Checkered Flag

by Chris Fabry

  “The #13 and #76 hit hard, and it looks like they both got into Dale a bit too, but he was able to hold on to it. The caution is out.”

  “I would not want to be down there when Butch climbs out of that car.”

  “We’re getting word that we’ll have one more try to complete this race when the debris is cleared from the track.”

  Jamie watched in stunned silence. Devalon’s car wasn’t as badly damaged as the #76, and with four tires, he was able to come back onto the track, though way behind the leaders.

  On the restart, her dad shot forward, and it almost looked like the field was giving him the championship.

  “White flag, white flag,” a spotter said.

  With tears in her eyes, Jamie watched her dad sail through the final lap, as if he were riding on a cloud. Butch Devalon limped home in 33rd place while her dad took the checkered flag. Jamie glanced at Kellen, then her mom, her mouth in an O.

  “Hot dog, Dale did it!” the commentator said.

  “And if my calculations are correct, Dale wins by the slimmest of margins, only one point over Butch Devalon.”

  “Can you believe that? I’ll tell you what. This is the kind of racing the fans love to see, fighting and gouging right to the end. I hate to see Butch lose—he’s getting out of his car now, and he doesn’t look too happy.”

  “Well, he only has himself to blame because he could have backed off and won the cup if he hadn’t pushed it. Here’s the replay now. . . .”

  Chapter 40

  Winner’s Circle

  JAMIE JOINED her dad, the rest of the family, and the crew in the winner’s circle. Soda was in the air, and she couldn’t hold back the smiles. Her dad was interviewed as soon as he jumped onto the ground, and he was all smiles as well.

  “I want to pay tribute to Butch in the #13 and Rusty in #76,” her dad said. “They were fine competitors out there, and I just managed to squeak by. And the #11 car could have been right here too if it hadn’t had a tough break. But I want to thank our sponsors and the crew and everybody back at the garage in Velocity. I’m proud to be standing here today and a giving testimony to God’s grace. My wife gave me a verse before I started today, and I’ll end it by thanking God for giving me the privilege of winning this. It’s only by his strength that I can do anything.”

  The reporter pulled the microphone back and asked about the wreck.

  Her dad said that as soon as Butch got into him, he floored it and tried to punch through. “I got smacked in the left rear, and the car was a little hard to handle on the last couple of laps, but I wasn’t about to let it get away from me.”

  “How’s it feel to be the new cup champion?” the reporter said.

  “Well, it’s a lifelong dream come true.” He looked at Jamie’s mom. “And this is probably as good a time as any to announce something I’ve been thinking about for a long time. There’s going to be another bay in our garage because I’m taking on a new driver next year.” He put his arm around Jamie. “She helped me get to this point, and I’m hoping we get to race together in the next few years.”

  “What do you think about that, Jamie?” the reporter said.

  Jamie grinned. “It’s kind of hard to believe. I guess I should wait to see if there are any better offers, but okay. You’re on, Dad.”

  The two embraced, and Kellen and her mom jumped into the pile, along with T.J., Scotty, and the rest of the crew.

  “David beats Goliath,” the announcer said.

  “Yeah, and David’s daughter might just be better than her dad,” the commentator said.

  Chapter 41

  News

  JAMIE HEARD the phone ring the next morning and rolled over in bed to go back to sleep. It was her dad’s “What!?” that got her up. She ran into the kitchen, where her mom sat with an open Bible. Her dad’s Bible was in his place, and he was pacing the kitchen.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me,” her dad said.

  “Is it about Tim?” Jamie said.

  Her mother shrugged. “I don’t know.”

  Kellen came out, rubbing his eyes and yawning. “What’s all the shouting for?”

  “So there’s nothing we can do? What about an appeal?”

  “Maybe it’s about Tim’s mom,” Jamie whispered.

  Her dad walked into the bedroom. When he came out he was shaking his head. He plopped into his chair like a dead fish.

  “What?” the three of them said in unison.

  “The car failed a postrace inspection,” he said. “We were too low on the left rear.”

  “It was the accident!” Jamie said. “Devalon slammed into you, and it mashed the back end down. How can you control that?”

  “They can’t take the win from you, can they?” Kellen said.

  “Not the win,” he said. “But they’re taking the cup away.”

  There was silence for a split second, then a trio of angry voices.

  “That’s not fair!”

  “They can’t do that!”

  “You didn’t do anything wrong, Dad!”

