The Champion (Racing on the Edge) (39 page)

Alley snickered to herself but kept step with me as I
headed to the hauler.

“Nice. Two fights in one night.”

“I’m on a roll.”

When I stepped inside the hauler, Kyle and Clausen’s crew
chief, Matt, looked up at me. I made sure I slammed the door.

“Do you ever think about what you have at home when you
pull shit like that?” Kyle greeted me when I threw myself in the chair next to
him.

I wasn’t sure what the fuck he was even referring to.
Surely, he didn’t see everything out there—he must have missed the part where
Clausen
caused
the wreck.

“I know
exactly
what I have at home.” My tone was
harsh but hushed given the various people in the hauler. “You act like this
isn’t personal to me and I should just treat it like a job. It is personal—this
isn’t just a job to me. This is my fucking life, Kyle!”

“I know that.” He shot back just as forcefully. “All I’m
saying
...
is that I
do not
want to
spend this season in this fucking chair!”

We both needed to calm down so I walked away. Kyle was
heated because once again, our team had to repair a damaged car. We had to
answer to the sponsors, and worst of all, Jimi Riley.

Lisa told Shelby and me both this was our warning. I knew
the next time we got tangled together we’d be paying for it but it didn’t stop
the anger.

I steered clear of Clausen once we left the NASCAR
hauler. I had a feeling if
I
was alone with the little fucker I’d show
him just how pissed I really was about his supposed “position” on me.

The media caught up with me as I left and I wasn’t
level-headed.

“Jameson, can you tell us what happened there? Is this
rivalry with Shelby Clausen escalating into what happened with Darrin Torres?”

That did it for me. I lost it right then and there. Only
problem was, my wife and son were watching.

I turned to the report and stepped forward. “Every
goddamn time I get tangled with someone, you guys make it out to be way more
than it really is. And every year, it’s the same bullshit! It doesn’t matter what
I say to you to defend my actions on the track. They are, and always will be,
irrelevant and twisted to your advantage.”

I then proceeded to push his microphone out of my face
forcefully to which he dropped it. Now it wasn’t my most graceful moment in the
history of sports broadcasting but then again, I’ve said and done worse. My
choice of words wasn’t perfect but I was mad. At least I was honest.

Sway caught up with me with Axel close to her side.

“Jameson, calm down.” She whispered softly, her eyes
darting to Axel.

We were beside my hauler by now so I ducked inside with
them to avoid any more media interactions and to calm myself down.

Axel eyed me carefully before smiling.

“You almost won.” He offered in his adorable timid voice
he had when he was trying to calm me.

It took me a moment but I eventually smiled and reached
down to pull him into a hug.

“I know little buddy.”

You have to understand where I was coming from before you
think, “Jesus, pull yourself together in front of your kids.”

In my mind, between Darrin, Colin, and now with Shelby
and Nadia, it was the same shit every year and it got old real fast. I kept
waiting for a year when they would forget. But just like me, they couldn’t.

In that interview when they compared this to a rival they
knew I harbored ill feelings for, that pissed me off and hurt. Yeah, it’s been
nearly six years since the incident with him but it was still very real to me
and still hurt. I was simply expressing my pain. I never wanted all of this, I
only wanted to race. But with that, came rivalry with other drivers and that
rivalry was fed by the media, like it or not.

You see, in our sport, you’re allowed one angle, one
image and like it or not, everything you say and do, on or off the track must
fit into that angle.

The following weekend in Talladega, Shelby had apparently
learned a lesson about drafting and dealing with me. Never saw him the entire
race. That might have been because my car was awesome and it was difficult for anyone
to pass me, let alone a rookie who had no clue how to cut through the draft.

For now, Shelby and I agreed to disagree, much like Colin
and me. But the difference came when after the Talladega race Shelby stopped by
my motor coach to apologize for Phoenix. I thought that was pretty cool
considering he was an eighteen-year old kid. Either way, he scored points with
me that day.

The thing with Nadia simmered down but she made it known
we didn’t exactly get along and tried to paint the picture that I was some sort
of biased driver and felt threatened by a female driver.

