The Tale of Love & Racing: Sarina’s Story – Chapter 371: Food City 500

“Hey, I like close racing and I could’ve done better than that. I take the blame, but he could’ve handled that better.” – Chase Elliott

Sunday, May 31 – Bristol Motor Speedway

Kyle walks over, giving Chase the glance over with a sigh of his own. He hadn’t spent as much time around him as others, but the time and things he’d seen Chase and Sarina go through told him enough about the reaction on the young man’s face.

“I know that look on your face,” Kyle comments, breaking Chase’s train of thoughts. “You’ve got something on your line.” Was it really that obvious? Chase could only let out a sigh in knowing that Kyle was right about that fact.

While he knew his focus should be on the upcoming race that afternoon, it seemed highly unlikely at the time. Instead, he was focused on the possibility that remained with ‘Andrew’ looming possibly out there, ready to make his move at the opportune time. nobody could blame him, as it was just hours earlier that Sarina heard back that Chris did not want to speak to her, either.

It brought a bit of relief as he didn’t want to see the siblings near each other, knowing what possibilities lied there in having witnessed that once before already. However, he felt for Sarina in seeing the distance remain between her and her brother, in contrast to the memories of their childhood she still held onto. He couldn’t blame her for the pain that was there.

There was also part of him that wanted the meeting for the simple fact of information. Chris had dealings with Austyn, Andrew’s father, through his time. There was direct knowledge of how the family worked, and possibly spots they could be found. If the threat offered from Alison and Carter was real,  that could all prove invaluable.

“Are you going to offer the details, or am I off your confident list now?” Kyle questions, catching Chase’s attention. He thought Darlington was already in the rearview mirror.

“I’m just thinking of how to beat you today,” Chase offers, trying to dodge the topic entirely. Even if there was possibly something looming, he wasn’t about to share those details with anybody – yet. It was just something for him to think about – perhaps that’s why Alison planted the thought and Carter ran with it. it was just another mind trick like always.

“I know you better than that Elliott.” Chase was now even more taken back by the commentary. “You can trus-”

“I know, that hasn’t changed with what happened – even if you’re still a dick for making that mistake.” Kyle wasn’t about to contest the comment as he still felt bad it happened to begin with.

“It’s part of racing sometimes, buddy.” Chase lets out a sigh, nodding his head, as to was part of the reason why it was easy to let go. “Does it deal with Sarina?”

“How about I’d rather not talk about it and keep it to myself for now?” Kyle would’ve rather heard the details, but totally understood his stance at this time.

“Fair, but if you need someone to talk to, you know where to find me. I’m always hear to listen and help if you need someone.” Chase nods his head, offering a small smile. If things continued to grow, he may very well take him up on the offer.

“Thank you, I appreciate it.”

It seemed all of the misfeelings before the event were forgotten immediately once the green flag dropped. Chase’s focus shifted to the task at hand, and things looked to be happening the way they warranted. With a fast No. 9 Chevrolet underneath him, he was able to keep himself up front throughout the first stage.

As they got into the final 15 laps, he made his move, going back and forth with Ryan Blaney en route to taking over the top spot.

“Classic Bristol racing – that was good,” Sarina comments on the exchange, while sending Lindsay a text with the tongue sticking out and a chuckle.

The move enabled him to win the first stage, followed by a dominant run through the second stage for another. Sarina takes a deep breath, as she couldn’t believe the terror that they seemed to be on lately with speed – and knew it’d be total shock to win two races in the span of four days, three in seven if you count the truck race.

The strategy in the late stages of the event would see him drop back a few starts, ultimately restarting third with 15 laps to go behind Denny and Joey. Knowing their history, combined with Chase not having the smoothest of times with either, she was thinking she may need to break out the Talladega Tums routine.

“Holy shit!!” Sarina lets out as she looks on in pure amazement, pumping her first in the air with a huge smirk across her face. She knew that Chase was a very capable short track racer with his late model resume, but still was in pure amazement of how smoothly that move paid off. “Damn boy!”

“Who lit a fire cracker under his ass these past couple weeks?” Lindsay asks over their video chat, as they’d switch to that format through the later half of the race following their children’s nap times.

“I think we have Samantha’s husband to thank for that.” Both Lindsay and Samantha chuckle back in response, no doubt agreeing with the sentiments. “In all seriousness, he could always drive – just needed the cars underneath him. This is just amazing to watch lately.”

“It would’ve only been made better if it was Joey into the wall instead of Denny,” Samantha offers, to which both girls nod their heads in agreement. While both of them could be a pain at times, Joey was more painful in all respects. “Sorry Linds-”

“I don’t care if Ryan is his teammate, Joey is the biggest douche out there,” Lindsay comments, earning a raise of the drink from Sarina in response. “I got to say – he is damn lucky he was able to follow Joey through there. That was damn close.”

“You don’t need to remind me,” Sarina offers, taking a couple deep breathes. She knew with this setting up for a late-race restart, the drama was only going to continue. She just hoped it ended with the No. 9 finding its way to victory lane.

“Ah shit!” “Damn it!” “Come on Kyle!”

Frustration appeared on all of the ladies’ faces in seeing the initial contact, followed by both Joey and Chase up in the outside wall together. it certainly remained in seeing Brad Keselowski take the checkered flag with Kyle second, too.

“Fuck!” Sarina lets out, still frustrated in what she had just witnessed.

“I’m sorry but Stevie Wonder could’ve seen that car wasn’t going to stick in the middle of the corner,” Lindsay offers, causing Samantha’s jaw to drop in shock.

“I’d rather see my man go for the win and make a mistake, then load it up without trying. I am frustrated, I am pissed the contact happened, and I hate to see our dominating day thrown out the window. However, I feel better going down swinging aggressive than playing it safe there. I don’t blame Chase for making the move.”

“I don’t either,” Samantha offers with a nod of approval in Sarina’s sentiments. “We know how badly these guys want to win and that’s what the move was all about – trying to win. That’s what we, the fans and competitors, want to see – hard racing. Sometimes it doesn’t go over well – and it sucks and frustrating, but I agree – better to try.”

“You know Joey is going to whine about it day and night,” Lindsay adds, to which Sarina lets out a sigh. it seemed he was always the first to whine when done wrong, but yet the first to just brush off anything he did wrong – even if more deliberate than what Chase did.

“I’ll glad send him the video of Denny imitating him from Martinsville last year,” Sarina comments, earning a chuckle from Samantha. “That’s short track racin’ children.”

“I’m sorry dude,” Chase says over the radio with a sigh once the checkered flag was flown. He had a fast car, dominated all race, and another win within his grasp – until his small stupid mistake threw it all away.

“It’s okay,” Alan tells him immediately. “It didn’t work out for us, you did a good job.”

Chase makes his way down pit road, slowly slipping off the belts and helmets. He reaches for his mask, putting it on accordingly before climbing out of the car. Seeing the scene around him on pit road, it caused a mix of eye rolling and chuckling. Of course after everything he’d end up parked between Joey and Kyle.

He leans back against the car, finally allowing himself to glance towards his left, catching the glare being shot in return from Joey.

In hindsight, he didn’t blame him considering as he would’ve been frustrated if he was at the other end of the move, too. He knew how Joey felt – ala his own incident with Kyle at Darlington. But this was part of the hard racing and sometimes, contact and mistakes will happen, whether you like it or not.

He then notices Joey turn more his direction, before beginning to close the gap that remained between the pair. Taking a deep breath, he was ready to face the music – just hoping that Joey was overly understanding about things. He had caused similar incidents with other drivers in the past so he should know how it went, right?

“I shouldn’t have to come down here and see you, and I didn’t deserve that,” Joey offers, to which Chase lets out a sigh. Didn’t Joey understand the act of avoiding immediate frustration, and speaking the next day? Chase knew he was going to send a text apologizing – even if he didn’t totally mean it. But as far as not deserving that, was it time to begin pulling out some receipts to show him?

“Man…” Chase starts, not knowing where to go first with his comments. There was so much that he could say right now to Joey.

“I passed you clean down there and then when we went down to the other end, you just wrecked me. I mean, I don’t know what to say.” Chase knew the explanation right away – it’s hard racing, it’s part of short track action sometimes. Besides, anybody who knew Chase’s driving style, they knew he didn’t mean to do it on purpose – he just got it in hard trying to make a move. But for Joey to assume it was on purpose, now he was starting to get on Chase’s nerves.

“You’ve done it before.” He watches Joey’s eyes go wide in response – perhaps he should’ve bit his tongue.

“Seriously?” Chase wasn’t about to back down as he never did that when he went in for these incidents. Besides, Joey brought this on himself right now with his comments.

“It’s the end of the race, we’re both going for a win. I got in there a little deep – possibly got loose; I may have had a tire going down.” They did have contact before that, so it was certainly a possibilities. Besides, it was weird how it gave no warning and started sliding immediately from the driver’s seat. “I take the blame.” No matter what, it was his fault  and he wasn’t going to shy away from that.

“Then why not walk down and offer an apology, man up and say sorry?” Chase already knew his thoughts on that, knowing Joey’s history. Everybody knew that he gets frustrated easily and he has a history of driver confrontations, from Denny and Kyle to the most famous with Matt Kenseth. Besides, weren’t they supposed to be social distancing? The world is in the midst of a pandemic.

“I know you’re upset, I know you’re frustrated; I didn’t want to start a fight.” He also didn’t feel that Joey deserved a discussion, as it was self explanatory as to what happened.

“No, instead I’m more frustrated because I’m having to come down here and pull this out of you.” Chase chuckles, knowing that was the furthest thing from the truth. He was prepared to take the blame right away, so how was he being forced to say anything? Chase almost wanted to throw Joey’s incident with Denny back in his face and how Joey tried to escape without facing that music, but knew that may be a little too much right now.

“Oh, really? Again, you’ve done it before. You know how it goes.” Did Chase need to remind him of each and every incident? Did he need to be reminded of how he didn’t go forth with the same steps he expected Chase to follow here?

“Doesn’t change how I feel right now…” Chase lets out a sigh, already knowing that was going to be the outcome. It was just like him and Kyle after what happened at Darlington. No matter what they discussed, no matter how much it being a mistake came out, it was frustrating, it hurt, and certainly disappointing.

“Man, I’m sorry. I hate it – for both of us.” Really for himself, as he truly believed he should’ve won given how dominating the first half of the race was. In hindsight, that was four races he should’ve easily won since they came back from the pandemic now. Instead, there was only one trophy that he got to hoist.

“Thank ya’ll for the second-place finish,” Clint then says as he goes walking by, as Chase glances towards his direction. Focused on his conversation with Joey, he hadn’t totally gotten what Clint had to say – actually curious if he was offering an opinion.

“Nice run,” Joey quickly offers, without taking his eyes off of Chase in the process.

“What was that?” Chase questions, trying to grab Clint’s attention. Could anybody blame him for being curious? You never knew what Clint was going to say. “No, come back here for a moment….”

“Seriously?” Joey asks, obviously full of disbelief in Chase’s focus on what Clint had to say.

“I just said thank you,” Clint offers, as Chase looks on a little surprised. Was that really the right thing to say right now, either?

“Nice job, but really?” Chase questions, still surprised by the comment. He tries to get Clint’s attention once again to no avail as he heads off.

“So you pay more attention to him than me?” Joey asks, getting Chase’s attention back. Could anybody blame him right now? It didn’t seem like Joey had anything interesting to say right now. “Really?”

“He deserved a pat on the back.” No doubt Clint drove a strong race all day, and was clean through the craziness at the end. it was the right thing to congratulate a competitor on a good run if you felt they did a good job – and that was all he wanted to do there. Instead, that seemed to piss off Joey, too.

“I just think it’s not fair that you’re not hearing me out. I mean, when you make those mistakes, you really have to make the effort to go over and apologize so it doesn’t get bigger.” Chase almost wanted to chuckle, wanting to ask if Joey learned that lesson from Matt. Or did trading punches with Denny and Kyle offer that?

“No, no, I appreciate it.” Maybe if he gave into his ego, he would shut up and go away.

“I’m just trying to offer some advice, okay?” It was taking every bit of effort for Chase to bite his tongue and not offer some sarcastic line in response.

“Okay.” Now could he be left alone?

“Don’t be an asshole.” Chase almost wanted to break out laughing, thinking that was even more ironic right now considering what the general consensus about Joey was in the garage area.

Instead, he kept a straight face as he walked over to where Alan stood with Paul Wolfe. He would prefer to leave the topic alone entirely and not even be near Paul either, but he wanted to quickly go over some stuff with Alan before flying out.

“I took the blame,” he starts as both crew chiefs immediately look over at him. He figured he better offer some explanation or else they’d be bugging for answers. Though given the understanding he was seeing between them, he focuses his eyes towards Paul, knowing he deserved something. After all, it was the crew that had to fix the cars after the driver’s blunders. Besides, maybe he’d be able to leave a message that Paul could get through to Joey eventually. “I just wanted to tell you that as I don’t think he understood that. I get it, though…”

“He’s just frustrated,” Paul offers, which was probably just touching the surface in Chase’s mind. “But you know you went in there…” Chase rolls his eyes, not believing that he was having to go through this again. Didn’t anybody understood the method to the move? He didn’t mean to do it!

