The Tale of Love & Racing: Sarina’s Story – Chapter 368: Alsco 300 / North Carolina Education Lottery 200

“Payback is dish best served with cold hard cash.”

Monday, May 25 – Charlotte Motor Speedway

Chase takes a deep breath, getting comfortable on the couch, ready to take in the action. It felt wrong to be taking in the action via the telecast in knowing she was only racing about a half hour from where they were located.

“We should’ve convinced one of those condo owners to let us invade,” Ryan offers, as he gets comfortable alongside. Chase couldn’t help but nod his head in agreement, but thankful he had company which was a change from the past couple weeks.

Starting 10^th, Sarina was able to run up front through the whole first stage, with a mini-surge in the late stages en route to finishing fifth.

“Plowing…” was the complaint on the radio before coming down pit road for adjustments.

The adjustments worked as the No. 9 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet stayed solid through the second stage en route to a fourth.

“I’m loose on the bottom – not loose, but losing grip,” she reported at the stage end, earning a couple confused glances as Ryan and Chase traded a look in hearing the comment.

“How does a crew chief even make sense of that?” Lindsay wonders, obviously most confused of the bunch.

“The actual handling of the car hasn’t changed, but rather the track is getting slicker with the changing temperature and rubber,” Chase explains, to which she easily accepts as that made more sense than Sarina’s comment. “Sometimes as they say in our world you’re not just adjusting to the car and driver, but trying to stay ahead of the track conditions. I’d rather that be the case rather than plowing like earlier.

“Loose is fast and on the edge of control, right? Yes, I’ve watched Days of Thunder.” The boys just chuckle in response.

Despite dropping back to the tail end of the top-10 early in the final stage, Sarina was able to work her way back up to sixth before the final round of green flag pit stops started with 50 laps to go. There were a couple nervous times in watching the pit stop, though, as she’d slide sideways off of turn four, tires smoking, almost missing pit road, but managed to make her way down without catching a speeding penalty.

“I think she’s been paying too much attention to Kyle in pit road approach,” Ryan comments, knowing it was right up Kyle’s alley to be one of the strongest getting on and off pit road in taking advantage any chance he could get. It was something the others wished they could get better doing, as well.

“That was too close for comfort,” Chase says, taking a deep breath as he tries to get himself back calm for the final run to the checkered.

There’d be a yellow flag midway through the sequence, but thankfully pitting early enough allowed everything to work out with Sarina remaining in a position to challenge. Restarting fifth, she’d be unable to make up much ground as a result of another yellow flag for a wreck in the back of the pack.

The second restart with 17 laps to go would see Austin Cindric not go, with Sarina launching off. However, Kyle Busch would give Austin the push he needed, allotting him to get to the lead with Sarina second and Kyle third before the next caution – this time for Myatt Snider and Justin Allgaier.

“Can you tell me whoever is behind me to fucking push me?” Sarina begins yelling on the radio as the yellow comes out. “We’re timing these right on, but nobody wants to help me. We need to get something going here.”

“You’re nailing your timing on your restarts,” Dave tries to assure her despite the rant. “Just stay with him.”

The next restart would come with 12 laps, with things not going according to how Sarina wanted once again, as Kyle would push Austin, with both getting by which relegated her back to third before the caution with 8 laps to go for Riley Herbst.

“I feel good about our chances here,” Sarina starts on the radio. “I think being the pusher may be what we need to challenge as we want to here. Tell Kyle to pick the bottom. I  can beat these fuckers. Tell the 54 I’ll have him clear of the 22 by the start/finish line if he chooses the bottom, please.”

“After what happened last week, nobody would’ve predicted that happening,” Ryan comments with a chuckle as Chase couldn’t help but laugh as well.

“I still can’t believe you allowed Kyle to be your comforting voice on Sunday,” Lindsay adds to which Chase simply shrugs his shoulders. He actually still appreciated the conversation they were able to have.

Ultimately, Kyle did not follow the instructions, electing to go with the top and have his teammate Harrison push him on the start. Things wouldn’t go according to plan with Austin not launching as Kyle pulls away from the field. Austin would get away, with Sarina set to make her move. It wouldn’t go as planned, with her getting loose and going around, collecting several others in the process.

