Chapter 128 Victory Lane
Holding her breath, Andrea watched Case flying toward the white flag. Could he do it? Would he actually cross the finish line first and win the Daytona 500? It looked that way. But then, she’d thought he was going to win the shootout the other night, too, and Gordon Jones had ruined that. The fact that Sarah’s current boyfriend was now in the same position that Gordon had been in one week ago wasn’t lost on Andrea. It wouldn’t be over until it was over.
“He’s gonna wreck him.” Leslie was mumbling under her breath, not talking to Andrea, but she was thinking the same thing. It seemed as if Stewart was getting ready to spin Case out, the same way he had back at the last race at the end of the last season, the one that had cost Case the championship. She grabbed hold of her sister’s hand and squeezed as the cars came closer together and closer to the flag.
Then, there was the squeal of tires and smoke flying everywhere as cars collided and went spinning.
But Case wasn’t one of them. Just as Stewart had gone to hit Case in the back passenger side, Charlie had hit Stewart instead, in almost the same location, spinning Stewart’s car around so that it was pointed toward the infield. Charlie cut to the right and went around Stewart, but the car behind Charlie wasn’t so lucky. He hit Stewart, spinning them both around in other directions, and then a few more cars got caught up as well.
The caution flag was out, but by then, it didn’t matter because Case was already across the finish line, Charlie right behind him. They’d finished one and two in the Daytona 500, and Stewart Antony never made it across the finish line at all.
“No!” Andrea could hear Sarah screaming even through the cheers of Case’s team all around her as they jumped up and down and gave each other high-fives.
Andrea didn’t give Sarah another thought as she also celebrated, giving Leslie a huge hug and Brad as well.
On the jumbotron, Case was spinning around the track, doing burnouts, before he went to get the checkered flag from the flag man and drove around the track backward. The crowd was going crazy. So many people loved Case; it was obvious he was one of the most popular drivers since the crowd just couldn’t stop cheering.
The team raced down to congratulate him, but Andrea knew better than to go out there with them, not in what she was wearing. Instead, she and Leslie headed toward victory lane. She couldn’t wait to hug him and give him that kiss they’d talked about.
On the jumbotron, they were interviewing other drivers while they waited for Case to arrive in the winner’s circle. Gordon Jones was up there now, and he was fired up. “I know who did this!” he was shouting at the camera. “I know who took me out of the race! When I can prove it, she’s going to wish she’d never met me. I was there when she pulled this stuff with other people. This isn’t over!” He slammed his fist down on the top of a fence that ran around the infield care center, the place any driver who was involved in a wreck and couldn’t drive away had to go, and the director switched to another interview, one with the third place driver who was happy he’d missed the wreck.
A lot of people were not happy about the wreck. Stewart hadn’t been the only driver taken out of the race who would’ve had a good finish if it weren’t for Charlie hitting him. But most of the ones that were interviewed said they were angry that Case and Charlie felt it was necessary to race that way, thanks to what had happened in the past. They didn’t seem angry at either one of the two drivers who’d finished first and second.
All of those interviews and everything else going on around them went out of Andrea’s mind as she saw Case’s car coming into victory lane. He climbed out the window of his car but stood up on the windowsill instead, raising both hands over his head as his team sprayed him with champagne, beer, who knows what all. Case was yelling and waving his arms, and confetti was falling from the sky, sticking to him as he continued to celebrate.
He jumped down to the ground, a huge smile on his face, and caught Andrea’s eyes. She could tell he didn’t care about the microphones being shoved in his face or anyone else coming over to talk to him, and he opened his arms for Andrea. She flew into them and gave him the deepest kiss permissible on national television. By the time she let him go, he looked dazed for a few seconds. Then, he went about answering the reports’ questions, his smile even bigger.
Andrea knew it would be a long evening of photoshoots, interviews, and all kinds of other publicity stuff, but she didn’t care. Her man had won the race, and that’s all that mattered. She was on cloud nine and ready to party—as soon as he was free from all of the interviews.
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