“Hey, I like close racing and I could’ve done better than that. I take the blame, but he could’ve handled that better.” Chase knew he didn’t deserve the explanation about not being an asshole from Joey. Though given the nod from Paul and seeing him walk off, perhaps that didn’t sit well with him either. “Am I truly an asshole today, Alan?”

“You went for the win and made a mistake – they’d be acting the same way on the other side of the situation,” Alan offers, remembering his own response to Kyle at Darlington. “Now you know how Kyle felt when we both chewed him out for his mistake.”

The Tale of Love & Racing: Sarina’s Story – Chapter 370: Alsco Uniforms 500

“Did Alan’s call make you wonder if he had any belief in you?” “That’s the dumbest question I’ve ever been asked.”

Thursday, May 28 – Charlotte Motor Speedway

Starting from the 19^th position, the race started off solidly for Chase as he was able to run solidly in the teens until the competition caution at Lap 20. Alan made the decision to bring him down pit road, electing for four tires, dropping them back to 23^rd for the restart. Chase would begin to make up ground right away, running 14^th when there was a red flag for a lightning strike in the area.

“It wouldn’t be a NASCAR race these days without a weather delay,” Sarina comments, rolling her eyes as she watches the field come down pit road.

“Look at it this way – we can put the children to bed, and not miss a lap of the action,” Lindsay offers to which Sarina couldn’t argue about as that was a benefit. Though admittedly, she was enjoying the cuddle time with Abigail on the couch.

“Can I just say that these weather delays are more fun with you around?” Lindsay smiles, nodding her head in agreement. While she always enjoyed watching Ryan do what he did best, it was more fun having someone to share company with.

“I can’t believe I thought this wasn’t a good idea initially.” Sarina smiles, remembering the initial discussions about her, Chase and Abigail staying at the Blaney household for the Charlotte Speedweeks.

“So does that mean we can return the favor when the Cup Series returns to Georgia?” Lindsay nods her head, knowing she would take advantage of whatever time she could get with her bestie right now.

The weather delay was thankfully short lived, with the girls back comfortable on the couch to see whether the boys could make their way forward.

Chase’s progress to the front would continue as he completed the stage in the ninth spot.  Restarting eighth, the progress wouldn’t continue forward – as Chase fell back a couple spots, fighting a loose wheel. Thankfully, a caution would come out for Quinn Houff having trouble, allowing him to pit under caution to rectify the issue.

“We got lucky on that one,” Chase comments, to which nobody was denying. They knew a stop under green would’ve set them back, possibly trapped a lap down, and unable to make a charge.

“Yes, we did,” Alan Gustafson replies with his driver. “We’ll have 11-lap fresher tires.”

Restarting from 18^th, the fresher tires and a strong No. 9 Kelley Blue Book Chevrolet would do their magic, as he was able to make his way to the front to score a fourth-place finish. it seemed the progress would continue as he initially got up to third once back green after the stage caution, but fell back to fourth, remaining there until the caution for Timmy Hill with 64 laps to go.

Another trip down pit road, along with a track bar adjustment to get the car even more to Chase’s liking, they’d come off in the fifth spot. The adjustments would work, as Chase was able to work his way up to second after the restart.

“Am I good to go?” Chase questions, in relation to fuel. It was a question that several teams were asking pitting with around 60 to go had left some drivers on the edge of the window to make it to the end. Sarina could only roll her eyes at the thought, as it seemed right along their luck this year in something keeping them from having success. Tonight, if it was going to be a fuel mileage game, she had to guess they’d be on the short end of the stick.

“Go for it,” Alan tells him, which brought a smile to Sarina’s face as she knew that meant one thing moving forward – they could focus on winning, and a strong No. 9 had her feeling good.

The guess would be right on target, as Chase would find his way to the lead just four laps to go, passing Kevin Harvick for the top spot. Sarina takes a couple deep breathes, remembering how things played out Sunday. It wasn’t over till it was over so she wasn’t about to count the chickens yet. However, it certainly felt good to be leading.

“Come on Ryan…” Lindsay says as Ryan takes over the second spot. Ah of course, here was the factor that would possibly ruin the perfect night that Sarina had in mind – and of course, why not let it be her best friend’s husband?

As the laps began to count down, Ryan would begin to cut in the lead, as Sarina watched the gap between the pair begin to shrink with 15 laps to go.

“He’s making some pretty good time,” Eddie offers over the radio. It wouldn’t last though, as Chase was able to spread the lead back out over the next five laps. Was he possibly saving something then in case they got bit by another late race caution?

The gap would only continue to spread out, allowing Sarina to relax a little in seeing the No. 9 firmly out front with the laps becoming fewer. However, she still wasn’t about to count the chickens just yet – the past two races were a reminder of that.

All the nerves went away immediately, though, as she watched the No. 9 cross the checkered line, scoring the victory. No doubt a couple cheers escaped at the house in the process.

“Yeah buddy!” Eddie says over the radio after the checkered. “We did it boys!”

“Appreciate it boys,” Chase replies. “Nice job, everybody. It’s been a tough week.” Sarina wasn’t about to argue as she had seen the emotions written on his face since the incident with Kyle, and then following the call at Charlotte. While he had played it even cool for everybody, she could see the frustration and disappointment beneath the surface. It was nice to see things turning a great big corner.

“Nice job, Chase. nice job, everybody. Thanks everyone for sticking with it after last week.” Sarina smiles as she knew everybody had been hard on Alan – herself included – in regards to the call that he made. While she was angry that night, reflection taught her perspective in understanding the decision he made. Perhaps she could let it go.

“Appreciate it, buddy!”

“And thanks to all the guys back in the shop.”

Sarina could only smile in watching the burn-out on track and seeing the pure joy on his face. It made sitting in this living room just a half hour away from the track that much more painful. She wanted to reach through the TV screen, and hug him and share the joy, along with hugs for Alan and the guys.

“I was just waiting for the caution to come out at the end, or for something to break,” he mentions during his on-track interview to which she couldn’t help but nod in agreement. She knew how he was feeling, ensuring to not count those chickens before the flag was in hand.

“Are you seriously watching the post-race media availability?” Lindsay questions as she pops back in the room, to which earns a nod of the head from Sarina. “May I ask why?”

“I want to see what Chase and Alan have to say, and perhaps we could see what your hubby says too,” Sarina replies, to which Lindsay just shrugs her shoulders. She didn’t really care as to what Ryan told others, knowing she wouldn’t get lied to and get the full truth when he came home.

“But why do you care to listen to Denny Hamlin?” Sarina glances at the screen with a shrug. She would’ve preferred if they skipped right to Chase and Alan instead.

“Because he’s first, and I don’t want to not watch and then miss my boys.”

Lindsay grabs a class of wine, sitting down on the couch as she figured it was better than doing nothing while waiting for the boys to get home. Well, other than dishes and laundry, but who wanted to do those things?

While not really caring for most of what Denny was offering, Sarina’s ears were intrigued when he was asked in his response to the week that Chase had gone through before winning.

“Everybody talks about it, because they feel bad for him, because they love Chase,” Denny offers, to which Sarina couldn’t deny – he was a charmer, amazing, and everything. It was easy to understand why everybody loved her husband.

“Do you feel bad?” Denny is questioned, to which was the perfect follow-up, admittedly.

“No, why would I feel bad?” Lindsay’s jaw drops a little as she glances over at Sarina to see her reaction in response to the comment.

“I thought you said everything was soothed over from what happened,” she comments, to which Sarina nods her head, remembering the conversation with Denny about what happened at Martinsville a couple years ago and how things had gone since.

“Based on every single word he said to me, it is over and done with,” Sarina offers, not buying into where Lindsay was going with this. She didn’t have time to play the Denny game. She was having enough fun celebrating the win.

“Sounds like Denny isn’t quite over it…” Sarina shakes her head no, knowing that wasn’t the motivation behind his quotes.

“Denny is all about himself – he cares about his own program, nothing else. Besides, he is right; nobody asks another driver how they feel about a situation. Nobody asked anybody else about how I felt after Myatt (Snider) was an ass to me.” Lindsay chuckles, still surprised in how the anger loomed from that incident in Vegas.

“I still say you should’ve decked him instead of turning him.”

The girl’s attention was brought back to the screen before them as Chase made his opening comments in regards to winning the event, and feelings considering everything that happened.

“Did Alan’s call make you wonder if he had any belief in you?” The first media member questions him after his opening statements. Sarina could only immediately roll her eyes, not believing that people were still going there.

“That’s the dumbest question I’ve ever been asked,” Chase answers, entering a series of chuckles in the Blaney living room. No doubt he could not have delivered a better response in Sarina’s mind.

Later on that night, the pair return back to the guest bedsroom, with Sarina wapping both arms around Chase from behind.

“I’m so proud of you,” she comments, placing a kiss on his cheek. “I’m proud of your composure through everything. I’m proud of how strongly you and Alan held that team together through the adversity. I’m proud of you for how well you performed tonight, and obviously the win. You are proving the world what I already know, and that’s the perfect fact in how awesome you are.” Chase spins around in her arms, facing her with their eyes locking together.

“You’re not so bad yourself,” he replies, leaning in to lightly kiss her lips. “It can be hard sometimes to keep a level head through everything, but I believed in Alan, I believed in this team. We didn’t get to where we are by being stupid. I knew we’d be fine.” Sarina nods her head, accepting, as she was glad he stuck with that rather than some of her doubts.

“I also love the fact that the media got a little of your sassy side tonight thrown in there.” He chuckles, knowing right away what that was in reference too.

“Do you blame me?” She shakes her head no, as they sit down on the bed together. “As I’ve told Alan – we just need to keep doing what we’re doing. We’re going to be fine, no matter what the world thinks.”

“I just wish I was there to celebrate with you.” He then glances over at her, a smirk forming on his face as he brushes a piece of hair out of her eyes.

“You’re getting more celebrating with me than the rest of the team did, so that’s progress. But I did miss having both you and Abigail there, together.” He glances at his phone, beginning to read some of the congratulatory messages from everybody.

“Anything overly special in there?” Chase shakes his head no, as he replies back to a couple. He then begins to read some more, stopping as a certain message stands out to him. “Is something wrong?”

“Do you remember Bridget?” Sarina nods her head, having heard the story of the chance school meeting with her. “I asked a friend of mine in the school to check-in with her and see how things are going. I also offered my e-mail to her in case she wanted someone to lean on. She sent congratulations over, which is standard, but she also answered a question that I had.”

“Do I want to know?” Chase takes a deep breath, remembering the advice given at the time from Morgan, and others to not pursue this further.

“I asked her how the adoption process for her has been going, and whether things have improved. Unfortunately, it seems to be worse. Her foster mother got into some legal issues, to which resulted in all of them removed from the home. She’s now been stuck living in a bigger group home, and it hasn’t been a pleasant lockdown experience.” Sarina takes a deep breath, knowing from having heard stories and such that wasn’t a pleasant e-mail to receive.

“Damn, that sucks….” Chase nods his head as he lets out a sigh.

“She’s such a wonderful person. She’s got the heart of gold, and yet so inspiring and stuck on her goals no matter what is going on in her life.” He then glances over at Sarina. “She reminds me of you in that way. Even when your life was falling apart, you stuck with your goals and saw them out no matter the cost. You fought your way to put yourself in a position to succeed. Bridget is the same way, to where she’s still pushing hard on her goals despite hurtle after hurtle after hurtle.”

“That’s good that she isn’t letting it affect her…” Chase nods his head, but knew he wanted to do more beyond just be an outlet for her.

“But I feel bad for her, too, because nobody should have to do that over and over. She deserves a break, comfort of home, everything that we take for granted.” He glances at the e-mail once again, before looking back towards Sarina. “I know according to the adoption system we shouldn’t pursue someone who is outside of the age range as they stated. I also know our hands are full from racing, to Abigail, to the current adoption process, to-”

“Chase, if it feels right in your heart and you want to do something, then I totally support you as you’re right that she needs a change in pace. Don’t get her hopes up, though.” Chase nods, knowing that wasn’t going to be the thought process.

“I am going to message Alyssa and see if there are some options.” Sarina smiles, knowing that was probably the safe route.

The Tale of Love & Racing: Sarina’s Story – Chapter 367: Coca-Cola 600 Part Deux

I felt bad for him. Obviously, through everything that happened the week before and for how bad that situation was, him and I both kind of felt like at the end of that one, there was a heck of a lot of ways to lose these things. Disappointment, he’s taken it a heck of a lot better than I ever have. I certainly was never very good at disappointing races. He’s doing good and just told him to keep going forward and go get the next one.” – Kyle Busch

Sunday, May 24 – Charlotte Motor Speedway

“I mean, your fucking kidding me…” Chase continues to go off on the radio, frustration easily seeping through with the late caution coming out during the Coca-Cola 600.

“I know, I know…” Alan simply replies back with a sigh. it was easy to tell the frustration was getting to everyone lately with everything adding up.

“It’s always fucking something!” Sarina lets out a sigh, already knowing if things didn’t pan out these final laps, she was staying as far as she could from him once he got home.

“I know. We got some time to make up ground,” Sarina rolls her eyes, as anything was going to suck short of winning after dominating through that stretch. “Alright bud, let’s go…”

Restarting 11^th as the first car with four new tires, Chase made the most of his effort on the drop of the green flag for the restart, scoring a third-place finish behind Brad (who had stayed out) and Jimmie.

