Read The Legend for Free Online Page B

my
phobia, Sway laughed as I headed up the stairs, “don’t be long.”
     
    Backing it In – Axel
     
    I had to
take time off that first week in Barberville from preparing for the season to
meet up in Knoxville with my grandpa to sign contracts for his team and then
the sponsors.
    Reading
the contracts for the upcoming Outlaw season was probably the coolest thing I’d
done besides being the youngest driver to ever win Chili Bowl Midget Nationals.
That was pretty awesome if you asked me.
    The
coolest part for me was taking over for the king. Forty-five seasons he’d raced
in the series and now, this eighteen-year-old kid was taking over.
    Throughout
his forty-five seasons, he had raced in over three thousand races, brought home
well over thirteen hundred wins and twenty-seven championships. He had won more
races than any other driver in the series and the most championships. It was a
huge seat to fill but I knew I could, at least I thought I could.
    “What’s
this one for?” I held up a yellow sheet of paper my grandpa pushed in front of
me. He sighed, squinting his eyes before he had to put
his glasses on.
    “I don’t
understand. Do they just keep making the print on these goddamn things
smaller?” he read silently for a moment before pushing the paper back toward me
over the wooden table. “It’s the liability form. It basically says that if you
wad one up in the wall you ain’t gonna sue me for
damage to your brain.”
    Even
though I was driving for him now, he was still the owner of the team and I
worked for him.
    “Oh.”
    “Hey,”
grandpa shrugged with a twist of his head, “it can happen, kid.”
    He was
right. It happened. Safety had come a long way recently with most dirt tracks
having SAFER barriers just like the NASCAR tracks. Quick release helmets,
advanced fire suits and new chassis that were meant to take force the same as
the wall. These were all safety improvements but things still weren’t fool
proof.
    Look at
what happened to Ryder Christensen this last fall. Sometimes, it happens. Your
head can only take so much force before it gives just like anything else. Life
went on as it always did after Ryder and the souls lost in that plane crash but
I could tell that it took a toll on everyone in our family, my dad especially.
He had known Ryder since they were kids. His passing wasn’t easy for him.
Personally, I think it had a lot to do with grandpa’s decision to hang it up.
    We signed
my life away that day with grandpa’s sponsors, CST Engines and Edan Manufacturing. Over the winter, grandpa had decided to
retire and spend some time with grandma before his old ass couldn’t. Those were
Lane’s words, not mine.
    I had too
much respect for the legend to say something like that.
    My cousins
and brother said that shit all the time. Not me, he deserved more. Out of
everyone who has stood by and helped me along the way, Tommy, Justin, Ryder,
Cody ... my dad and grandpa were the ones who had the
biggest impact. I guess that’s to be expected, right?
    They are
my family after all. But it’s not always like that. My buddy Shane didn’t
respect his dad one bit but his dad also never gave two shits whether he won or
wrecked; just as long as he was out of his hair.
    My family
wasn’t like that. Either my mom or my dad was at every race I had ever
raced in and more times than not, my grandpa or grandma were there too. Family
was important to us and with me racing in his car, it was important to my
grandpa.
    After
signing everything, the president of Edan Manufacturing
took grandpa and me out to dinner in downtown Knoxville. Then we walked through
the Sprint Car Hall of Fame where both my grandpa and my dad were inducted.
Talk about pressure.
    “I can’t
believe you’re driving my car this year kid,” Grandpa said conversationally as
we pulled onto the freeway heading back to Mooresville after the walk through,
“it’s hard to believe two dumbass idiots created such a good kid like