“The tires are up, just keep rolling here,” Dave tells her over the radio afterwards, frustration and disappointment laced in his voice.

“I fucked up,” she replies simply as she drives it back to pit road.

Sarina walks inside the house, letting out a sigh as she slips off her shoes. After running inside the top-five most of the night fighting for everything she had, being in the thick for the win in the late laps, all she got some damage to the car and an 11^th-place finish.

“You have nothing to hang your head on,” Chase comments as he sneaks up behind her, wrapping both arms around her shoulders. “You were doing everything right there. You were doing what you needed to fight for the win, and put yourself in position. It sucks it happened, but sometimes very easily possible when on the edge of control. Live and learn for the next time…”

“I know,” Sarina comments as she spins around to face him. “I wouldn’t change a thing, honestly. I did everything that I needed to do in that moment to give myself a chance to win. That’s all you can ask for. It sucks the restart went to shit, but it happens when on the edge. We’ll get ‘em at Bristol, right?” Chase smiles, nodding his head in agreement.

“Considering the way you’re running, I have a very good feeling about this weekend. I see you breaking through..” Sarina smirks as that was certainly a wonderful thought when it came to Bristol.

“Are you mad that I let your rival in Kyle win?” Chase chuckles, shaking his head no as he was cool with seeing Kyle win. He was actually impressed with how that run came together, seeing as Kyle had the speeding penalty and had to fight his way back up there.

“I told you before – Kyle is a good dude. He made a mistake – a real shitty mistake, but he’s still pretty cool.” Sarina smiles as she hadn’t been looking forward to roasting Kyle in the future.

“Just so you know, I told Lindsay the other night about the prolapsed bladder – in case she says anything to you. I meant to say something, but I figured telling you while you were drunk may not be the best decision.” Chase chuckles, though was also relieved in hearing the news. He knew having a good support system around them was always beneficial.

“For the record, I wasn’t that drunk. Ryan was more than I was.” Sarina looks at him with a little surprise, knowing that was a lie.

“I don’t think you quite realize how much of the whiskey you had. I should remind you of the comments you said.” Chase shakes his head no, knowing that may not be a good idea.

“I’m glad that you told her as that gives you someone to talk to about it when I’m not here. Don’t ever be afraid to tell her anything as I know how much her support and friendship means to you.” Sarina smiles as she never took for granted the second chance that she was getting to spend time with Lindsay.

“And I have you, my amazing husband, to thank for making that happen.” She then leans in, lightly brushing her lips across his. “I’d do anything for you, and I look forward to seeing you kick Kyle’s ass tomorrow night.”

“That’s the plan.”

Tuesday, May 26 – Charlotte Motor Speedway

Despite starting 26^th, Chase was able to quickly make up some ground, running 16^th as of the competition caution at Lap 15. The progress continued with the No. 24 iRacing Chevrolet Silverado as he was able to score a sixth in the first stage.

Meanwhile, it seemed the issues were plaguing Kyle as he was thrown a suspension issue during the first stage with the right front.

“Kyle gonna be bitching at everybody tomorrow at KBM,” Sarina comments, remembering some of those board meetings. “It actually shocks the crap out of me that they’re having issues like this. You’d literally think they’d be better prepared.” Ryan and Lindsay couldn’t help but nod their heads in agreement.

There was no problems at the front for Chase, though, as he was able to drive to the lead right after the restart, scoring the second stage victory.

“We haven’t worked together so we’re learning as we go, so we’ll see what happens,” Chase tells the broadcast crew. “It seems the track is as racy as it was on Sunday. The grip strip along the top is coming in nice, but these trucks are so slow enough that the bottom is also an option.”

Sarina smiles, remembering for her truck days what they were like and how much fun they could be. She was actually jealous with the amount of fun she watching right now.

Meanwhile, it seemed that things weren’t getting better with Kyle as he was bitching on the radio, “The vibration is so bad I swear it’s going to blow up.” However, it didn’t seem to phase him too much given he was restarting third.

“You know he’s not going to give to Chase easily,” Ryan offers to which Sarina nods her head in agreement.

“A betting person would go with the king of the series,” she starts, knowing the direction that Ryan was headed. “But we’re not like everybody else, are we? We both know that Chase can get the job done with the right truck underneath him and I have faith in tonight.”