“Son of a bitch!” Chase lets out, obviously echoing the frustration that everybody was feeling at this point.

“It’s all good,” Eddie comments, trying to spin something positive on the night.

Chase lays his head on the roof of the NAPA Chevrolet, just shaking his head as he couldn’t believe the events that just transpired. Damn if you do, damn if you don’t, right? There was no way to know if staying out would’ve ultimately paid off or not, considering what happened earlier in the race. Besides, he could’ve stayed out and watched the whole field behind him pit instead.

“I feel for you man,” Kyle comments as he walks over, giving him a pat on the shoulder. “It sucks no matter what you say or do..” Chase nods his head knowing there was no way around it.

“Just frustrates me to no end as we should’ve won with that lead we had,” Chase replies, to which Kyle nods his head. He knew there was no way he or Brad were tracking Chase down at that point.

“I’ve been in your shoes too many times to count, and all I can say – it sucks no matter what you say – especially when it’s a pointless caution like that was.” Chase wasn’t about to argue, as that perhaps frustrated him more than anything. what was with drivers and flat tires constantly bringing out cautions lately?

“I honestly expected better out of Willie B.” Kyle wasn’t about to argue, having worked with him previously.

“Just keep doing what you’re doing, man. You’re doing good and you’ve got your head screwed on right – a lot better than I do sometimes. It’ll come to you and you’ll get the win that you want.” Chase smiles a little, appreciating the confidence boost from Kyle – even if it didn’t help soothe the wounds right now.

Lindsay walks into the room, freezing upon the sight before her. Was this really happening?

“Are you seriously watching his media availability?” She wonders, to which Sarina simply nods her head with a sigh. “I thought you would’ve gotten enough of your boy when he was home to not give a care what he told the world.”

“I was curious as to what he had to say,” Sarina offers, with a sigh as she watches him answer the questions. “Let’s just say that nothing has surprised me. He’s ready to get out of there as soon as possible.” Lindsay wasn’t about to argue with that approach after what she had witnessed that night.

“In other words, he may be a little too grumpy for some fun tonight.” Sarina chucks the small pillow off the couch at her as Lindsay looks back surprised. “Looks like his feelings are transferring to you, too. Don’t be worrying my furniture over your disappointment.”

“You realize that’s two races that he should’ve won in a row?” Lindsay nods his head, not about to deny that in having seen the speed out of the No. 9 car. “We should have like four or five wins this year, instead of a big fat zero in the win column. It sucks.”

“He’s got the speed and team together to do well – that’s half the battle. You know yourself that once he gets one of those wins under his belt, it’ll start rolling in one after the other. Besides, this isn’t the important part of the season yet, either.” Sarina nods her head, knowing this would hurt much more if it was October.

“I just wish he was in a better mood, though. He’s a much better cuddler when he’s in a better mood.” Sarina then stretches out, letting out a sigh as she reaches the pill bottle on the table.

“I’m sorry, but is there something that I should know that I don’t know is going on?” Sarina lets out a sigh, knowing there was a couple things on that list right now, from the hysterectomy complications to Andrew. She wasn’t quite ready to share the lather yet, even though she should.

“With my hysterectomy surgery, there is a complication with a prolapsed bladde-“

“How far has it dropped down?” Sarina was surprised with Lindsay understanding the concept right away, but was glad as it made things easier.

“It’s not terrible right now as Dr. Grayson says it’s only stage one of four. So it can be fixed hopefully through exercises and estrogen pills. If that doesn’t work, there are other forms of treatment that can be followed – such as electrical stimulation or a pessary into the vagina. If any of those don’t worry, though, then we will need to do surgery.” Lindsay bites her lips, knowing the last option on the list wasn’t going to go over well with anybody if it was necessary.

“So are the pills and exercises doing the job?” Sarina shrugs her shoulders, as she knew that wouldn’t be known until she went to see Dr. Grayson once again for another check-up.

“I think they are as I’m not getting as many infections or pain as I was before beginning it. We’ll just have to see when I go see her again, though.” Lindsay nods her head, sympathically.

“Well, I hope it works out for you, girl, as you don’t deserve to go through this.” Sarina lets out a sigh, having grown old of these things herself.

“It’s just part of life, right?”

Ryan walks out on the back deck, setting the glass beside Chase on the table, before laying back in his chair.

“You know, drinking your disappointment away is not a healthy thing to do – or so they say,” Ryan comments as he takes a long sip of his beer.

“I think you’ve drank more than I have so I’m safe here,” Chase offers as he sips his glass of whiskey. It was certainly nice to get his mind off what happened by enjoying some quiet time with his best friend on the back porch. “Are you sure you’re going to be safely able to climb those stairs tonight?”

“I think you’re going to be the one crawling.” Chase chuckles back in response, shaking his head no. “All I know is that I feel for you man, as I’ve been there myself. Does Las Vegas ring any bells?”

“It’s just part of racing. Shit happens and it sucks. It hurts and it stings, but we eventually got to move on.” Ryan nods his head, having grown to learn that lesson all too well himself.

“It just gives you more motivation to go kick some ass on Wednesday night – as you finish second to me, of course.” Chase chuckles, rolling his eyes as he wasn’t surprised one bit by the comment. “Besides, I believing you have some fun to accomplish on Tuesday. Don’t you know that payback is best served in cold hard cash?”

“You like that line, huh?” Ryan nods his head in approval.

“I’m actually surprised that Kyle came over to you and was the first to comfort you. Nobody could’ve predicted that after what happened last week.” Chase was admittedly surprised himself, but had appreciated the comments from Kyle at that time.

“He’s not a bad guy, actually.” Ryan smiles as he had grown to understand that.

“That’s what I keep telling you about Bra-”

“I will never believe you about that in regards to Brad, or Joey for that matter. I’m sorry, but you need some new teammates.” Ryan shakes his head no as thus far, he hadn’t found issues with them.

“At least my teammates don’t cost me race wins by being an idiot with a flat tire.” Chase glances down with a sigh as he knew Ryan was right on the money with that comment. “Besides, at least your other teammate gave you an extra spot. I was surprised to see that Jimmie was DQ’d.”

“Yeah, I was too when Alan texted me to let me know.  According to Cliff, it’s a shitty DQ.” Ryan wasn’t quite to believe that, knowing the games that were played by crew chiefs.

“Can he swear to that under oath?” Chase wasn’t quite sure, as he hadn’t gotten the full details as to why Jimmie was disqualified and how that all came to happening.

“I can’t believe you tried to drink your water bottle with your mask on…” Ryan was quite intrigued by how quickly Chase tried to change the topic, but chuckled.

“Oh trust me, I knew it wasn’t going to be a good drink. But I didn’t think it’d be an annoying feeling as it turned out to be. I just want this whole virus to die off and go away so we can get back to normal.” Chase nods his head as that would be nice.

“That’s not going to be happening anytime soon if you look at certain states right now. it seems certain people don’t have a care about the spread of the virus.” Ryan lets out a sigh, having seen that in the messages that he had checked.

“That’s why I am being careful as to who I hang out with. I don’t want to bring that home to Lindsay and the girls.” Chase nods his head, sympathizing as he didn’t want the same thing for Sarina and Abigail, either.

“I don’t know what we’re going to do with some of these races coming up. This lack of travel, can’t say in your motorhome, regulations – it’s going to be a pain in trying to do everything right while finding that balance together with Abigail.” Ryan easily sympathized, wishing that he had Lindsay and the girls with him at the track as well.

“I think in your case, if you talk to NASCAR, you may be able to work out a way for you both to come together, stay in the motorcoach together without anybody else around. Not that I’m saying you deserve or should have special treatment – no offense, but they may understand with the travel and everything.” Chase knew Ryan could be on some right track, but also didn’t feel comfortable in asking himself as it’d feel unfair towards others.

“We’ll just have to see what happens, right? hopefully things get better and we get back to normal sooner than later. But for now, it’s about making the best of the situation – like taking advantage of tonight to share drinks with you.” Ryan glances over with a smile as he knew he’d never give up spending a night on the deck with his best friend.

The Tale of Love & Racing: Sarina’s Story – Chapter 366: Coca-Cola 600

“We were in a position to win being upfront. That’s why I was mad, that’s why I am still mad. We can sit here and complain and go down the road till we’re blue in the face, but all that matters, is the results on the track.”  – Chase Elliott

Sunday, May 24 – Charlotte Motor Speedway

Chase gets out of the car after qualifying, glancing up at the board with a small smile. While entering a race on a blind was fun, it was nice to know they still had the speed by themselves as he had qualified third behind Kurt Busch and Jimmie Johnson.

“I think the comments about Chevrolet having a dominant streak are more than true,” Alan comments, to which Chase just nods his head in return.

While it was nice to speak of and celebrate, he wasn’t going to gloat in it long as he knew in this business, advantages were only temporary. You had to make the most of what you had while they were going on. Or perhaps it was just frustration that still remained from what happened.

“Earth to Chase!” Alan lets out, catching Chase’s attention immediately. It was rare that the crew chief used such line with his driver. “Is everything okay?”

“Absolutely, ready to go tonight,” he replies, to which the crew chief could only roll his eyes. He hated when his driver tried to bluff as if nothing was wrong.

“You know, sulking about what happened isn’t going to make it any better. You got to let it go.” Chase takes a deep breath, as he knew that better than anyone. How could you focus on the goals at hand if your mind was elsewhere?

“You’re right, and I’m ready to get ourselves a win tonight. Are you ready?” Alan smiles back in return as it was nice to hear the affirmation from his driver.

“Absolutely. We just need to keep doing what we’ve been doing, and be there when it counts at the end once again. Hopefully the tides will turn and we’ll be celebrating.” Chase wasn’t about to argue as that’d be the best feeling right now, certainly making what happened easier to forget. “So, we haven’t gotten our usual time together. What’s going on?”

“Same ‘ol adoption classes as I was taking before, except we’re cleared for the next step with in-home assessment and beginning the necessary in-person classes.” He wasn’t about to tell him about Carter and Andrew just yet, knowing the crew chief’s reaction, so he had to think of other things to share.

“Is all that really necessary?” Chase nods his head, despite groaning about it himself.

“It’s all in the papers of adoption and per the laws of the state so that way they know both parents are ready and the child is safe. The purpose is to make sure we’re trained in everything emergency, and have a health secure enough to raise a child.” Alan could already see what they were going to say with a roll of the eyes.

“Cue covering plugs with those covers and using those tie-wraps on the cupboard handles.” Chase could only let out a sigh, having already predicted that himself. Perhaps it’d be a good measure with Abigail moving around more now.

“Sarina and I also discussed the idea of surroga-”

“Hold it right there. So we’re going through the adoption process, but yet we’re still discussing the other option?” Chase nods his head as it had caught him off-guard, too. “Shouldn’t you see where one option goes first? And what happened to the family that at one point didn’t believe there’d be children.”

“I guess you could say that I have changed Sarina’s attitude in a big way.” Alan nods his head, as that was understatement. “And based on the conversation, we’d be going fully through both – for a family of three.”

“I just worry that it’s too much. There’s also a lot of other stuff going on, and now we’re throwing two stressful processes and raising a toddler at it is. Don’t you think you’re spreading yourself too thin?” Chase could only imagine Alan’s reaction if he threw in the latest developments surrounding Andrew.

“That’s why we’re going to complete adoption, before we focus forward on the next step. I already discussed that with her, to which she agrees. Besides, we know everything is delayed right now due to the pandemic. It’s better to be safe than sorry, right?” Alan nods his head, accepting the train of thought.

“I’m still wrapping my arms around this, though. I never thought you’d be a family of one – well, I figured you’d convince her about that. But three? You weren’t kidding when you said there was a tender heart underneath everything.”

Sarina lets out a sigh as yet again, there was a NASCAR race, and yet again there was rain.

At least they were able to take the green flag and the No. 9 Chevrolet showed consistent speed with Chase running inside the top-three until the rain delay at Lap 42.

Though now she couldn’t help but chuckle in watching Alex and Jimmie on pit road together, trying to operate an umbrella.

“Come on Jimmie, you can do better,” she comments to herself with a chuckle as amazement could only form on her face.

Her focus shifted to her wonderful toddler, knowing it’d be perfect if she could get her settled for the night before they went back racing. That way, she could focus all of her energy on watching Chase. However, she ultimately took a break from the process when she saw him on the screen during the delay.

“We were in a position to win being upfront,” Chase comments to the broadcasters. “That’s why I was mad, that’s why I am still mad. We can sit here and complain and go down the road till we’re blue in the face, but all that matters, is the results on the track.”

Taking a deep breath, she respected his viewpoint as she knew she was the exact same way – they just wanted to win and do well. It sucked when you didn’t accomplish your goals, right? However, she partially kicked herself in the ass. She hated to see him be hard on himself in regards to a mistake that Kyle made and coming up short. She hated that some frustration still remained. Wasn’t it time to just let it go?

She just knew that once they went back green, she hoped that things would go right as certainly a win would fix everything, right?

“I still can’t believe the schedule that you’re both tackling together,” Lindsay comments as she makes her way into the living room.