That couldn’t have been further than the truth than the
words spoken by that reporter who said the rival with me and Shelby was just
the same as me and Darrin.

Sway and I were adamant that we wouldn’t go more than a
few weeks without seeing each other. Physically I got extremely cranky as you
can imagine and emotionally, my little spaz family kept me grounded. After
Loudon in late June, it had been nearly two weeks since I’d seen Sway. Though
Axel had traveled with me much of the time, Sway had stayed home with Arie and
Casten.

I stayed in Loudon Sunday night and finished press
interviews from the win followed by an appearance in Charlotte Monday morning
and then I was on my way home that afternoon.

The sight before me when I got home made miss being here
every day.

Sway had all three of the kids outside, spraying them
down with water.

“What are you doing?” I asked with a chuckle.

“Mama’s hosing us,” said Arie, her bright emerald green
eyes wide with excitement.

“Well that just sounds
...
weird.
Don’t say it like that.” Sway told her.

I chuckled at them and leaned against the sliding glass
doorframe.

“No child should ever go through life without showering
outside.” Sway said looking back at me. “It’s inconceivable.”

“Why are they red?” They had spots of red and black paint
covering their entire bodies.

She shrugged poring soap on Arie’s head. “We painted the
movie room, now grab some soap and help me out.”

While laughing at my ridiculous wife, I rolled my sleeves
up and got to work washing the boys. Axel thought it was funny when I scrubbed
their heads like dogs and Casten soon thought it was funny as well. Anything
Axel liked, Casten liked.

After a while and water fight later, I looked around the
backyard for Casten and couldn’t find him. Next thing I knew, he was over in
one of the flower bed making mud pies. This was entertaining because he didn’t
have any water to make them so he used his only resource. Urine.

“Are you serious?” Sway asked when she too realized what
he was doing.

I pointed at him and shook my head leaning against the
side of the back deck. “What do you think?” she laughed along with me. “I’m not
sure whether to be proud of disgusted.”

We eventually got our little mud pie maker in the house
and cleaned up and on our way to dinner with Spencer and Alley to celebrate
Lexi’s fifth birthday.

I don’t mind the occasional birthday party and acting
like a kid again but I did
not
like Chucky Cheese.

Axel agreed with me.

That’s the thing about my little guy. We agreed on most
everything and it was nice, whatever your mental state is, to have company.

On the other hand, eighteen month old Casten was crazy.
The kid laughed all the time, had more energy than Emma and never stopped
laughing. Did I mention that already?

The kid was constantly bouncing off the rev limiter and
was a tornado of destruction with a blinding smile that drew you in and relaxed
you at the same time. He was the perfect combination of both Sway and I
together but he did remind me more of Sway.

“Is he for real?” Axel nudged my arm while we sat and
watched Casten toss the balls from the ball pit at unsuspecting people and then
duck and hide in the balls as if no one tossed them. How an eighteen-month old
kid could figure out to do this should have been surprising but not for Casten.

I shrugged indifferently.

There were so many people and kids around screaming and
having a good time it was hard to actually talk with anyone but I eventually made
my way over to Spencer and Aiden held up at a table drinking beer with my dad.

Dad was watching Casten and his ball game before he
turned toward me in the booth. I poured myself a beer from the pitcher on the
table, thankful they served beer here.

“What’s with the little one?” Dad asked. “Does he ever
stop laughing?”

“Not that I’ve seen.”

I took a slow drink of my beer watching Casten closely as
he tossed one at Cole, Spencer’s youngest, who walked past. Cole didn’t like
being fucked with by anyone so he jumped head first into the balls and roughed
the little guy up a little bit, well as much as a three-year old kid could.

“What’s the plan for Axel and Indy next week?” Spencer
asked keeping one eye on Lexi and Arie climbing on a rock wall.

“Well, we leave for Daytona tomorrow afternoon. The race
is on Saturday so then we leave for Indy on Monday. I need both of his cars
ready by then.” Tommy plopped beside me with Casten on his shoulders. Casten
immediately crawled onto my lap and looked up at me.

