Chapter 105 Laying Down Laps
Case felt like a jerk. He sat through the drivers’ meeting and his team meeting not saying much of anything, his arms folded and only a grunt or groan as a response whenever he was asked his opinion about anything. He’d let his anger at Sarah, Gordo, and Whiskey get morphed into a foul mood, which in turn convinced Andrea he was mad at her. He didn’t like the fact that she was hurt, and he didn’t like the way he was feeling about life in general at the moment. He couldn’t wait for the meetings to get over so he could go apologize.
But he wouldn’t have time. The longer Brad droned on about their qualifying setup and strategy, the more seconds slipped off the clock. There was no way he’d be able to go all the way to his motor coach to find Andrea, speak to her, and then make it to pit road for qualifying. He’d drawn an early number, so he’d have to be ready to go as soon as qualifying started.
At Daytona, everything was still old school. It was the best of two laps, not the “knock out” qualifying they did everywhere else now. He’d have a lap to get his car up to speed and then two chances to make his car faster than the others. That was that. The top two drivers would earn the pole positions, and the others would race for the other starting spots on Thursday. Drivers could get in based on their points from the year before, based on winning at Daytona before, and a few other ways, but the bottom line was, if you wanted to race in Daytona, you had to be fast. Every year, drivers went home from Dayton with tears in their eyes because there were always more cars than qualifying spots at this race track. He knew he wouldn’t be going home, but having the pole meant he wouldn’t have to race hard on Thursday, and at the moment, hearing Sarah’s warning, the last thing he needed was to have to put an extra hard race between the shootout and the biggest race of the year.
When the meeting was finally over, Jessie was there to escort him to his next stop, which was his pit where his car was waiting for him. The rest of the team had rolled it out while they were in their meeting. “How are you?” Jessie asked. “You look angry. Are you still upset about the shootout?”
Case shook his head. “No, I’m fine.” There was no sense telling her what was wrong. He liked keeping his personal life as private as possible from everyone.
“Well, whatever’s going on, you need to get over it. You’ve got work to do.”
He couldn’t help but chuckle. She was so matter-of-fact about everything. “Yes, ma’am,” Case replied. Hopefully, when he got to his pit box, Andrea would be there, and he would have a chance to talk to her before he got in his car.
Unfortunately, when he arrived, she was nowhere to be seen, not even on top of the box where she’d sat with Brad during practice and the shootout.
He didn’t have a lot of time to look for her. He pulled his phone out of a pocket in his fire suit and sent her a text. “Hey, babe. Where are you?”
“Case, come on, man. Time to get in the car!” Brad shouted to him from over near his racecar.
Reluctantly, he put his phone in his pocket. With any luck, when he got done with his lap, she’d have answered him. Maybe she was just running late and would still make it to the box before he took his lap.
With a heavy sigh, Case climbed into his car, put his earpiece in, and started strapping in before he put his helmet in place and got ready to go qualify for Daytona.
He needed to focus. These laps would be some of the most important of the entire season, at least as far as qualifying was concerned. He had to leave his worries behind and not think about Sarah, her dumba*s boyfriend, Whiskey, or even Andrea, not until he was done with his qualifying laps.
Brad told him it was his turn as soon as Jo Langley was done, so Case rolled out, moving his ten car up to the end of pit road. This was a different car than the one he’d raced the day before. This one had to make it through qualifying and the dual races so he could use it to win the race next Sunday.
Langley finished and put down a good time. Of the four cars that had rolled out, his was the best. But Case felt like he could beat it. When Brad gave him the signal, he put his foot on the gas and headed out to the racetrack, letting his instinct take over as he wiped his mind clean of everything else but racing.
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