With the next series of races in Charlotte and everybody desperate to see each other, Chase and Ryan had talked it out for them to stay together in Charlotte at Ryan’s house. That way, it’d be easy travel for the couple and the ladies would finally get to see each other after so much time apart.

“I mean, are you sure that you can handle it?” Lindsay asks, to which Sarina nods her head.

“I wouldn’t want it any other way actually,” Sarina offers, causing a surprised expression to form on Lindsay’s face. “We’re the happiest when we’re at the track all the time, competing, racing, getting in the thrill. It makes home life much better because we both have something to focu-”

“Instead of adoption issues or surrogacy delays?” Sarina lets out a sigh, not surprised by Lindsay’s assumption.

“No, instead of just bored actually. I mean, don’t get me wrong. I absolutely adore spending time with Chase and Abigail and I’ll suck up every minute that we get together. But damn it, I’ve missed racing. I’ve missed being behind the wheel and everything that comes with that. Hence why I am fine with us trying to compact the schedule as much as we can to enjoy as much as we can. I also know that we, as a couple, can handle it together.” Lindsay smiles as she glances over at their babies lying down together.

“What about Abigail?” Sarina takes a deep breath, knowing that equally a concern, especially with what may be on the horizon.

“Chase and I spending time with her, as well Cindy taking care of her for the Homestead weekend as necessary – it’ll work out perfectly. She knows that she is loved, she is getting time with both of her parents, and she loves those around her. If anything, she may be a bit spoiled.” Lindsay chuckles, knowing that ultimately may be the case. She had been taking advantage of the time, too, enjoying having Ryan home through the week rather than traveling to appearances.

“It’s just insane to think about you and Chase each running events over the next four days strai-”

“I’m only running one, he’s got three. Can he share, please?” Lindsay chuckles, not surprised by the comment.

“But then you’re going to Bristol, then Atlanta, then Martinsville for him, and then Homestead. It just seems like it’s go-go-go for the next four weeks. Beyond the fun of racing and taking care of Abigail, what about you both as humans? Can you handle that much racing without getting too strung out?” Sarina knew the answer easily, knowing she’d be smiling from ear-to-ear in watching everything go down.

“Can you ever have too much racing, Lindsay? You can never have. That’s why we work-out, condition ourselves, and eat grapefruits more than you’d imagine. That’s why we train and have certain diets and work at making sure to be hydrated. We’re prepared for this – more than anything that you could imagine.” Lindsay smiles as it was nice to have the assurance from her best friend.

“Good, because I don’t want to be having to pick up your ass from the ground there girl.” Sarina shakes her head no, though wondered about that in knowing there was plenty of warm afternoons ahead.

“You’ll just be having to offer advice as to where to store the trophies.”

Once they were able to get back going on-track, the speed continued to show through the remainder of the opening stage with Chase scoring a fifth-place finish. However, the team knew they had to make big adjustments if they wanted to be there when it counted later on that night and have a shot at the win. Alan also wanted to get them out of the way early – knowing that they’d take up time and lose critical position.

While Sarina was disappointed to see him lose a lot of ground on the pit stop with a delay in pulling the spring rubber out of the right rear, she remained faithful that everything would come together in the second half of the event. She was also glad that Alan took advantage of the lost time to bring Chase back down pit road to add the packer to the rear, in hopes it’d help the “too much rear spring” complaint from the driver.

“We still got a long way to go in this race,” Alan reminds Chase over the radio, which wasn’t no secret with 300 laps still left on the pylon.

Restarting 18^th, it seemed that the changes were in the ballpark as Chase worked his way back into the top-10 with 25 laps left in the stage.

“I think that rubber is what we needed from the beginning,” Chase comments over the radio under the yellow flag. “It’s not bad, it’s okay.” Sarina felt confident in those words knowing Chase could work with what he had, and felt confident they could further improve with the pit stops left in the event.

“10-4,” Alan simply applies, which was his assurance that he had heard the comments.

“Give me a Gatorade if you got it.” Sarina knew by the comment that he was focused on staying hydrated, and ready for the rest of the event. That was always key with the Coke 600 – not falling over in the seat.

“10-4. If most pit, stay out. if they stay, stay out.” Sarina was confident in Alan’s call, knowing that the risk was well worthy with having lots of time still left to make-up ground if need be. However, if they managed to get some track position in the process, that’d be a clear bonus. “Go like hell my man.”

“You got it,” Eddie also offers the words of encouragement.

While they were nice to hear restarting third on old tires, it didn’t quite work out like that with Chase dropping back off to 15^th in a single lap after the restart, split through the middle like a hot dog.

“Just make it to the yellow without getting wrecked,” Alan offers over the radio, to which had Sarina wanting to chew some nails off in the process. Was that really the encouraging words that you wanted to hear over the radio?

“Man, I thought that was the move to make, too,” Chase replies, to which Sarina had to agree. However, it seemed NASCAR had done it in finding the perfect balance with the tires in having the right amount of fall off in seeing how much quicker the new Goodyears were.

“10-4, we’ll be alright.” Sarina takes a deep breath, hopeful the crew chief was right after having started the race so strongly.

The stage would finish out without any contact or damage to the No. 9, but with Chase scored in 18^th as one of the last cars on the lead lap. Entering the final stage, Sarina knew track position would’ve been better to have at this point.

“Alright, let’s try again,” Chase comments after coming off pit road. “How many laps left in this gig?”

“95,” Alan informs him, to which Sarina takes a deep breath. It was still enough time – but they had to stop playing around if they wanted to be part of the final equation. “We have time. We just need to get through these.”

“Yeah, that’s all we need to do.” It seemed pretty obvious, right?

He would work at accomplishing the feat, though, making his way back in the top-10 with 76 to go, with a caution coming 24 laps left for Joey Gase going around on the apron.

“How is that a caution?” Lindsay questions, to which Sarina had to shrug her shoulders. She felt a little defeated as she believed the long-run speed of the No. 9 and gaining ground could’ve worked to their favor without this yellow flag.

“Whatcha got there?” Alan asks, as per his usual protocol when the yellow flag came out.

“Pretty nice, actually,” Chase answers, which had Sarina smiling. Not only had the car looked good, but the driver was pretty happy.

The No. 9 team also put in their due work, gaining him some spots as he came off sixth. He also finally got a good restart for a change, moving up into second, followed by taking the lead with 37 laps to go.

It seemed everything was coming together as Chase had gapped the field and was looking to be heading to victory. Perhaps they’d get the redemption they so desperately wanted right then and there.

Then it happened. rather than getting back ot the white flag, a caution came out with 2 laps to go for William Byron going around with a flat tire.

“Caution, spin on the apron, back it down here,” Eddie said as the yellow came out over the radio.

“That has got to be a joke,” Chase says, pure disbelief immediately in the cockpit,

“I’m fucking beside myself,” Alan replies instantly as he slams his fist against the pit box. “That’s unreal.”

“Fuck!” Sarina lets out immediately, shaking her head at the sight before her on the screen “How is that a caution? He’s on the apron, not on the racing groove, and there’s no debris to be found. Besides that, he could’ve been able to get back to pit road with that flat tire. Why can’t people be smarter?”

She runs her hands through her hair, just shaking her head. If it wasn’t one thing this year keeping them out of victory lane, it was another. It just seemed like one thing after another.

“What do you think you need here?” Alan questions, trying to get them back in the game. They had to focus.

“I don’t fucking know,” Chase answers, obviously frustration still there to which just caused Sarina to shake her head.

“Pit here….” Alan instructs as Sarina shakes her head immediately.

“Some guys are going to stay, no?” Chase questions, to which Sarina absolutely loved his questioning. She almost wanted him to defy the crew chief’s request.

“Yeah, but not fall off as much as we did,” Alan answers, to which Sarina knew was a reference to earlier in the event. But that was more laps – and with being at the tail of the cars that stayed out. Better handling car, combined with clean air and more bound to stay out behind them – this had to be the right call here.

Leading, with 2 to go, and yet they were going to pit for tires and give up the top spot? Was this seriously happening? Was Alan actually doing this right now? What was going through that man’s mind?

“I think Alan just threw this race away,” Sarina comments with a sigh as she sits on the couch defeated.

The Tale of Love & Racing: Sarina’s Story – Chapter 364: The One-Finger Salute

“If that ****ing happened the way I think it happened, then that’s ****ing bull****.”  – Alan Gustafson

Wednesday, May 20 – Darlington Raceway

Off the drop of the green flag, Chase would make his way into third quickly, ready to chase down Denny for the top spot. He would get to the outside of Kyle off of turn four, almost seemingly easily going by – until it happened.

“18 is there…quarter, bumper,” Eddie calls over the radio. “Oh he just hooked us! What a son of a bitch!”

Kyle would try to slip in the gap between Chase and Kevin, through wasn’t clear of Chase’s rear bumper, hooking him and turning him into the inside wall.

“Fuck!” Sarina lets out immediately as she chucks the pillow across the room. “Are you fucking kidding me? Really, Kyle? Really?” She could only shake her head in disgust in seeing the scene unfold before her, even more disgusted that it was Kyle whom caused the incident.

“Come on 18!” Alan lets out, obviously his frustration equaling Sarina’s right now. She knew that he knew where she was coming from, as Alan and Kyle had worked together previously and were still friends. Just like she couldn’t believe it with them all being friends and her experience driving for him, here they were. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I am good,” Chase says over the radio, to which Sarina lets out a sigh of relief in that regard. The anger had certainly caused any potential worry to be subsided as her focus was on kicking Kyle’s ass.

“If that fucking happened the way I think it happened, then that’s fucking bullshit.”

“Oh it happened.”

Sarina watches Chase climb from the car, and knew from his stance that it wasn’t going to be good as she could read his frustration immediately.

“Please don’t throw that helmet,” she comments to herself, knowing how much he’d regret that later with cherishing them closely. Though even frustrated, she knew he’d be smarter than that, too. “A HANs device makes a good weapon…”

Though watching him dodge off the safety officials and make his way to the just below the yellow line, she couldn’t help but clap in seeing the sight as Chase delivered the perfect one-finger salute to Kyle.

“Well deserved,” she comments, still shaking herself over the whole ordeal even as the broadcast continued to show countless replays of the contact.

She then lets out a sigh in seeing that just three laps later, the skies had decided to open up with rain falling all the way around the speedway. It seemed that mother nature was not a fan of the contact, either. If only that would’ve fallen seconds earlier, they would’ve still had a car in one piece and a runner-up finish. if only seconds earlier than that, they could’ve been celebrating in victory lane.

Instead, they had a wrecked car, with a lot of confusion and anger over what happened.

“Might want to look to your left there, KB,” Adam tells Kyle over the radio, catching Sarina’s attention. She was practically tuned off the event in seeing the rain, with the cars now brought down pit road to a stop. She had switched to Kyle’s channel after the incident in hopes of hearing some explanation, though nothing heard met her approval thus far. “Looks like you have a welcoming committee.”

“I believe so,” Kyle replies to which Sarina couldn’t help but smile. It was nice seeing Alan and the crew ready to defend their driver in what happened with a trip down pit road to greet Kyle where he had stopped under the red flag.

“Looking real good there Tyler (Semke),” Sarina comments with a chuckle in seeing him sitting there with his firesuit tied around his waist. If you’re going to show you’re not backing down and ready for a fight, then it was time to show off the big guns.

It wasn’t chuckles on pit road as Alan could only sit there in disgust, a mix of confusion and anger still filling him as he repeated what happened in his mind time and time again. Why? Why them? Why them, again? What was Kyle thinking there?

“I just want to make sure your guys are going to stay here,” Chris Jones breaks Alan’s thoughts, as he glances over at the Kyle Busch crew member. Alan was surprised in seeing his guys follow him down there, but he appreciated the back-up should something happen. Besides, it was nice to show their frustration as one united group.

“Yeah, for sure,” Alan replies back, allowing his eyes to focus back on the No. 18 M&Ms Camry on pit road. “I’ve got my guys.” Alan then looks down pit road to where the group sat together, following his lead in staring at Kyle’s car. “Guys…” Each crew member nods their head in approval with the crew chief, knowing they wouldn’t move in unless necessary.

As everyone predicted with how steadily the rain was coming down, NASCAR called the event with Denny getting credited as the victor. Alan could only let out a sigh in knowing what could’ve been just a couple, or five laps earlier.

His eyes don’t leave the No. 18 Camry as he watches Kyle climb the car, putting on his mask per NASCAR requirement. He keeps his eyes locked, catching the gaze of his fellow competitor. He knew by the glance back in return that the message had been delivered, and was followed with Kyle walking directly over to him.

“I’m sorry,” Kyle starts to which Alan just keeps his eyes locked in a dead heat with Kyle. “I made a mistake. I know I fucked up, and I’m sorry.”

“You could’ve used some more patience there,” Alan advises to which Kyle nods his head in agreement. “I mean, I expect better out of you knowing your talent.”

“Tony said I was clear over the radio, and I took his judgment as I was focused on Kevin in my mirror. I should’ve checked myself.” Alan chuckles as wasn’t that obvious now by the bent sheet metal?

“No shit, Kyle. I mean, I thought you were smarter…” Kyle lets out a sigh, understanding the frustrating spewing over from Alan right now.

“We’re friends, Chase and I are friends. I’m still friends with most of the guys, too. Do you really think I’d do that on purpose, Alan? I made a mistake!” Alan nods his head as that was certainly obvious, too.

