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Saint
Monday after St. Petersburg
Three weeks to Texas
“Well, yesterday was impressive,” Bud sneered as he takes a seat across from me at the conference table. “I can’t believe she pulled off a top fifteen after failing inspection.”
“Funny thing is, she shouldn’t have failed inspection. Neil and Mac assure me that everything was to specifications,” I respond. I had a feeling that someone messed with the car right before inspection.
“Well, maybe you need your crew to verify a couple more times before inspection to make sure,” he rebuts as I force a smile. Thankfully Haisley wasn’t here yet.
“Regardless, it’s you who is ultimately in charge, so what do you say, maybe we give the girl the benefit of the doubt?”
“She shouldn’t be on the circuit,” he deadpans as Haisley walks into the conference room with Elle at her side.
“Who shouldn’t be on the circuit?” she questions, taking the empty seat next to me. “Me?”
Bud shakes his head and mumbles something under his breath. I glance at Haisley who is sitting board straight in her chair. Elle is sitting behind us typing away on her phone.
I glance at my watch and see that it’s almost ten. Chad Adams and his crew chief, engineer, and mechanic mosey into the conference room and sit opposite of our crew.
“Great race, Chad,” Bud congratulates him as I see Haisley take a deep breath out the corner of my eye. Chad came in sixth overall.
“Thanks, man. It was a little hairy out there after the crash, glad we were able to gain some track position,” Chad replies.
“It was a great finish,” Drake adds to the conversation with a sly smile. I glance down at my watch again. Hunter should be here soon.
Haisley is fidgeting with the hem of her shirt. I nudge her arm to grab her attention. “You okay?” I whisper.
“I’ll be fine,” she remarks as Hunter enters the room.
“Good morning, everyone. We had a hell of a weekend, didn’t we?” he asks as he takes his seat at the head of the table. “Congratulations to Chad on a top ten. Very much deserved.” He pauses then looks at Bud then Haisley. “And congratulations to Haisley for her first top fifteen. Bud, you really did some wonderful things out there getting her back into contention.”
I almost choke on my coffee. Bud didn’t do shit for her. I’m not sure if Hunter listens to the radio or not, but the just barely legal comments are enough to piss anyone off.
“Well, it was an easy fix,” Bud states proudly. I roll my eyes to myself as if he had anything to do with her gaining spots. In fact, it was all luck. If we didn’t have the cautions or the big crash at the final laps, Haisley probably wouldn’t have finished top twenty.
“Very well. Excellent job indeed. Now we move on to Texas. Are you guys ready? Oval track, not a street course. I expect good things from the teams. We have a lot of media leading up to race day. Chad and Haisley, your managers should have the schedule in their emails.” He turns to Haisley. “Ms. Meyers, you have a promotional shoot with Zander Donovan the Thursday of race week.”
“I have it in my calendar already, thanks,” she confirms as I watch Drake whisper something into Chad’s ear. I didn’t know Chad to be a vindictive person. Most of my experiences with him have been cordial. It’s Drake I’m starting to not trust, and he’s only been here a couple of weeks.
Hunter clears his throat. “Very well then. I should let you all get back to building the cars and getting ready for Texas. Let’s have a productive couple of weeks.”
We all mumble our thanks and start to leave. I stand up and wait for the room to clear out. Haisley’s still sitting in her chair looking at her phone. “You okay?” I ask once the rest of the guys leave.
She clicks off her phone and stands to look at me. “I’m fine. Just a lot of media in the next week or two, and I’m still trying to figure out how we failed inspection.”
“Leave that one up to me. I’m looking into it because Neil and I went over all the specs four times before we went for inspection,” I say, hoping to take a little stress off her.
“I know, still makes me insane. I don’t think we would have pulled fifteenth if the universe didn’t help us out.”
“I agree, but let’s get ready for Texas. It’s an oval, so you’re going to use more of the load shifters during the corners like we did in the test run.”
She laughs. “I’m aware, Saint. You do know that I’ve run stock cars, late-midgets, and I ran in the lower INDY series, right? I’ve been to Texas a few times.”
“Touché. Are you going to the simulator?” I question as Elle joins the conversation.
“I will be there most of the day, if Chad doesn’t want it,” she answers.
