The room was a buzz when Junior walked into the drivers meeting with Tony Stewart.  He had a feeling that something strange was going to happen today.  They sat down and listened to the other drivers speculating what was going to be said today. 

“So what do you think Helton’s going to say?” Tony whispered to Junior as they sat there waiting for Helton to arrive.

“Shit man, I don’t know, but it can’t be good,” Junior replied.  They continued to add to the speculation with the other drivers until Helton arrived.

Helton stood at the podium in front of the silent drivers.  He nervously looked around the room before he started.  “As many of you know we’ve had some problems in the last couple of weeks of people wrecking each other.  We’ve decided to make a change for this week.”  He paused for a second and the room filled with chatter again.  It quieted down when he started to speak again.  “We’ve decided to do away with the cup cars this week.”  The drivers looked at each other thoroughly confused.  “In their place we’re going to use modified golf carts.”

The whole room gasped and started to get louder.  Many of the drivers shouting their disapproval.

Junior looked over at Smoke, “They can’t be serious”

“Afraid so Junebug” Tony Sr. interjected from the other side of Junior.

“You knew about this?” Junior asked bewildered. 

“Yeah, we had to get the cart ready for today” Tony Sr. replied.

“I can’t wait to see this” he said annoyed.

Tony looked over at Zippy, his crew chief.  “You knew about this I assume”.

“Yeah, lets go take a look at it.  It’s not that bad.” He tried to reassure his driver.

The two teams walked out to the garage area and looked at the golf carts.  Tony and Junior looked at each other before busting out in hysterics. 

Each cart had the same paint scheme as the car they usually drove.  For safety purposes they looked like the carts that they used at the driving ranges to collect golf balls. 

They spun around when they heard Ryan yelling at his crew chief.  “I’m the pole-sitter.  How in the hell am I supposed to drive this?”  Matt Borland looked a little perplexed.  He knew it would be difficult, but was up for the challenge even if his driver wasn’t.

All of the drivers hoped it was a bad dream, but they were wrong.  The crews were given the order to take the carts to the track. 

The track was about the size of a go-kart track.  Each golf cart was lined up in the same order as the drivers had qualified in.  The drivers grumpily grabbed their helmets and safety gear and descended toward the carts.  All of them were about to get in when Mike Helton’s voice came over the P.A. system.  “Guys your Cup cars are out on pit road.  Let this be a lesson to you to watch what you’re doing next time.”

All of the drivers looked at each other before they took off in a deep sprint through the garages and out to pit road where their cars were.  They quickly uncovered their cars and climbed inside.  Once all the safety devices were in place the roar of 43 cars could be heard.  This caused all the crew members to run to pit road to see what was going on.

Tony gently nudged Ryan to let him know that they were ready to go.  Ryan took off down pit road with the rest of the drivers right behind him.  They flew around the track at top speed.  They were bump drafting and just doing anything and everything they could to each other.  Then they pulled them back down to pit road in the order they were going to go out and race in.

No one but the drivers and crew knew what happened that day before the bleachers and skyboxes filled with fans. 

Chapters: 1