“A mistake that we’ve seen before by not only you, but others. It just seems ridiculous seeing it once again.” Kyle hated it just as much as Alan did right now, as he knew what it felt like to be on the other side. That was just part of racing sometimes, right?

“You don’t need to keep rehashing the fact as I get it. I mean, you know me! Come on, man! You know I don’t filter my words. What the fuck?” Alan gives him a glance knowing that this was going a little too far already, and perhaps that was just his own frustration with coming close and no wins yet this year.

“You’re right, I know you. I’ve worked with you and I know you’re smarter than this. That’s why it sucks so much!” Kyle lets out a sigh, knowing they weren’t going to get anywhere.

“Listen, there’s not much more I can say. I’m sorry. I really mean it.” Kyle then walks away as Alan lets out a sigh.

As angry as he was, he recognized it was a simple mistake – and perhaps he was being a little too harsh. But it still sucked to see a crumpled up car in the garage, and it still sucked that their chance of winning was wiped away just like that.

Thursday, May 21 – Dawsonville, Georgia

Chase glances at his phone, letting out a sigh as soon as he saw the caller ID. He knew the conversation was coming sooner than later, but didn’t expect to be having it this afternoon. He thought Kyle would be busy racing on track right now, against his wife. With a chuckle to himself, he just hoped Sarina didn’t decide to take payback into her own hands.

“Hello?” He answers the phone, knowing that he couldn’t just avoid the conversation.

“Hey Chase,” Kyle simply starts, knowing that this could go one of two ways, hopefully better than warranted. “I was hoping to chat with you if you have some time during this rain delay since I’m just sitting around here watching rain drops.”

“Are you that bored already that you need me to entertain you?” Kyle couldn’t help but chuckle in response. “You could always go see Sarina for some entertainment.”

“I don’t know if I want to see her quite yet after yesterday. She may still want to kill me.” Chase wasn’t about to deny that, knowing the frustration was still there from Sarina when he got home. He had died off some himself, but still felt it even speaking to Kyle right now.

“Do you honestly blame her, Kyle?” Kyle lets out a sigh, knowing he had that coming to start this conversation.

“I can’t, if we’re being truthful, as I know the frustration and anger has to be there with you and Alan, too. That’s why I wanted to call you and say the same thing that I told him, your crew guys, and the media – I’m sorry. I’m sorry that I turned you. I’m sorry the incident happened. I never would want to wreck you on purpose.” Chase thought that deep down, knowing how close they’d grown through Sarina driving for him and the process of having Abigail. However, it barely had crossed his mind – just a touch – when the initial contact happened.

“We also both know how aggressive you can be, and how that can affect decisions made on track.” Kyle wasn’t about to deny that, knowing he was more aggressive than most. However, he didn’t plan to change anytime soon because that is what he believed was necessary to win races, and championships – as he had done.

“You’ve been in those situations late in the race – you want to get in line as soon as you can, because if you lose ground, you’re screwed. I knew that I had to get in line behind you or else Kevin was going to get by me, too. Literally in that moment, I was looking in my rearview watching Kevin, and I trusted Tony’s judgment. He said I was clear, I went up and caught your bumper. I’m sorry, man. It was an honest mistake.” Chase lets out a sigh, having expected a similar explanation based on previous scenarios he’d been involved in himself. The honestly straight up from Kyle was nice.

“Look, I don’t think you wrecked me on purpose. I think you were trying to make a spot that wasn’t there. I get that mistake happen, that’s part of life, but you’re not a guy to make mistakes. So for me to be on the poor end of a rare mistake, at the end of the day, it’s unfortunate and it stings.” Kyle nods his head, accepting, as he appreciated the honesty in Chase’s frustration.

“Listen, I hate that it was you too, especially considering how close we are as friends, as well as everybody on that team. I know most of those guys really well, Alan especially. It stings more. It would’ve been much better if it was Joey instead.” Chase wasn’t about to deny that as Joey getting a taste of that would be nice considering some of his antics.

“Could you please turn Brad the next time you make a mistake?” Kyle chuckles, knowing Chase’s thoughts on Joey’s teammate matched his. It seemed the Penske duo was a problem.

“Again, I have to ask you because you’re good friends with him. How does Ryan stand those two as teammates?” Chase couldn’t help but chuckle as he asked himself that question.

“I asked, and he told me that they’re much better to deal with than they seem. I can’t say that I believe him, though…”

“For the record, I’m glad that you elected to just flip me off rather than come beat me up. Unlike Joey, you could probably kick my ass.” Chase chuckles even more, remembering the thought process.

“I was so frustrated and angry, and to be honest, I still have no regrets over that even with your apology. It was warranted and deserving for your dumb mistake.” Kyle wasn’t about to deny that. “Besides, my arms are short so it’d be difficult to fight you six-feet apart. Although, it seems Alan broke that boundary with the discussion.”

“When I looked over at the pit wall and saw all the guys – especially Tyler sitting there without his shirt, I thought I was fixing to get my ass kicked.” Chase chuckles, having seen the video since last night of that waiting crew and discussion.

“You know better than anybody – Tyler is a gentle giant.”

“So we’re still good, right?” Chase wanted to stay angry, and no doubt still frustration in seeing another opportunity to win slip away. However, he knew it’d be unfair to direct that towards Kyle.

“We’re good, man. I can’t stay mad at you after everything you’ve done for me. Besides, payback is dish best deserved with cold hard cash. I’ll see you Tuesday, buddy.” Kyle could only shake his head, as reminder of their bounty surfaced in his mind.

“I’ll see you before then, but I’ll be ready to kick your ass come Monday, as well. Don’t worry, I promise to not wreck you this time.” Chase bites his tongue as he was ready to dish something back in return.

“I look forward to the challenge, sir.”

The Tale of Love & Racing: Sarina’s Story – Chapter 363: Toyota 500

Tuesday. May 19 – Darlington Raceway

Sarina lets out a sigh as she puts her feet up, glancing out the window.

How was this much rain humanly possible?

She had arrived at the track bright and early, per the requirement from NASCAR in relation to the new COVID-19 testing policy. While Chase had offered to fly her to Darlington, she elected to drive to the track instead, citing that it wasn’t the longest drive. She didn’t regret it now, getting comfortable with her feet kicked out as she folded the one seat down.

She debated getting mixed in a video game, having brought the console and TV to hook up in the car with having seen the weather, but knew she could make better usage of her time. it was why she was back to reading up on the guidelines should she choose to go through with surrogacy.

“I thought you had decided to go down the adoption route,” Lindsay comments, as she had her best friend over the speaker phone. “Are you sure you’re just not looking at this avenue because the adoption is going to get delayed, ultimately?”

“I was reading and inquiring about this long before the pandemic and everything,” Sarina quickly informs her, wanting to make this clear. She didn’t want to think of being someone who was ultimately choosing the easy way out, nor put off the wrong impression. “I wanted to be able to keep all of my options open and truth be told, maybe it’d be nice to have another child with our genes combined.”

“I just think your time could be better spent focusing on the avenue that you’re pursuing. What about reading up on classes during this delay?” Sarina chuckles, wishing it was that easy as she could easily pond off her completion.

“Unfortunately, you have to either attend a scheduled class that you have pre-signed up for via video, or in person. With the in-person classes temporarily out of order, Chase and I have  been dong the online classes, as annoying as they can be sometimes. I was planning to be racing right now, not staring at rain clouds.” Lindsay lets out a sigh, understanding the frustration as rain delays at the track were never fun.

“Okay, that’s fair. But you should know surrogacy is no easier, just ask Samantha in what she’s told us. I mean, I really feel for her and I hope it works out.” Sarina nods her head, sympathically. “I wanted to help her out, actually, but it turns out that we’re not a match – unlike us of course. I looked into that, secretly with just Kyle knowing.”

“Really?” Lindsay thinks back to the discussion, remembering how odd it was at the beginning in her and Kyle not having spoken much before then.

“They deserve it, and if I could make it easier, I was willing to do that for them – the same way that I offered that for you. I hate it didn’t pan out.” Sarina nods her head, as that certainly would’ve been best case scenario. Though it also brought a small smile in her own mind.

“So if I was to ask you, you’d still be open to doing it for me?” Lindsay was caught off-guard by the direct question, and didn’t know what to say right off the bat.

“My heart breaks for Kyle and Samantha in seeing the heartbreak and how they’ve helped everyone, but struggled themselves. That’s why I opened the door widely for them. Now, don’t me wrong, I have told you that I’d do it for you. But right now at this moment? I don’t know if that’s feasible. Can I really carry another child while taking care of two of my own, at times by myself because of Ryan off racing? I got to think about my family, too.”  It felt like a partial slap in the face in seeing Lindsay reach out to Kyle and Samantha, but now back-peddling with her. However, she understood the reasoning.

“I totally understand, and I know that it can’t be easy at times for everybody right now. I mean, I don’t even know if I’d want to do it honestly right now with all the previsions and everything in place. It may be best to wait until this blows over, right?” Lindsay nods her head, actually appreciating the perspective. If the adoption went through and started to go according to plan, she wondered if Sarina’s feelings about this surrogacy option would change. There was no point starting something that she may not finish.

“Absolutely, as you know that there is going to be stress in traveling, combined with everything else that you need to follow. It’s better to weather one storm and not multiple at a time.” Sarina lets out a sigh, almost willing to drop the ball in everything else that she was dealing with right now.

“Don’t we know that better than anyone?” She then glances back down at the book that she was peering through over the discussion. “Perhaps a video game would more fun than reading this law book, anyway.”

Sarina lets out a sigh and reading the text message from NASCAR, which officially postponed their race to Thursday now. it meant that she had sat around the track for nothing all day long. While any day at the race track was worth it – especially after being chased away from months, it still felt terrible in knowing she could’ve spent these past hours with Chase and Abigail.

It also meant that she’d have to make the trip back up to Darlington once again on Thursday, as well. She almost wanted to see the Cup race rained out tomorrow so her and Chase could make the trip together, and it’d be sympathy in seeing him deal with the same type of day. However, taking a deep breath, she could never wish that on someone else, either.

Taking a deep breath and getting the front seat back ready to go, she knew it was time for the trip back home. She quickly sends Chase a text, telling him the news and that she’d be home soon.

She then hears a knock on the car window, and almost wanted to draw her phone back ready to chuck at the individual. Though she immediately froze instead, in seeing that it was Chase Briscoe standing there.

She slowly lowers her car window, still confused and intrigued at the same time by her fellow competitor’s appearance.

“Can I ask you something?” Briscoe questions with tears in his eyes, to which Sarina felt even more confused now by his appearance. Was he seriously crying because of the rain out?

“Of course,” she answers, with a touch of hesitation in her voice. Was she really ready for this question?

“You have to promise me that you won’t tell anybody this until Marissa and I-”

“Chase, you have my word. What’s going on?” Sarina felt her nerves and worries only increasing by how he was prefacing these words. They had never talked about Marissa before together, nor had Sarina spoken with her to date. Her mind could only swirl with theories.

“She was pregnant, and she had a doctor’s appointment today. I was listening over the phone since I couldn’t be there. They couldn’t find the baby’s heartbeat….” The tears then begin streaming down his face once again, as Sarina feels worst realities entering her mind immediately. “We lost the baby…”

“Oh Chase…” Sarina turns the car key off, reaching for the door handle, opening it immediately. “I know we’re supposed to be social distancing and all, but…” She then wraps both arms around him, offering a hug of comfort. His words immediately brought her back to months of worries with Abigail, wondering if she could even get pregnant, and her own miscarriage. “I’m so sorry, Chase…”

“It was almost surreal sitting there watching it on my phone screen, like it was movie. But no, that was my Marissa going through that by herself there, and that’s our baby…” Sarina nods her head, immediately understanding. It went back to the feelings in learning she’d lost her own, a piece of her, even if she didn’t know she was pregnant before the news.

“I know from experience that there’s no words that I can say to make it easier. I can tell you that the weeks, even months ahead are going to be tough for both of you. I can tell you that you’ll have more doubts than you could imagine about everything. But I want you to know that you will get through this, both of you, together. You and Marissa will be stronger because of this.” Chase nods his head accepting the advice offered.

“I didn’t mean to come up here and bring up pain that you’ve bee-”

“It’s fine, honestly. I’d rather be here for you and Marissa, then watch you go through it alone. It’s much harder doing it that way.” Sarina knew that from personal experience, still thankful for Samantha and Kyle in everything that they did. She also remembered Samantha talking about how she went through it.

“But I actually came to talk to you for a reason. You’ve been there. What can I do to make it easier for Marissa?” Sarina takes a deep breath, thinking back to the months that she processed through everything.

“There’s no magic words or thing that you can do to make it go away. Like I said, it’ll be tough for days and months, but it will get easier and you will be stronger for it. All you can do is be there for her, hold her, comfort her, and assure her that she did nothing wrong and she’s amazing. That’s all you can do to make it easier as she’ll need to go through it in her own way. But Chase, the same goes for you. Don’t swipe it under the rug because you want to do everything for her and think it doesn’t affect you. It does, and you need to take care of yourself, too.” Chase Briscoe nods his head accepting the advice.

“Thank you, Sarina.” She gives him a sly smile, glad that it was setting in.

