Chapter 102 You Win Some, You Lose Some
Swallowing was difficult with her heart caught in her throat, but Andrea was doing her best to stay calm. She had been certain Case was going to wreck when Whiskey pulled out of line and sent him careening into the outside wall. Miraculously, he hadn’t wrecked, and neither had Charlie, not really, though his trip through the infield had been eventful to say the least.
Whiskey had gone for the wickedest ride of all. When Case bounced off of the wall, he tapped Whiskey, which at a superspeedway was enough to send him completely out of control. He hit the car in line to his left, driven by Robbie Doyle, bounced across the track, his back bumper hitting the outside wall as another car T-boned the driver’s side, sending Whiskey up into the air. He landed on his hood behind that car, spun around a few times, and then came to a stop in the infield.
Andrea had watched the whole thing with her hands over her mouth. Even though he was a jerk who’d brought this on himself, it looked dangerous. She was thankful when she heard the call that he was okay. The rest of the field was also fine, thanks to the safety measures installed in each of the cars. But many of the drivers were angry. She could hear some of the chatter on the radio of drivers saying how mad they were at Whiskey. Whether or not they thought he was just stupid and had made a mistake or it had been on purpose in an attempt to take Case out of the race didn’t matter now because they were also out of the race or so banged up there was no way they could come back now.
The only person trying to blame Case was Gordo. He just kept saying, “Meyer shouldn’t have tried to come back down,” over and over again, like blaming Case would somehow justify what Whiskey had done.
When the race restarted, Case was right next to Gordo on the front row. With twenty-five laps to go, the cars were all back to full speed, and Andrea had watched enough races to know they wrecking wasn’t done. She held her breath for most of the final laps. Every once in a while, a car would get loose and spin out or cut a tire which would bring out the yellow caution flag. There were three more cautions before the final two laps, but Gordo and Case were still at the front.
Except now, Case had help. Charlie was up there with him. Charlie’s car had a big swath of bear bond tape on the hood from another incident, but other than that, his car was in pretty good shape and should be able to help Case get the win.
They went into the last lap with Case hanging off of Gordo a bit, giving him some room. Charlie was stuck on his back bumper, and the two of them moved around the track as one until they went into the final turn. Andrea sucked in her breath and held it as Charlie gave Case a push onto the straightaway. It was enough to send the ten car ahead of Jones’s twenty-two car with only a few hundred yards to go.
Case was pulling ahead. Andrea was silently cheering, her hands in fists as if she was waving pompons. It looked as if Case was almost a car length ahead of Gordo with the checkered flag in the air. The checkered flag would end the race so whoever made it back to the finish line first would be the winner.
Suddenly, Gordo turned his car to the right, catching Case in the right corner panel. It was an intentional move, one meant to make Case spin out. It worked, too. Case spun across the track, into the grass, and Gordo went around him, crossing the finish line in first place, with Charlie just behind him. Case’s car came to a rest in the grass, and over the radio, he let go a slew of obscenities like nothing Andrea had ever heard before.
But she couldn’t blame him either. It was a dirty move, something only a person like Gordo Jones would do. Andrea bit her tongue. She was angry that Gordon had wrecked Case on purpose in order to win the race, but she was also glad Case was okay.
Up on the jumbotron, they were showing Sarah as she bounced up and down, clapping and cheering. Andrea took a deep breath, trying to gain control of her anger so she didn’t do or say anything that would drag her down to their level. It would take the best acting performance of her life to pull that off.
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