I began to write about the drama with him and Alison. Needless to say, I haven’t gotten much done.” Dale was not surprised, remembering how hard that whole ordeal hit both Sarina and Chase as they were going through it.

“So where does that put this project moving forward? I remember concerns from both you and Chase about that being included, anyway.” She nods her head, as she was immediately brought back to the conversation that Chase and her had about the very topic. What if it was bigger warning than she had wanted to realize?

“I don’t want to give up. I still want to do the book as I still feel that I am doing it for the right reasons, and I stand by that no matter what. That want to help people, inspire people keeps pushing me to try and do this. However, I am actually considering what he said and perhaps not including that. Maybe it’d be better to focus solely on just the pregnancy aspect, and that journey.” Dale wasn’t against that, as he wanted her to do whatever she was most comfortable with and was just being the supportive voice through the process.

“And what about your back story? I know you wanted to share that to clear up any confusion, and finally set the record straight.” She nods her head, remembering how she explained that to Dale and Chase from the beginning. Given how far she had come, there was nothing from that time that could hurt her any longer.

“I actually still want to do that – but don’t know if that’ll tie in with just doing the pregnancy side of it. That’s where I am questioning what direction do I go and how do I proceed.” Dale places a hand on her shoulder, catching her attention.

“Do whatever you feel is comfortable with. Tell the story that you want. It is your book, your story to share, your idea. Don’t do something that you don’t believe in or avoid something else just because someone doesn’t think it’s a good idea. It is your book, so in the day, you’re the one that has been satisfied with the end product and ready to put it out there. The best way to do that is to do it your way.” She smiles as she certainly tries to take the advice to heart.

“I’ll definitely keep that in mind. Thanks Dale.”

With the drop of the green flag for Cup Series practice, Chase began by doing a couple run-throughs of pit road, ensuring he knew where the box was, getting in accordingly, and playing with the timing lines without being deemed speeding.

“That was better into the box there, Dustin,” Chase comments after doing another run-through on pit road, which gave Dustin Shoulders the confidence that they were getting the right balance in the brake package with what you needed for pit road, and drafting.

Once satisfied, he would get into a couple small packs with his fellow Chevrolet drivers, trying different things – from running the bottom, to running the top, to making moves alongside and leading. It was all about learning what worked and didn’t so they could make the right moves on Sunday.

“Rain in about ten minutes,” Alan Gustafson says mid-way through as he had his eyes on the radar. They knew there was a threat of weather going into the session, hence trying to stick to a short game plan.

They were able to close out the session despite the crew chief’s initial concerns, pleased with everything they learned. For what it was worth, they showed decent speed on the chart with the third quickest lap.

With the progress that they made in the first session, Dave had Sarina focused on doing a couple single-car runs to see where they’d stack up qualifying wise tomorrow, before ready to cut the practice shorter than schedule.

They would get out to make their first run of the day, laying down a single lap, before the skies opened with the rain that was predicted beginning to fall.

As she pulled the No. 9 Bass Pro Shops / Black Riffle Coffee Chevrolet back to the garage, there were no complaints from her JR Motorsports team as they knew that they had a piece to work with come Saturday.