  “There has to be something you can do—file a protest or something. Write the president!”

  When everyone had quieted, Jamie put her head in her hands and groaned. “Oh no, you know what this means, don’t you?”

  “What?” Kellen said.

  “Devalon gets the cup. Butch Devalon is going to win on a technicality.”

  Her mom stood and rubbed her dad’s back. “I can’t imagine how you must feel.”

  He took a deep breath and blew it out. “Well, at least I won’t have the pressure of defending my title next year. T.J. said there was a bad weld in one of the shocks. At least we didn’t get the penalty because we cheated.”

  Jamie shook her head. “All that publicity, all those interviews for winning—I thought that was part of God’s plan. That you’d get to be up in front of all those people and get to tell them about God.”

  He nodded. “That’s what I thought, but I guess it wasn’t meant to be.” Her dad sat and flipped through his Bible. Then he got up and poured Kellen a bowl of cereal. He paced through the kitchen, running a hand through his hair.

  Jamie still couldn’t believe the turn of events. She felt numb.

  Finally her dad said, “I think I’ll take a walk on the beach.”

  “You want me to go with you?” her mom said.

  “I think I need to be by myself for a little bit.”

  When her dad had gone, Jamie and her mom just listened to Kellen crunch his cereal. Then he slurped his milk. Then he banged the spoon on the side of the bowl.

  “Would you stop that!” Jamie snapped.

  “What did I do?” Kellen said. He put his bowl in the sink.

  All three of them sighed at the same time.

  “I miss Tim,” Kellen said. “Can I call him, Mom?”

  “No. Not yet. Let’s give him some time.”

  “I just want to see how he is.”

  “Wonder if he heard about the race,” Jamie said.

  Her mom did the breakfast dishes. When Kellen started to turn on the TV, she stopped him. “We’ve had enough coverage of your dad. Let’s leave it.”

  Jamie wanted to go home, but her dad insisted they take advantage of the beach house. On Tuesday they drove a short way to Everglades National Park. They rented four bikes and rode the extensive trails. Jamie liked the Long Pine Key ride, where they saw a few alligators sleeping along the sides of the path. At one point her dad got a little close, and a gator lunged at him.

  By Wednesday they were feeling better about the loss of the cup, though the sting was still there for all of them. Jamie’s dad did a couple of interviews near the track about the season and the loss. Jamie watched the report late in the day and had to switch it off when she saw Butch Devalon’s face.

  After her mom had prepared the turkey for cooking the next day, they played Scrabble with girls against the boys. Kellen kept playing words like it and to, and her dad couldn’t quit laughing.
Jamie and her mom won going away.

  /////

  Jamie went for a walk on the deserted beach the next morning. She liked looking for shells and digging her feet in the wet sand. She found herself praying, just talking to God as she walked along. She prayed for the people she knew who weren’t Christians—Vanessa came to her mind and Tim, of course. She also prayed for Cassie and some others in her youth group.

  She stopped and looked out at the vastness of the ocean. A smile came to her face. “This is totally not what I expected to be doing,” she said out loud. “If you’d have asked me six months ago if I’d be walking on the beach, praying to you, and enjoying it, I wouldn’t have believed it. I think that’s what I’m most thankful for this year.”

  When she got home, she helped her mom in the kitchen, making some stuffing. Her dad always made a fruit salad with cranberry sauce that everybody loved and cut the turkey. Kellen played a new NASCAR video game, and instead of racing to win, he spent a half hour smashing into the #13 car. Her dad laughed at him.

  Kellen set the table as Jamie and her parents brought the food in. It was enough for a small army, like each Thanksgiving. Jamie’s mom looked at a fifth plate at the end of the table and Kellen frowned. “Sorry. I just got in the habit of setting five places instead of four.”

  They joined hands, and her dad cleared his throat. “Father, we want to thank you for the things you’ve brought into our lives this past year. For the successes and the failures. For the decisions you guided us through. For our family. And we think about the one missing from us. . . .” His voice caught and Jamie glanced over. Her dad had his chin down, tight against his chest.

  “You love Tim even more than we do,” her mom prayed, picking it up from Jamie’s dad. “We thank you for what you taught us through him. We ask you to draw him and his mom to yourself. We give him to you. . . .”

  There was an awkward pause again, and Jamie saw her mom bring her napkin to her eyes.

  The next voice she heard was Kellen’s. “Lord, Tim’s had a lot of tough breaks. I just think he needs to be with us. So I pray you’d bring him back somehow.”