“And if you need someone to talk to, don’t hesitate to call me – anytime of the day, as I am willing to offer you advice as you need fit. Same goes with Marissa as you can let her know that I can sympathize with her and give her someone to lean on if needed.” The comment gets her another nod in return.

“I appreciate it, and I will definitely let her know that. Thank you…” He then wipes the tears out of his eyes as he glances back towards his phone. “I better get going. I told her that I’d be home as soon as poss-”

“Are you sure that you’re okay to drive yourself home? I mean, I could give you a ride and then you could get your car on Thursday.” She could see the thought was puzzling his mind, and could see the emotions written over his face.

“I’m fine, honestly. I appreciate the offer, but I’m fin-”

“I believe you, and I know that you can compartmentalize because you’re like me, we’re racecar drivers and can focus on a task if need be. But for everybody’s sanity and safety, let me drive you home. That way both myself and Marissa don’t need to worry abou-”

“You’re going one way to Georgia, and I’m going another to North Carolina. I’m sending you out of your own wa-”

“It’s fine, honestly. I’ll text Chase and he’ll understand and come to North Carolina and grab me on the plane. Let me do this for you..” She finally gets a nod of approval in response, as he walks over to the passenger side of her car while she sends the necessary text. “And for the record, Chase (Elliott) repeats my sentiments – if you or Marissa need anything or want someone to lean on, don’t hesitate to text us.”

“I appreciate it, thank you.”

Wednesday. May 20 – Darlington Raceway

“Let’s have us a nice smooth one this evening,” Chase comes over the radio as they get set for the green flag.

Although her heart was still feeling heavy following the news from Briscoe, Sarina was cuddled up comfortable on the race, perhaps with a tighter hold on Abigail in the process, ready to take in a nice night of racing action from Darlington. Knowing that she was going to be hitting the same track tomorrow, perhaps she was watching with even more interest.

It seemed there was speed in the No. 9 Chevrolet right from the drop of the green flag, as Chase began to make his way forward right away. The speed shined through as he cut his way through the field, including a push to Austin through turns three and four.

“Geeeez boy…” Sarina lets out in watching him run three-wide with Austin and Ryan  rather closely, taking a deep breath in watching everybody come through without any damage. If this was going to be a night of those moves, she may need to break out the Talladega Tums package.

His progress forward showed in his stage finishes, as he was in the top-10 by the end of the first stage, and ultimately scored a runner-up in the second stage. Taking a deep breath, it seemed like the stage was setting for a great run in the final portion and perhaps a challenge for the win.

He dropped back to fourth at the beginning of the third stage, but the long run speed in the car shined through as he’d ultimately pass Erik Jones for the lead with 68 laps to go.

“Hell yeah!” Sarina lets out, loving everything that she was seeing. He had easily putting down the quickest laps on the long run, and found his way to the front with ease. If everything played out, it was going to be a great night to remember.

He would make his green flag pit stop as scheduled with the race nearing its end. Though before everybody cycled through, the caution came out with 43 laps to go for Matt going around with a flat tire.

“I’m going to go out on a short limb and say that fucked us,” Chase comes over the radio as Sarina could only shake her head in disgust. Once again, a driver had suffered a flat tire and rather than biting the bullet, they decided they’d go around for a spin to draw a caution and make things easier for themselves.

Thankfully, it didn’t screw Chase as much as he thought, as he’d cycle through back to the lead lap, ultimately restarting on the front row alongside Brad Keselowski. The pair went back and forth for the lead, with Sarina hopeful it played out as there was no way she wanted to see the No. 2 in victory lane.

Though before they sorted it out, the caution was back out once again with 33 laps to go. Alan brought him down pit road for four tires, with him coming off fourth. Brad, who stayed out, would restart the lead ahead of Denny (two tires) and then Kyle Busch and Chase.

“Sorry about that, Chad,” Sarina hears Chase over the radio, knowing that was directed towards their front tire changer. Obviously, Chase had slid too far in the stall or didn’t go enough in to set up for a good stop – hence the lost time.

“No worries, we have a good car,” Alan assures his driver, to which Sarina couldn’t help but nod her head in agreement. “We can do this.”

Sarina takes a deep breath, knowing this run to the checkered was going to be fun to watch as they had a fast car, four tires, and Chase had created magic at Darlington previously. She was ready to buckle down and enjoy the show before her tonight.

The Tale of Love & Racing: Sarina’s Story – Chapter 342: LS Tractor 200 / FanShield 500

“If I get back to the 2, he’s not finishing,” “I’m tired of fucking with him.”

Saturday, March 7 – Phoenix Raceway

Chase looks over at Alan, as the pair share a smile and a high-five. They knew they’d be good for qualifying, and it showed as they had scored themselves a pole for Sunday.

“There’s Mr. I wish I could get a pole at non-restrictor plate track,” they hear and chuckle as Jimmie walks over to them. it was the song of last season until Chase was able to do so at Bristol Motor Speedway. “It seems that you figured out the secret now.”

“It helps when this guy gives me a good car,” Chase comments with a glance towards Alan in the process. Jimmie couldn’t but help as it seemed chemistry and performance were strong between these two.

“So how about sharing those secrets with 7-time?” Chase glances up the scoreboard, seeing Jimmie had qualified 21st.

“I think you’re pretty smart as I do recall you starting on the front row with Alex last week.” Jimmie smiles as it was certainly nice having him and Alex lead the field to the green flag at his last trip to Auto Club Speedway, on top of all the other honors shared that day.

“I told Alex that he should’ve shared the win with me as a going away present.” Chase chuckles, though had to admit that would’ve been special. However, it brought up the other bittersweet memory on the table.

“Are you sure that you can’t come back from at least one more year?” Jimmie ponders the thought, but ultimately shakes his head no.

“I’ve been doing this long enough. It’s time for a change of scenery and a  chance to accomplish some other goals. Don’t get me wrong, I love stock cars and this has been an amazing experience. But the chance to drive an open-wheel car, to run the prototypes – I want to do it all before I finally hang up the helmet.” Those words made Chase ultimately cringe as seeing Jimmie totally walk away from racing would be a whole other heartbreak all together.

“You could be like Bill and be doing it in some form forever,” Alan suggests, as Chase smiles. It was certainly fun seeing his dad get out there with the vintage racing and having some fun behind the wheel.

“Dude, he needs to share the foundation of youth that he drinks from to do everything he does,” Jimmie comments, which Chase nods his head in agreement.

“I think you know the secret, considering how fit you are and how you’re always doing something yourself,” Chase offers, in relation to Jimmie’s work-out routine and ability to do marathons. “I still can’t believe how much you train and do stuff.”

“It’s sort of a fun escape for me, in a weird way….” Chase wasn’t about to argue about that. “Besides, keeping myself fit and healthy is always a good thing, especially when you have strange things going around. Be careful while you’re out and about, and traveling through airports.”

“Are you referring to the new virus going around?” Jimmie nods his head, having read that on the news recently. It was something that peaked his interest in knowing how many tourists are in New York at a time and worries of possibly catching a strain while up there. It’s why he shared the concerns with Chandra, stressing for her to be careful.

“I mean, I know it’s not a big deal here yet, but it wouldn’t take much to get it if it is going around with all the traveling and people that we see. It’s why I told Chandra to just be careful when she’s up in New York.”  Chase nods his head, easily accepting the concerns from his teammate.

“I’ll definitely keep that in mind then. I mean, it is interesting how quickly it is spreading through China and the UK.” Jimmie couldn’t argue, as that what peaked the concerns.

“And with spring breaks coming up and people traveling to Europe, or those from Europe traveling to the United States, it could spread very easily. I’m surprised that there really hasn’t been anything said much about it yet, despite it being a hot topic in the world news.” Chase thinks it over, as it was intriguing a little.

“Perhaps it’s being blown out of proportion…..” Jimmie wasn’t about to agree just yet, but simply could see that as a possibility.

“But still, better safe than sorry. Have fun smiling for the cameras.” Jimmie then heads off as Chase takes a deep breath, knowing that he would probably be a little later than originally planned for the Xfinity Series pre-race and such now. However, no complaints as he’d certainly accept that in getting the pole for Sunday.

The strong qualifying effort paid off as Sarina and Dave wanted, allowing her to run up front throughout the day. They were even able to find the track position that they wanted en route to scoring the victory in the second stage.

Ultimately, though, she faded back some through the final stage of the event, crossing the finish line with a seventh-place finish.

“One week a time, one top-10 at a time,” she comments after the race with a high-five for Dave. “We’re doing what we said we wanted to do in making progress. I also can tell you right now that if we’re in that Championship 4-”

“No if, but we will be,” Dave reminds her as he had full confidence in both his driver and team right now.

“We’re going to have a strong piece when we come back in November to crown the champion. I know where we lacked in parts and lost ground, and given how we ran all day, we’ll be there in the fight. I’m ready for what’s to come.” Dave smiles as it was always a nice confidence boost in seeing this reaction from her.

“Patience, young grasshopper. We have a long season before we get to that point….”

Sunday, March 8 – Phoenix Raceway

“Let’s have a good one today, appreciate the effort fellas,” Chase comes across the radio over the pace laps. If everything went to plan, that was certainly going to be the case as Sarina truly believed in his chances given previous Phoenix performances, combined with Hendrick’s success thus far in 2020 and Chase starting on pole.

“Just do what Alex did last week and we’ll be golden, she comments to herself with a deep breath, ready to get this show on the road.

Chase would start off the event strong, holding off Kevin Harvick through the first 58 laps off the pole until the caution came out for Ricky Stenhouse Jr. going around.

“So just been kinda free trying to keep it off the right front,” Chase tells the crew as the yellow flag comes out. Alan wasn’t about to complain about that in knowing how important tire wear was and appreciate his driver in taking care of equipment. They had a long way to go, so why screw it up now? They would come down pit road, ultimately losing the lead as Kevin Harvick beat them off.

“We made an air pressure adjustment,” Alan informs him. “Let us know if that improves.”

Restarting in the second position, Chase was unable to get back around Kevin for the lead, finishing there for the first stage. Sarina wasn’t about to complain, as it was still very early in the race and lots more would probably happen before everything was said and done.  It was certainly a good start, though, in having track position and a good handling car.

On the restart to start the second stage, Chase would snag back the lead from him, but didn’t hold it long as he was re-passed by Kevin just 15 laps later. it’d be the start of the fade, as he’d ultimately fall back to fourth over the following laps due to Brad and Joey being on newer tires. No complaints from Sarina for now, though, as she believed in the strategy that Alan had chosen.

“I’m definitely better,” he comments over the radio. “It’s all about that unloading moment. If I get it right, then it’s good. But sometimes I don’t. the problem is I’m tighter center off than I was on the last run.”  Sarina was surprised in how detailed the feedback was, but could see why he was having the issues that ultimately led to him fading  back to sixth by Lap 56 when the caution came out.

The pit crew would go to work, making the adjustments as requested by Alan and giving their drivers four tires and fuel, with a 12.9 second stop.

“TV says you got him,” Alan says as Chase barely beats Brad off pit road to take back the lead.

“Nice job fellas,” Eddie comments, to which Sarina had to agree as she witnessed the crew sharing high-fives all around.

“Nice job there guys, that was nice,” Chase adds, keeping the confidence and peep in the team high.

The restart would go slightly messy, with Brad Keselowski giving him a shot as Martin Truex Jr. decided to try and go three-wide at the same time. Everybody was able to hold on, with Chase snagging back the top spot 15 laps later.

“Nice clean track for awhile now,” Eddie comments, to which brought smiles from Sarina. She knew with clean track ahead, combined with a fast car, they could pull away and lead the rest of the way for the stage. It certainly made handling any nerves easier. “Nice clean smooth laps. I’ll keep you posted, just take care of it. No pressure now.”

Chase would build himself out to a decent lead, which built confidence for Sarina in knowing that they were looking good as they went later in the event. it just added to the thoughts pre-race as she could truly see the day ending with celebration in victory lane.

“I have a loose wheel, thinks it’s the left front,” Chase reports over the radio about halfway through the event. The comment brought a combination of worry, anger, and disappointment for Sarina. It seemed whenever Chase had things going his way, something screwed it up – whether on-track or the pit crew. Was this seriously happening right now? “Going to have to come this time.”

As the race hits the halfway mark of the event, Chase would bring the car down pit road, giving up the track position and ultimately going a lap down to the leaders. Sarina tried to remain calm, knowing they still had time to get back on the lead lap and salvage a good day out of this. However, she couldn’t help but feel a combination of frustration and disappointment in watching yet another win this season appear to be slipping away.

“How many laps to go in this fucking thing?” Chase questions over the radio, ultimately sharing the same frustration that Sarina was feeling right now.

“30 in the stage,” Alan informs him as he checks in with the pit crew members to see what they found when Chase came down pit road.

“Was it loose?” Sarina could tell by the looks on the crew members’ faces that it was as they certainly shared the disappointment in what happened. She knew that extra practice time and review would be on the docket for the week ahead.

“Yes.”

“Left front?” Sarina could only why Chase wanted to harp on it as if it really mattered. No matter what tire, it had screwed them out of the position they had put themselves in.

“Right front.” Sarina was surprised to hear Chase’s guess had been wrong, but knew that’s why when you pitted, they always changed four and not just two in case for that reason.

