Orange light glowed from the above track lights, which burst on, bouncing sparks of light off the fancy painted wings of twenty-five fire-breathing sprint cars ready to show the five thousand fans in the stands what nine-hundred horsepower could do. There was no other racing like the World of Outlaws sprint cars.
After the four-wide salute, I kept one eye on the kids, and another on Rager who had started second behind Caden. An eerie feeling settled over me during the parade laps. I couldn’t place what, but I knew enough about that particular emotion that I wanted to run down to the track and stop the green flag from waving. So much so that I looked over and Kinsley, and then my mom.
Neither one of them seemed fazed by anything so I shrugged it off.
“Mommy!” Bristol yelled beside me, yanking at her shoe.
I looked down at her foot. “What’s wrong?”
“My sock hurts.”
Mom laughed and leaned into my shoulder. “She put on my socks today and keeps complaining the socks hurt.”
I tried to fix her sock, and Mom was right—she was wearing socks that were too big for her. With all that going on, I missed the opening laps of the race.
The race got underway fairly quick, but the track was dry, glazed over, and hard. Bunched up in the top groove, there was no passing by anyone and Caden was lucky he got that number-one starting spot. Most of the guys were lucky if they could keep it off the wall.
And that was when the feeling settled back in. A knot forming in the pit of my stomach I couldn’t ignore. Eldora in the spring wasn’t nearly as hectic as the week in July when we were there for the Kings Royale, but I still loved being here. The atmosphere was electric and the racing exciting. The track itself was amazing with plenty of good food and they had an infield care center. Because they held a NASCAR dirt race, they had been required to up their care facility game, and they did. They could now stabilize patients and even had a heli pad so a CareFlight could land.
Never, when the night started with Rager dancing with Bristol in the pits, to the most laidback morning we’d had in a long time, did I think we would need to use those facilities.
But we did. It was with fourteen laps into the main event when I heard it. The deafening screech of metal on metal and then a horrifying bang that followed. Everyone around me stood, trying to see what happened.
“Oh my God!” Kinsley screamed, clasping her hand over her mouth.
The shock of the crowd, the silence. One by one, the cars shut down outside turn three, the eerie quiet compared to the roar that had come before it.
It was a moment, a scene I couldn’t look away from, and it replayed in my head in a sickening loop. It was a moment thousands of fans at Eldora Speedway thought to themselves, “Did that just happen?”
I didn’t want to believe it myself. Beside me, Hayden reached for my hand. Mom took a hold of Knox, who was asleep in my violently shaking arms. My thoughts raced. I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t even comprehend a thought to decide what to do next.
Hell, I couldn’t even speak. It looked awful from where we sat. No movement from either driver.
In the distance, sirens cut through the silence, their lights reflecting off the glazed-over clay. “What happened?” I asked. “I didn’t see it.” I looked to Mom, then Hayden. I hadn’t seen anything, but I’d heard it, and then my eyes landed on my husband’s car, mangled on the backstretch.
“I, uh… Caden….” Mom’s voice faded, unable to finish her sentence. I wasn’t sure I wanted her to.
The guy seated directly in front of us turned around, his eyes widened in fear. “Carson came out of two flipping and Sweet had nowhere to go, or didn’t see him.”
My focus stayed on the track, safety officials rushing to them. Commotion was all around the cars, the lights flickering with the tears forming in my eyes. I couldn’t look away from the cars. Caden’s car was on its side, the wing torn off and Rager’s car up against the top of his roll cage. He’d hit Caden’s car directly on its top.
Please be okay, I prayed. Please!
I could see Lane near Rager’s car now, his hand on his head, the other holding a phone to his ear. Dad was at the wreck now, his helmet still on having ditched his car in turn two, along with Casten, all three of them huddled around the cars.
I scanned the crowd around us, some staring to see what we’d do next, some taking videos. Knox woke up, squirming in my mom’s arms and for some reason, Pace and Bristol became quiet, their stares on Rager’s car. “What’s wrong?” Bristol asked, watching me, waiting to see what her reaction should be. I didn’t want to scare them. I didn’t want them to hold the same fear I did knowing this was bad. I’ve heard my brothers talk about the sickening feeling that settles over you when you know a crash is bad. I’d never experienced it, until now.
I pulled Bristol and Pace closer. “It’s okay.” That was all I could manage to say. I was trying to remain calm, but I couldn’t help my voice from trembling.
Mom held onto Hudson who was squirming all over the place.
Beside me, Kinsley gasped. “Why haven’t they gotten them out of the cars? What’s taking so long?”
My body tensed, the silence around us seeming deafening.
