Grace

7

"You gonna work when the seasons over?"

"Nope," She laughed, "By then, I'll have a baby, so the whole winter will be spent as a stay-at-home mama. Maternity leave, I should say," she grinned as she watched the 48 retake the lead on lap 36. "He took it again. For now,"

They watched the Fords all pit and knew the Chevy's were going next, so they lost the lead, but there was still a lot of racing left to go.

The 48-car took 25th in stage one before heading in for a pit stop, and both Grace and Tyler were shocked for a caution-free stage at Daytona, of all places.

"They're actually playing nice, and I can kick my feet up, apparently," She chuckled, taking another sip of her water as she started looking online for baby things.

"You are not already shopping?"

"Don't tell my husband," She chuckled, "He's working, and he doesn't have to know that Amazon is my best friend right now,"

"Are you guys gonna find out?" Tyler asked, looking back at the TV as the cars raced around them outside.

"We haven't really talked about it yet. I don't know if I want to, and I really don't know if he would. Its just never come up in conversation," She shrugged, looking back at the TV to see where Alex was placed at the moment, "13th. Way to go, baby,"

Things were relatively calm for a while, and the first caution for cause came on lap 118.

"We got a caution," Tyler told her, making her look up immediately.

"45, 12, 43, 5, 9, maybe the 99. That's all I can see," She said as she wrote down any number that possibly got involved in the wreck.

"Your guy made it through,"

"I saw him sneak through," She smiled, "Anyone call in yet?"

"Yeah. Reddick's coming to us, I haven't heard anyone else yet,"

She nodded and tagged a room in the computer, getting it ready for the one driver they knew of.

She went and did what she needed to do for Tyler before she sat back down to watch the end of the second stage. Alex was door to door with Ross Chastain until the one pulled ahead slightly and took the stage win by inches.

Grace went right back to work, putting everything into the computer before she went right back to shopping on Amazon. She bought a crib, some onesies, a few pacifiers, and anything else she could think of before she closed Amazon and turned back to the TV.

"Another caution," She told Tyler once he released the drivers that came in, "19, 41, 34 and 4,"

"Anyone coming in?"

"Preece definitely, maybe McDowell," She shrugged, watching to see if they went to the garage. They came in a little later, got checked and released, and returned to their bus.

The 99 got caught in the grass, so a caution was called there, and they were officially in overtime. She had hoped that that was the last one so they could get their final things done and she could head back to the bus to relax.

She and Tyler sighed when the caution flew again during another overtime restart.

"24, 15, 36, 3, 21, 84, and the 1," She said as she watched the TV coverage, "24 is definitely coming in,"

"Wheres your man?" He asked as he got up.

"Uhh," She said as she looked at the board, "He's 4th row outside, so 7 or 8,"

They took care of business once again before watching to see if they could actually end the race this time. They got to the white flag, and all Grace could do was watch and hope that the purple 48 would get to the front and take a win.

"Another caution," She called, jumping a little as she saw Alex get scraped but kept moving, "5,12, Alex got scraped,"

"Everyone moving?"

"Uh, more like limping, but they called it. 47 won," She sighed, "Just one number off,"

"He'll get it," Tyler nodded, working with her to finish up what they needed to do before they could shut down the care center for the last time during speed week. "That wasn't too bad,"

"I guess not, but I don't want to know what happens if we have a lot of cautions in one race," She said as she packed her bag with everything she'd taken in. "i'm gonna go see Alex. I'll see you next week,"

"Yep. Good job today," He nodded, chuckling since they didn't have to do much.

They both knew every race wouldn't be like this, but they could hope.