Currently a lap down, Chase would begin to push towards making up the lost ground, passing Kevin Harvick who was currently scored in the second spot. They knew that either by passing the leader, or staying in the right spot for the lucky dog, they would get back on the lead lap. It was also certainly promising to see him drive this quickly to the front as it showed the speed – but also added to the heartbreak, too.

“Just keep haulin’ ass,” Eddie encourages him as he begins to close the gap on Joey Logano.

“We should get the lucky dog now,” Alan predicts as he keeps tabs on timing and scoring to see who was a lap down, and how close Joey was to lapping the next driver. Sure enough, his prediction was right as the caution flew on the last lap of the stage, allowing Chase to get back on the lead lap virtue of the lucky dog. Sarina takes a deep breath, knowing that they still had plenty of time with the speed they had to get back in this thing. “You did the right thing pitted with the loose wheel. There’s 120 laps to go, plenty of time to catch-up. Four and fuel, half up on the track bar. Just think back not burning your stuff up here when we go back green.”

Sarina didn’t know if Chase missed the memo, or the car was just that good, as he seemed to waste no time once the green flag was back up, going from 25^th to 12^th in just seven laps after the restart. The climb continued, with Chase making his way up to ninth when the caution came out on Lap 214 for another car blowing a motor.

Smiles and signs of promise were all there in watching him go from eight on the restart to fourth. However, she knew that there was still room for improvement with Chase saying the car was tight in handling as he tried to chase down the next car. He’d push a little too hard, or perhaps the handling was just that ugly, as he caught the wall off the corner.

“Got the right side a little bit there,” Chase reports shortly thereafter to make the team aware. Sarina couldn’t help but think back to how the little bit of contact for Denny a couple years ago resulted in a flat tire. What if the same happened to them now?

“Copy, let me know if it drives different,” Alan comments, which was the usual words from the crew chief.

“Its’ right at 11 o’ clock,” Eddie explains as he gets a glance at it from the roof. “It boinked it in, but it’s not rubbing.” Sarina couldn’t help but chuckle at the word, but was glad in the spotter’s assessment as that meant the tire was probably safe and they could keep the position that Chase had worked his ass off for.

Shortly thereafter, the pit crew would get a closer look at the damage as the caution came out for Erik Jones having an issue with 61 laps to go. While down pit road, they elected to fix the fender, resulting in Chase fading from fourth to eighth.

He would make up some of the lost ground on the restart, moving up to sixth, but was unable to make up much more ground. Considering the day that they had, Sarina wasn’t about to complain if that’s how it played out as it was a good finish considering how they’d been through the field all day long.

However, they’d get another chance, with the caution coming out with 55 laps to go for Tyler Reddick going around.

“I don’t want tires, staying out,” Chase makes the call over the radio, truly believing that track position was going to be critical here. No complaints from Sarina as a solid handling No. 9 made her believe that her driver was right, and restarting second was never something to complain about.

The restart would result in chaos, as expected, with Brad Keselowski making contact with Chase in the process. As a result, he would fade back to sixth before another yellow flag, this time for Chris Buescher.

“If I get back to the 2, he’s not finishing,” Chase declares over the radio, to which brought no arguments from Sarina as she was completely pissed about the contact as well.

“I’m tired of fucking with him,” Alan spits out, to which brought smiles all around in seeing everybody in agreement to hate Brad.

“He’s a dipshit, always has been….”

Under the yellow flag, Chase would come down for four tires – and a little damage repair once again, allowing him to restart 16^th with 30 laps to go. The progress would be slow moving forward, with only being able to get up to seventh by the next yellow with nine laps to go.

“Gonna have to go like hell on this restart,” Alan declares over the radio, to which was obvious by all accounts. Sarina knew that was a gamble in happening as Chase and restarts wasn’t always the best method for success. Her prediction proved right, as he ultimately didn’t make up any ground, finishing seventh. “We hurt ourselves today, gotta clean it up.”

The Tale of Love & Racing: Sarina’s Story – Chapter 341: Finding Speed

Friday, March 6 – ISM Raceway

Chase couldn’t worry about what Sarina was going through anymore, as he was set to be on-track for his first practice of the day. After the first run, he’d report the car being “a little edgier” than he would prefer, but at least they were in the ballpark.

Things changed to a more worried feel midway through the session, though.

“Feels like something popped,” he comments halfway through practice. “May have hit a piece of sheet metal. Check under my feet…”

They would check and it’d be no cause for concern, as the initial assessment was right in probably hitting something, but no damage to be concerned about moving forward.

They were also able to turn things around with driver happy with the handling, and speed in the No. 9 UniFirst Chevrolet as it went to the top of the board. He’d hold that spot until the last 10 minutes of the session, ultimately dropping down to second after being beat by William Byron.

“Least it’s our own teammate that is quicker than us,” Alan comments following the session as Chase walks over once out of the car.

“I’m happy  – we have speed and we’re always strong here,” he replies as he take a sip of the Gatorade before leaning back against the pit box. “I like our chances for Sunday.”

“No complaints here, either. We just need to fine tune on it next session and we’ll be fine for Sunday.” Chase nods his head in agreement as he quickly glances over his phone, seeing for any new alarming messages. “Are you still waiting for the same message?”

“Actually, we got confirmation that things are set to move ahead this morning.” Alan smiles as he was glad to see things going smoothly as he remembered the previous worries expressed. “Now it’s just about setting up home safety inspection, and parenting classes.”

“Seriously?” Chase nods his head as Alan could only look on surprised.

“It’s all to do about the safety of the child and making sure that you’re truly ready to head down this path. As both Sarina and I have said, we’re not worried about the house and we’ll do the classes if necessary. Maybe we’ll learn something.” Alan was glad that they were having a positive outlook, even if he didn’t feel it was totally necessary.

“I’d say that you’re doing a good job with Abigail, though…” Chase smiles as affirmation from friends was always nice to see, even if not necessary. “So you do realize that sending a schedule this morning probably means you won’t get an answer until at least Monday on the next steps, right? I think you’re looking a little soon here.”

“For the record, I know as I wasn’t looking for that message. I was actually just seeing if anything else surfaced.” Alan’s mind could only wonder in relation to that comment as you never knew what was to come.

“Do I want to know other messages you could be looking for?” Chase bites his tongue immediately, knowing that this conversation wasn’t going to go well if he ventured down this path. He already remembered the lecture from Sarina. Did he really need another one from Alan?

“Nothing that you need to be concerned about, okay?” Alan just smiles back in response, but he couldn’t help but wonder as normally Chase would divulge in even the smallest detail.

“That’s good to hear, but you know I’m always here.” Chase nods his head, letting out a sigh as he watches the crew chief walk away. The response said enough – he wasn’t totally in the clear.

He knew that’d be something to worry about later, possibly, as his eyes went back to his phone hopeful for a response from Alycia. He had put off sending the message for the longest time, but couldn’t take not sending anything any longer. He wanted to be free of Alison, and that wasn’t possible if something she said was always on his mind.

“I understand your concerns about her comments – no doubt, but you may be barking up the wrong tree here,” he reads her latest response back to him. “We’re going to need to talk before I move forward as yes, it’s possible, but there are issues and things that you should realize.”

He lets out a sigh, all knowing that this wasn’t going to be an easy fix and he may regret this. However, a deep breath reminded him as to why he was doing this.

Knowing she had practice soon, Sarina makes her way back through the garage area, set to get to the stall in time to start this session as scheduled.

“Can you sign this for me?” A fan asks as they run up alongside her. She simply nods her head, reaching into her pockets, looking for her Sharpie marker. She could only let out a sigh, feeling nothing, realizing that she took it out when getting comfortable on the couch with Abigail in-between sessions.

“I’m sorry, but I forgot my mark-” She starts, feeling bad immediately. Normally she was pretty good at being prepared for these things.

“You can use mine.” She sees the marker being held out to her and displays a sly smile. She almost wanted to say ‘no thank you’ to the marker, but reluctantly accepted and signed the hat as requested. “Thank you. Good luck tomorrow.”

“Thank you…” She makes her way into her garage stall, noticing the bottle of sanitizer sitting on the pit box as usual. She walks over, giving herself a squirt and rubbing her hands together with a sigh.

She knew that she probably had nothing to worry about, but she couldn’t help but take the precautions. She had seen the news report discussing the spread of a new virus, how people traveling from country to country were taking it different places, and how it was deadly for some. Considering that she didn’t have the best immune system at times, it didn’t hurt to take the extra precautions incase.

She’d put that in the back of her mind, though, as she focused ahead on the beautiful No. 9 Chevrolet sitting before her. She’d partake in the practice, with her and Dave trying different things to find the right handle for this weekend. Despite only timing in 17^th quickest, both driver and crew chief were happy with the tire wear and handling as they got later in a run. Knowing that usually there was a couple decent size runs in this event, they both were entering Saturday feeling optimistic.

“Can I ask you a question?” She then asks following their debrief, to which Dave nods his head accepting. “Have you seen the news reports in regards to this new virus spreading through Chi-”

“The coronavirus?” Dave cuts her off, to which she nods her head. “Yeah, it crossed my radar when I was reading some other news story.” She was glad as she knew explaining what she had read would take some time.

“Are you worried about it?” Dave looks at her a little puzzled, though shakes his head no. “I mean, it makes wonder in seeing how many people supposedly have quickly become infected in China, and the fact that people travel there and then go elsewhere. What if someone gets it here and doesn’t realize and spreads to so many people?”

“It certainly is possible, but isn’t that like the common cold?” She nods her head, and certainly they were in the right time of year for that as well with changing seasons.

“But what if you get this instead? I mean, some stories report that it can create very serious symptoms. I’m not trying to be overworried or concerned, but someone offered me to use their marker today and I immediately went looking for the hand sanitizer afterwards. Am I going overboard?” Dave thinks it over, though ultimately shakes his head no.

“Considering your health history has been mixed, and nobody wants to get anything including the common cold, I don’t blame you taking the extra precaution. But as far as your other concerns in the virus itself, I wouldn’t go that far quite yet. it’s something to keep an eye on and think about, but let’s not go panicking.” Sarina nods her head in agreement, as that seemed to be why she wanted to talk about it in just curiosity.

“Thanks as you make me feel a little bit better about my decision….”

The second Cup practice would go as well as the first, if not better, as both Chase and Alan were able to make the right gains that they wanted on the car and still find the speed for the leaderboard. There was no denying the smiles in seeing the No. 9 at the top of the board following the session.

“Don’t get me wrong – this is a great view,” Chase comments as he glances up at the board. “I can also see us backing it up tomorrow in qualifying as the car felt comfortable and fast. But can we hold it up there?” Alan glances at him a little concerned, having not expected this discussion. “We really didn’t do a whole ton of race trim, and I’m just worried we’ll get into that deal where we’re fast for 10, 20 laps, and then fall like a stone.”

“My argument is that all the Hendrick cars are quick, whether running race trim or qualifying trim,” Alan starts, trying to keep that faith in the direction they chose for the program. “This is also an impound event, so you cannot make adjustments to the car between qualifying and the race. So if you’re starting with something comfortable, it’s not like someone will have something more comfortable due to further adjusting. But certainly I am going to take the time going over the notes, and find something that works for both – a couple changes between what we learned and what Jimmie learned.”

“That’s fair. I just didn’t want to paint us in that box.” Alan nods his head, as he totally understood the concern as they have had that happen before.

“Look at the races this year thus far, bud. We just keep doing what we’re doing and we’ll get there as we have the speed.” Chase smiles as it was certainly nice to see the direction that they were going compared to last season. “Now how about you go spend some time with those beautiful ladies of yours, and let me take care of all your worries?”

“You just want to get me out of your hair. You’re annoyed with me.” Alan chuckles, shaking his head no in return though.

“I always take your concerns into consideration, but I’m just saying that I have this taken care of. By now, you’re normally knee-deep in enjoying your time with Abigail….” Chase smiles as he always cherished anytime that he got to spend with her.

“I’m sorry, but she’s a total daddy’s girl and adorable. She almost said dada the other night.” Alan wasn’t surprised, as he had taken bets that would be her first word from the beginning.

“Like jumbled in a bunch of other words, or by itself?” Chase knew where Alan was going, as sometimes you wanted to hear something that you wanted and it wasn’t it.

“As in a couple Da sounds by itself. Then she went back to her usual tales as she was playing with her blocks. The walking is coming soon, too. She was trying to let go of the couch last night – but ended up sitting down quicker than she wanted to.” Alan smiles as the progression notes were always fun to hear about.

“It’ll come quicker than you realize….” Chase nods his head, still noting the advice from others already.

“That’s why I keep telling Sarina to make sure to have her phone rea-”

“But also remember to live in the moment, too. Enjoy it, savor it, because if you don’t, you’ll regret it when they get older. Both you and her not going to remember those quick video times and such, but rather the moments spent actually in the moment together.”

“Live your life to fullest, enjoying every single moment, because you never know when it’ll be your last. I’ve heard that from a bunch of people in my family before – don’t worry.” Alan nods his head, as he could easily tell where the advice came from.

“That’s also the same reason you shouldn’t let other things bug you, too….” Chase lets out a sigh as he knew Alan was still pondering their discussion earlier.