“Besides, doesn’t he have some extra motivation?” Lindsay questions, to which Sarina just smirks back in response. She knew the saying developed by the marketing department was perfect for tonight.

“Payback is a dish best served with cold hard cash.” Ryan just rolls his eyes, remembering the discussion from last night’s Xfinity race with Kyle. “I saw tha-”

“You know that he’s let go what happened, right?” Sarina nods her head. “Just checking, and I’d assume you have based on wanting to work with Kyle last night.”

“I was looking out for the best chance to win…” Ryan then watches her carefully, though shakes his head in seeing the smirk forming on her face. “I could never stay mad at Kyle and Samantha no matter what after everything.”

Their eyes focused back on the broadcast as Chase chose the outside line, but wasn’t able to launch despite Todd Gilliland giving him a shove. Instead, Kyle was able to push Ben Rhodes ahead and the take the lead. The caution would come out soon thereafter, though, for an incident with Natalie Decker and Brennan Poole with 49 laps to go.

“The race is now official – Natalie has wrecked,” Sarina comments, causing a series of chuckles from Ryan as he had heard the joke on twitter a couple different times.

“Shouldn’t you be supportive?” Lindsay wonders, intrigued as to how Sarina was picking on a fellow female racer despite continuing to get the short end of the stick it seemed.

“I don’t care female or male, she couldn’t drive a wooden screw. She has no talent and practically wrecks every time that she’s on the track – oh, except the one time she somehow figured out what to do and got a top-five at Daytona.” By this time, Ryan was full of chuckles as he watched the ladies together.

“I now understand why you married Chase as you’re stealing lines right out of his playbook.” Sarina chuckles, glad that someone had caught the reference right away.

“I’m sorry, but that quote about McDowell is just everything. One of my all-time favourite Chase is pissed off quotes.”

Under the caution, Chase would elect to pit, sending him back to 16^th, while Kyle stayed out.

“If you can’t straight up beat him, might as well try something different,” Sarina offers, and she had faith in their plan.

Given the way the truck race had been going and being able to gain ground and passes, along with the amount of those who pitted, she believed pitting right now was going to be the right medicine. She knew waiting later would put them behind the eight ball with less laps to make up ground and more traffic to contend with.

Over the course of the next 11 laps, Chase was able to make up a bunch of ground – running sixth when the next yellow flag came out. Kyle would make the decision to head down pit road this time around, dropping him back to 24^th while Chase moved up to third for the restart.

“I feel good about our chances here,” Sarina comments, to which got a pair of nods in return.

Restarting closer to the front, Chase took advantage of the opportunity before him, getting up into second behind Zane Smith before the caution came back out two laps later. Meanwhile, Kyle was making his moves quickly as well, having moved up to 13^th.

“You better get a good restart here, boy….” Sarina says, taking a couple calming deep breathes.

Chase would get a terrible restart, dropping back to third in the process, while Kyle made the most of it to go from 13^th to fifth in a lap. Sarina takes a deep breath, knowing that this was just increasing her nerves.

She felt a bit of relaxation, though, in watching the No. 24 head to the front of the field with 23 to go as he got by Johnny Sauter. Kyle’s progress continued, too, as he eventually made his way to second. Though Sarina felt a bunch of relief now in watching the lead that Chase had built up, combined with the No. 51 not getting any closer.

“Hell yeah!!” Sarina lets out, as she watches him take the checkered flag for the win. “We got ourselves a bounty!!!”

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.

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

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

Sunday, February 23 – Las Vegas Motor Speedway

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“They should see it the same wa-”

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

“What about myself and Denny at Phoe-”

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

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

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

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

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

Thursday, February 27 – Dawsonville, GA

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Friday, February 27 –Auto Club Speedway

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Saturday, February 22 – Las Vegas Motor Speedway

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Ryan is going to be oka-”

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sunday, February 23 – Las Vegas Motor Speedway

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Friday, February 21 – Las Vegas Motor Speedway

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Thank you.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Saturday, February 22 – Las Vegas Motor Speedway

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Saturday, February 15 – Daytona International Speedway

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Your momma is a Daytona winner!!”

Sunday, February 16 – Daytona International Speedway

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Saturday, February 15 – Daytona International Speedway

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 “Hello Sweet Thang.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“I’m sorr-”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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