  “Amen,” Jamie said.

  “Amen,” everybody else said.

  Jamie started with stuffing, turkey, and mashed potatoes, along with some of the fruit salad. She put butter on her roll and was about to dig in when someone tapped at the front door. They all looked at each other.

  “Who could that be?” her mom said.

  Kellen was the first up and to the door. When he opened it, Jamie gasped.

  “Man, that prayer really worked!” Kellen said. “And fast!”

  “Tim!” Jamie said.

  He had his suitcase with him on the sidewalk, and he looked exhausted. “I was hoping you guys would still be here.”

  “Where’s your mom?” Jamie said.

  Tim put his suitcase down on the front step as Kellen dragged him inside. “Well, that’s kind of a long story. But to be honest, I don’t think it’s going to work for me to stay with her. At least not for now.” Kellen had Tim in the kitchen now, and Tim glanced at the food on the table. He looked as hungry as a wolf. “I was kind of thinking that if your offer was still good . . . I mean, I’ll understand if you don’t want to, but—”

  Jamie’s dad took Tim’s suitcase and gave him a bear hug. “Welcome home, Tim. And happy Thanksgiving.”

  “Get washed up and join us,” Jamie’s mom said. “We already set you a place at the table.”

  “Really?” Tim said, taking a look at the empty plate.

  Tears came to Jamie’s eyes. She wasn’t sure why. Maybe she’d never understand what it was about Tim that touched her deep inside. But her dad had said it all in that one word.

  Home.

  Afterword

  You now know one slice of the history of that year, finishing as one of the most exciting in the Chase and one of the most controversial. After Dale’s championship was taken away—something that caused an uproar inside and outside the world of NASCAR—the rules committee changed the way they dealt with accidental infractions. Fans applauded the change, but it wasn’t until years later that Dale was given a special award by NASCAR for that year.

  That was also the year Jamie took a huge step toward her own racing career. I won’t spoil the rest of her story, but suffice it to say that she made a huge impact on the sport.

  Perhaps even more interesting is the series of twists and turns, highs and lows, victories and tragedies of Tim Carhardt. I’m proud to say that I met both Tim and Jamie when they were young, when few people knew their names.

  Of course, all of racing had to deal with the Devalon dynasty, but Dale Maxwell took advantage of the controversy by publishing a book about the season, his life, and his faith. Some said he got more publicity for having the championship taken away, and therefore he reached more people with his message. (That was a book I was privileged to help Dale write.)

  Many will wonder what happened to Kellen in the years following and if Cassie Strower ever got to realize her dream of serving in overseas missions. Jenna, the young girl Jamie met at Camp Left Turn, became a good friend of the Maxwell family, along with many of the kids at the camp who became avid fans of Dale and Jamie.

  I’ve learned a lot from the Maxwells. I’ve learned God can do much through people who let him work through them. And that winning isn’t always the most important thing in racing or in life.

  It’s a good lesson for all of us.

  Calvin Shoverton,

  Motorsports Senior Reporter, Charlotte Times

  Acknowledgments

  Brian and Jan, thanks for your enthusiasm about this series. Special thanks to David Alford of Turtle Wax and the Paul Menard team—you answered all my questions and then some. Ron Dabisch of the Richard Petty Driving Experience—thanks for letting me go 134.29 and not get a ticket. Also thanks to Gina Mooi and Coleman Pressley, two up-and-coming drivers. I hope to see you both racing for the cup one day on the same track. Also, Doug Hastings of Moody Broadcasting and Brookside Motorsports for sending updates and providing ideas, though you didn’t always know it. Thanks to Shawn and Sean Matthuis of Brookside Motorsports, the father and son team on the #0 Kids Corner car. And to Roger Basick of WMBI, Chicago.

  About the Author

  CHRIS FABRY is a writer, broadcaster, and graduate of Richard Petty Driving Experience (top speed: 134.29 mph). He has written more than 50 books, including collaboration on the Left Behind: The Kids, Red Rock Mysteries, and The Wormling series.

  You may have heard his voice on Focus on the Family, Moody Broadcasting, or Love Worth Finding. He has also written for Adventures in Odyssey, Radio Theatre, and Kids Corner.

  Chris is a graduate of the W. Page Pitt School of Journalism at Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia. He and his wife, Andrea, have nine children and live in Colorado.

  If you’d like to get in touch with the author, you can reach him at chrisfabry@comcast.net.