“Bite?” he asked.

He did this any time he wanted a bite or drink of
something.

“No monkey, this is daddy’s.” Sway and I called him
monkey because he climbed
everything
.

Casten eventually lost interest in my beer when he
noticed there was pizza at the table.

“I’ll have both cars ready by then. The Honda 160 isn’t
ready though. We still need to change out the tie rod in it—he broke it last
week.”

“Doesn’t matter,” I told him with a shrug as Axel sat
down with us. He looked completely bored. “USAC won’t allow him to race it in a
sanctioned race until he turns eight.”

“All right,” Tommy nodded while Axel frowned. “I have
both 120 cars ready.”

Spencer laughed. “Did you know they moved him from the
Red to the Blue Honda 120/Animal class?”

“When did that happen?” I knew the USAC rules these days
just as good as I knew NASCAR or the Outlaw rules being the owner of yet
another team. “You have to run three events before they move you up.” Trying to
calculate the races he’d run this year as my brow furrowed as I looked over at
Axel. “I thought you missed a few?”

“I did. I missed the Mason Dixon Shootout and the
Milwaukee Mile.” He counted on his fingers. “I ran Dual in the Desert, Western
District Qualifier, Midwest District Qualifier and the High Desert Classic.
That’s four.” He held his tiny hand in my face displaying four fingers to me.

“Oh yeah,” I nodded ruffling his hair. He smiled up at
me. “I forgot about the High Desert Classic.”

It’s not that I meant to forget about it either but April
was a busy month for me between the cup schedule and the outlaws. I never had a
chance to make it out there for that one and usually I made it out to at least
one night of his racing.

USAC quarter midgets usually ran twice a month and the
events started on Wednesday and ended on Saturday nights. When my cup schedule
allowed, Wes was busy shuttling me back and forth between tracks. No matter
what though, Sway or me were there with him.

We decided from the first sanctioned race he ran in
Phoenix Arizona last year that we would always be present, at least one of us.
My parents were, until I got old enough when Spencer and I could haul the cars
around ourselves and I wanted us to be part of his career just like my family
was.

“I still need to get him registered for the Dirt
Nationals.” I told Tommy as Axel’s eyes lit up. Last year he wasn’t able to run
due to his age. He had to be five by August and with his birthday in December;
they denied the entry, even with my persuasion.

“I get to race Dirt Nationals?” He was practically
bouncing in his seat.

I nodded with a smile of my own and tipped my head
Tommy’s direction.

“I can’t be there for the last night but mama and Tommy
will be with you.”

Axel seemed to contemplate this for a moment but smiled
anyways.

I hated that I’d miss it but this was the life I led,
like it or not. It made it easier that Sway was so willing to follow Axel
around just as my mom did but I also felt comfortable with having Tommy with
him. Usually Tommy was the mechanic for Justin’s sprint car but as Axel started
racing, Tommy found himself engrossed in his career.

You couldn’t help but want to help him. He was so curious
and determined to learn everything he could about racing, more so on dirt. He
never really cared as much about the stock cars I ran and that didn’t bother me
at all. I knew he was my kid that way. Sure, I loved racing NASCAR but for
myself, dirt was what I loved. Naturally so did my carbon copy.

Lexi’s birthday party finally ended around nine that
night when the kids were so amped up on sugar they all fell asleep on the way
home.

With a five-year old, a three-year old, and an
eighteen-month old
...
This was ideal for
a number of reasons, you guess why.

After the entire family got back from Daytona for the race
and fourth of July, it was Monday morning and we had two quarter midgets to get
loaded and on their way to Indy. Tommy called on Sunday and told me when he
went to the shop all the oil had drained from the primary car we had for him so
we had to get back and prepare another car. This was difficult when Sway and
Emma showed up later that afternoon.

I’m always amazed at the chemical reaction done to
children when they ingest sugar. It’s insane. I don’t ever remember acting this
way but I’m sure my mom and dad would disagree with me.