“I know….”

Saturday, March 7 – ISM Raceway

Sarina climbs out of the car and glances at the scoreboard, a smile on her face. The speed that they showed when running qualifying trim shined through, as she put the car seventh on the grid.

“I can work with this,” she comments afterwards to which Dave nods his head in agreement. Certainly starting in the top-10 gave them ample opportunity to score a good finish in the stages, and make-up ground. It also made strategy easier in trying to put themselves in a position to win.

“No complaints from me,” Dave replies as he leans back against the car. “This consistency is exactly what we need. Keep building the notebook, showing that you can run with those up front, and I like the direction that we’re headed for the playoffs. Let’s just be smart in how we run today’s race, with adjustments and strategy.” Sarina nods her head in agreement, as it was the same speech given previous weeks.

“In other words, no dumb moves like last week?” Dave wasn’t about to say much, but simply nodded his head in agreement. He ultimately agreed with NASCAR’s decision as he could see her getting a little too antsy for the approach that he wanted them to take.

“Least most people have forgot about your trailer visit due to Ryan Newman.” She glances at him a little concerned, almost worried. Considering that Roush had made no set statement on his return behind the wheel, what could’ve changed the course of news?

“I thought he was doing decent, hence being here helping Ross Chastain….” Dave nods his head as he had seen him in the garage area earlier that day himself.

“He announced he’s doing his first interview post-crash on USA Today this coming week.” Sarina couldn’t be too surprised in hearing the news, as she knew that someone big would have the exclusive and it’d create a shockwave once that happened.

“You’d think a NASCAR outlet would have the first dibs on the interview.” Dave thought it over, surprised a little himself. However, he saw the avenue to go that direction.

“FOX owns the show, though. It’s good cross promotion especially since the wreck had caught the attention of the entire country and it will help clear up some of those unanswered worries and questions.” Sarina couldn’t argue with the reasoning as she nods her head in agreement.

“I don’t care what anybody says. No matter what underlying injuries may be there, I’m glad that he’s relatively okay and gets to spend more time with his daughters.”

The Tale of Love & Racing: Sarina’s Story – Chapter 340: Production Alliance 300 / Auto Club 400

Saturday, February 29 – Auto Club Speedway

Starting just outside the top-10, Sarina wasted no time making her way forward, running ninth halfway through the stage. She would continue to rip the top solidly, ultimately scoring an eighth in the first stage.

“Needs a little more rotation under throttle as I’m a little tight when I get back to it,” she comments before heading down pit road. The pit crew did their job, gaining her five starts on pit road to move her up to third.

Ultimately, she’d choose the wrong lines to put herself in on the restart, fading back to 10^th on a hurry. Chase could only shake his head, as he had been there before himself. It seemed that there was some secret to a perfect restart, and neither of them had perfected it yet. She’d be unable to make up the ground, finishing the second stage in 11^th.

The pit crew would gain her another three spots – certainly bringing smiles on the pit box in doing their job solidly, with her restarting in eighth. She would stay there until the caution came out for Justin Haley having a flat tire.

“Could use a little more of the last adjustment, but the car feels good right now,” she offers, which brings more smiles from the team. A good handling car and showing speed meant that they were hopefully headed to another strong run with a top-five.

There would be a couple back-to-back cautions, before she headed down pit road with the rest of the leaders. Everybody knew the restart would be chaos, though, with Myatt Snider and Anthony Alfredo staying out on-track.

The restart was exactly that, as Snider began to slide back rather quickly. With Snider sliding back quickly, Sarina made the decision to try and go up to the upper lane, though wasn’t clear of Chastain, instead making contact and getting into the outside wall.

Chase could only let out a sigh as he saw the significant damage to the front end of the No. 9 Nationwide Kids Chevrolet. It was certainly disappointing after starting off the year strongly, and having shown speed in the first half of the race.

He also understood why she made the move – as it was about putting yourself in the right spot for the end battle for the win. However, he also knew that she could’ve been more wisely in her decision, perhaps less aggressive, and checked up a little and then ensured she was clear before switching lanes. While the lost track position would have sucked, it would be much better than the current damage.

After lengthy repairs on pit road, combined by not being able to reach the same speeds once back on-track, she was credited with a 26^th-place finish.

“You were fast all weekend once again, and showed you could run with the big boys,” Chase comments as he wraps an arm around her shoulders afterwards. “We just need to practice a little bit of patie-”

“You would’ve went for the same damn hole that I would’ve and you know it,” she cuts him off with a glance into his eyes. He wanted to immediately spit out that she was wrong, but knew from a couple incidents that wasn’t the case.

“I guess it’s not monkey see, monkey do – but I have learned from my fair of incidents as I’m sure you learned today. Patience and knowing the gap comes with experience.” She nods her head, knowing that he was right, no matter how much she wanted to argue the fact.

“I just hate it because let’s face it, Chase, that’s my favourite paint scheme….” Chase glances over the car, seeing the butterflies and knowing how much butterflies touched her – especially the special one beside her name on the roof.

“Hopefully you get another chance to run this scheme and do it justice. I love you.” He then leans in, giving her a kiss, before they head off pit road to the garage area.

Sunday, March 1 – Auto Club Speedway

Despite starting in 17^th, Chase was able to make his way forward rather quickly, putting the No. 9 NAPA Chevrolet in the top-10. He kept the momentum going, staying inside the top-10 all day throughout the event en route to scoring a fourth-place finish.

“No matter what you did, it was just tight through both corners all day,” Chase comments afterwards as he leans against the car debriefing with Alan.

“I wonder if it was more so tire wear than mechanical handling because you were wearing the right front down to the cords all day long,” Alan comments, catching Chase off-guard by a bit. “You weren’t the only one, though. A lot of cars – other than Alex mind you, were just too hard on the right fronts today.”

“Perhaps that goes back to balance….” Alan shrugs his shoulders, knowing that he definitely had to go back over the data from the race, and also compare to what Alex and Greg did. “Alex had a complete rocket today. No matter how close I go to the front, I will admit that we had nothing for him today. That car was in another zip code.”

“You aren’t the only one saying that. He even surprised the likes of Kyle (Busch) and Joey (Logano) today.” Chase shakes his head in disbelief as that didn’t happen often. “Chevrolet said that they were going to give us something to work with and this proves it. Now we just need to figure out how to make it work for us.”

“Well, don’t work too hard this week. Make sure to take care of your shoulder.” Alan almost rolls his eyes as it was not usual to hear advice like this from his driver, considering that Alan had been saying similar things the past two years to hardly any avail.

“Oh look at you, caring about me…” Chase just smiles back in return, knowing the crew chief was trying to be sarcastic but he meant his words.

“You took care of my ass, so now it’s finally my turn to return the favor. I don’t want to hear from Shannon that you’re trying to do too much around the house this week, either. Put those boys of yours to work.” Alan chuckles, not surprised by the advice honestly.

“Don’t worry, I can take care of myself. You just worry about yourself and that little princess of yours.”

Friday, March 7 – Phoenix Raceway

With Xfinity Series practice right around the corner, the pair make their way out to the garage area together. Although Chase was normally watch Abigail until Sarina was done practice, he had asked his mom to take care of her today. He knew between the pre-session meeting that Alan wanted to have, and other obligations, that trying to watch her while doing that wasn’t going to go well.

They were both focused on their tasks at hand, until both of their phones went off at the same time. A little bit of confusion on their faces, as it was an odd occurrence, as they both pulled their phones out to see the message. Immediately, they glance at each other and take a deep breath with Sarina realizing who it is from.

“We open it at the same time,” Chase suggests, grabbing her free hand with his own for support. She nods her head as they both stare at his phone together now. “Whatever it says, we’re in this together and I love you. We’ll figure ou-”

“Just open the damn message!” She interrupts him, reaching for the button herself on the screen. He then presses, allowing the e-mail from Wendy to fill the screen. “Why couldn’t it just say accepted or not accepted? I don’t want to read all this to find out the truth?” Chase chuckles at her, as he goes forth reading the message in full.

“You may want to read this message, actually. It includes some very important information regarding future meetings and activities.” The smile couldn’t be contained on Sarina’s face as she knew that meant that they had passed the interview process, and were set to enter phase two of the adoption process. “I am going to forward this to Alycia, along with a copy of our schedules so we can figure out when to schedule the house safety tour, combined with the classes that we must take.”

“Can you believe that we have to take parenting classes?” Chase shakes his head no as that was one of the odd things that caught him off-guard from the beginning about the process. However, he was willing to do what was necessary for them. “I actually thought about taking those initially when I was pregnant with Abigail, worried about the mother that I would be. Now it just seems weird…”

“It may be useful, though. We may learn a couple things.” She nods her head, accepting, knowing that was never a bad thing. “Now, don’t you have somewhere to be?”

“Can you blame me for trying to ditch my teammates to spend more time with you?” Chase laughs, as he leans in and kisses her lips.

“I’ll see you later – I promise. Have fun today and actually take care of that beautiful racecar…” She lets out a sigh as she didn’t need any reminders about last week as she walked away. The feeling didn’t stay long as a simple thought back to the e-mail brought the smile back to her face.

As she would normally do each week, she met up before the Xfinity Series practice with her JR Motorsports teammates for a pow-wow session to discuss the upcoming session. Usually they’d talk about their thoughts on the track, with advice being offered across the board as warranted. It was certainly a benefit having Justin Allgaier as a teammate as his advice was always helpful.

“Sarina Elliott?” She hears her name called by a NASCAR official as he walks over to join the group. She glances back at him, every fear that could’ve been possible flashing through her mind as normally this occurrence last year meant something was going on. “Our series director Wayne Auton would like to see you right now in the trailer.”

“Can’t this wait until after practice?” She questions, knowing that they were set to be on-track in a matter of five minutes. Certainly any meeting with him took longer than that.

“Unfortunately, he said that you need to come see him right now before the session.” She then lets out a sigh, trying to shelf any fears aside, as she leaves the garage stall and begins the walk to the hauler.

Her walk wasn’t undetected by everybody in the garage, with several individuals noticing them walking together – including Chase as he glanced away from his conversation with the 9 crew intrigued.

“Earth to Chase!” Alan shouts, getting his attention back as he looks over at the crew chief. He knew that they were calling this meeting for importance, but it just seemed odd. “You can’t spend all day staring at her ass if you want to win this weekend.”

“Isn’t odd to see her walking to the Xfinity Series hauler with an official before practice?” Chase questions, to which the crew had mixed reactions in return.

“She could be doing a pee-pee test,” Matt Brandt suggests, referring to NASCAR’s drug policy that included random testing. “I got called to do that last week. No matter how many times I do it, it feels odd every single time to have someone watch you pee in a bottle.”

“But right before practice?” Alan questions, now also caught off-guard by the actions. If it had been last year, he would’ve been sending Chase after her in a fury of something had happened. He almost had to wonder what was possible here right now.

“The word random is in the definition for a reason, Alan.” Alan wasn’t about to argue, but the timing still felt odd as you never saw NASCAR call a driver so close to practice.

“Are you seriously texting her right now?” Chase glances up from his phone, nodding his head. He figured that he was going to get the answer one way or another. “Don’t you know checking text messages in the principal office is not recommended?”

“I didn’t say that she had to answer me right away; she could answer when she’s done,” Chase replies as he shoves his phone back in his pocket. This wasn’t a comfortable conversation, and certainly was not how he intended spending his lost daughter time. “So, where were we?”

Sarina walks into the garage stall, frustration written all over her face as she walks up to the No. 9 Chevrolet, snatching her helmet off of roof and putting it on.

“Where were you?” Cory questions, to which wasn’t the best question in Sarina’s mind at this time. Wasn’t it obvious?

“I was called to the principal’s office for a discussion about the amount of contact that I’ve had the past couple of weeks,” she starts, catching Cory’s attention. “It seems that Wayne wanted to give me a lecture about being too overly aggressive, despite the fact that I explained both incidents were an accide-”

“We both know that you wrecked Myatt on purpo-”

“Do you honestly ever seeing me admit that to NASCAR, though? Do you want me fined or suspended for a week?” Cory shakes his head no, having heard about the full policy.

“But let me guess, Wayne held you there longer as a result of your comments…” She shakes her head no as she climbs in the car, getting situated in the seat before pulling the belts over her shoulders.

“No, he kept going on to how I should calm down, watch my moves, and the fact that NASCAR would not continue to put up with that type of behavior. So yeah, guys like Kyle and Joey can do it every single fucking day of the week but I get in shit the minute I have two incidents in a row. I just kept nodding my head, hoping that he’d let me out of there as soon as possible. How many minutes of practice did I miss?” Cory lets out a sigh, knowing that wasn’t the best feeling as he glanced up at the block.

“20 minutes. We’ll make the best of the session and go from there. You know that Dave brought a good car. Now focus…” He helps her finish getting situated in the car, before putting up the window net and sending her out for the first run of the session.

Cory’s prediction was correct as she was fast in the abbreviated session, timing in ninth quickest. They also got in some good pit road speed practice through the final 10 minutes of the session so that way they did not repeat the penalties from the first two weeks of competition.

Despite things obviously starting off poorly, things were turning around as there was speed in the car and Phoenix had been a good track for her in the past. Besides, she also had the happiness about everything going through the adoption process thus far.

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.