The Tale of Love & Racing: Sarina's Story

Chapter 12: Chilly Willy 150

January 27, 2018 – Chilly Willy 150 – Tucson Speedway

"Are you feeling good?" Chase questions as Sarina glances up at him.

"For the millionth time today, Chase, I am fine and ready to go," she answers. "If you want to drive, just damn well say it." He chuckles, shaking his head no.

"I just want to make sure you're good to go." He leans in, giving her a kiss, before tightening the belts one last time and putting up the window net. While it was tempting to get behind the wheel this weekend, he was ready to be her biggest fan in knowing how talent she was and how badly she wanted it.  "Do your thing." 

"One to go at the line," Ricky tells her after a series of pace laps. "Focus, focus, focus. Remember – we got a long way to go here."

"We can do this," Sarina assures him, which she truly believed. They had been fast all weekend - it was just about putting the pieces together as the right time here.

"One lap to go at the line," the spotter says and force of habit, Sarina gives the belts one more tug to make sure they're tight. "Nevermind. Brandon Schilling stopped on the exit of turn two. Looks like he made contact with the wall." Chase and Ricky then glance at each other confused.

"How do you hit the wall under pace laps?" Chase questions as Ricky shakes his head in disbelief. It wasn't the oddest thing he had seen during his time working on these cars, strangely. 

"Strange things always happen at these late model events," Ricky answers and Chase couldn't help but agree, having tuned into highlights from Speedfest.

After Brandon's car was towed off the track, the field was doubled back up and the green flag came out. It didn't take long for business to pick up, as Sarina found herself in the midst of a three-way battle for fifth on Lap 4, but the caution flew for an incident further back in the pack.

"Patience, patience, patience," Ricky reminded under the yellow flag. "This is a long race. We don't need to be making a mistake in the early stages." Ricky then looks over at Chase. "Besides, someone may wear his tapping foot out at this rate." Chase immediately stops tapping his foot as Ricky just chuckles. "Are you nervous there?"

"Nah, I'm good," Chase brushes it off as Ricky just rolls his eyes, focusing back on the race.

When the green flag came back out, it didn't take long for action to pick right back up, enough for an 'oh crap' to escape Chase's lips when she went four-wide for position. It didn't take long for another caution, either, as a car went around in turn one on Lap 19.

"They're racing like it's the last 19 laps," Chase comments as Ricky nods his head in agreement. He almost chuckled as the observations did not surprise him one bit from the past several years. 

"Your races were the same way, bud," Ricky says. "Why do you think I was glad when I could keep you up front in the top-three out of that mess?" Chase just shakes his head in disbelief as he gets comfortable, knowing they were in for a long night. It certainly was different than the calmness of how the Cup races began.

Sarina was initially get a good restart, set to continue charging forward in the top-10, but then it seemed like complete opposite. The car twitched sideways off of the corner, causing her to lose her momentum.

"Talk to me," Ricky requests, as both he and Chase could tell something wasn't right. It almost reminded Chase of a tire beginning to go down, or possible rear suspension issue with how quickly the car stepped out.

"Tire losing air possibly," Sarina answers as she fights the handling, now back to 28th by Lap 23.

"Hold on to it. There's going to be a fuel stop coming soon." Everybody was told in the driver's meeting there would be a chance to put fuel in between Lap 25 and 50, and that was all you were supposed to do at that time and you wouldn't lose position. Chase knew that as soon as the yellow flag came out, it'd be the opportunity they needed – even if they had to restart from the tail. He just hoped she could hold on to until then as the car looked evil, almost dead sideways off the corner that past lap.