Unchartered Waters ✅

Chapter 33: The Shop Meeting

Alex's POV

Monday, November 1 – Hendrick Motorsports

It was the usual routine.

Each of drivers sitting around the board room table, accompanied by our crew chiefs. Some of the HMS executives would join us, and it'd be about debrief the previous weekend, before looking ahead to the next weekend. A lot of times you walked into these meetings, thinking it was just another week – usual business as usual.

However, this week felt different.

I was walking in with my chest pumped out as I was the one to lead the team across the line. I also was able to show up the shop accompanying my best friend.

"So what did we learn at Martinsville?" Chad questions, as he would usually start off these meetings. Whether you learned something good or bad, you were supposed to share with the class. It was kindergarten all over again.

"Pit road speeding penalties are very costly at a short track," Kyle shares, which was obviously the reason why he fell out of contention. It's too bad as without Brad spinning Chase and Kyle's issues, we may have had the perfect sweep. It was awesome to win, but no doubt a bigger smirk would have been there if it meant passing Chase for the win. "We need to double check how we're setting that for Phoenix this weekend and how close we are to the timing lines. I swore I wasn't bouncing off the light at all."

"I think you were launching feeling you had time in zone due to the pit stop, but so close to the line that it was snagging that small space there," Cliff shares, which would make sense. A lot of people seemed to get snagged in that last box leaving pit road at Martinsville. "We've had a bunch of speeding penalties the past 10 weeks, though, so I agree with double checking that. practice this week will give us a chance to do a dry run or two."

"I always do at least three runs during practice whenever I feel Alan and I have a chance just to be certain," Chase suggests, to which I wasn't about to argue with. I never dedicated time to pit road speed during practice, but found myself practicing as I came down following a run to squeeze it in there.

"I want to digest the set-up that you guys went with," Rudy says with his eyes locked on Greg. It was the same discussion that we had after Richmond, ironically. "There was just something there that none of us were able to do – maybe the 9 on the one run, through a full run from start to finis-"

"Trust me, Alex was doing a lot of things that caught my attention yesterday so I have to agree." Why do I feel so hot all of a sudden? Anybody could have said a similar comment with the handling of the car, and how badass it was, but that comment purposely came from Chase. Why was I suddenly distracted? All I could think about was him watching doing something else, and wanting to know what was catching those eyes of his.

"We started varying it up as we tried both what Alan had for Chase, and Jimmie ran, and nothing worked," Greg reveals as he opens the notebook, sliding it over to Rudy. "With how Alex likes to enter the corner, I found tweaking the shock travel and air pressures, we were able to find something to his liking." I'm just glad that man understood what I needed in a car because he was spot on, after all.

"Leave it to you, Alex, to like something unique and different," Chase comments, catching my eyes immediately. Seriously, it was like he was screwing with me as that was the second smartass comment from him today. Was this a game? Or was I overthinking it?

"Something to put in the notebook as even with the new car, some of the same logistics will probably apply," Chad says as he glances over Greg's notes. Of course, we figure out the secret ingredient to making me good there and they're going to change the whole package next year on us. If I fall flat on my face next year, I'm blaming the car. But if we're successful, I may owe Greg a steak dinner.