Jared rubbed the back of his neck, reaching over to turn off the television sets. “I can’t figure this out.”
“Jared, you sound really ticked off. If Tucker misses a race will it cost you a lot of money?”
“No. Money means nothing to me. I can’t believe this has happened with the car. Even the officials were shocked. This totally compromises Tucker’s run for the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Championship.”
“That doesn’t sound like Tucker. He might not have been part of the group who did this,” she said. Tucker valued his friendship with Jared. She knew from the time she’d spent with both men.
“We have absolutely no idea what happened. We’re so close to winning the championship.”
Something about this entire setup didn’t seem right to Annie. She understood wanting to win, but Tucker was fast enough to do it without cheating. And his standing in the points was still good. All he had to do was finish top five this week and next week and he’d win.
“How are they going to punish him? A fine?”
“I don’t know. He’s over in the ‘bad boy’ trailer right now. Billy’s with him.”
The “bad boy” trailer was the one place that no driver wanted to be. It was the trailer where the NASCAR bigwigs took drivers, crew chiefs and really anyone who did anything wrong to “talk” to them. To give them the kind of dressing-down that couldn’t be delivered in public.
“You know Billy’s been around a long time and there’s never been a hint of him doing anything like this before. I can’t imagine that he’d jeopardize his potential winnings from the championship to finish this way.”
“Of course you can’t imagine this kind of thing, Annie. You come from a family with a legacy of integrity and winning.”
He left the trailer before she could respond. But she really had no idea what she’d have said to him because he hadn’t sounded all too happy with her or her family.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
TUCKER CAME OUT of the “bad boy” trailer looking every inch the maverick he’d been labeled by NASCAR fans. In fact he looked ready for a fight.
Could someone have sabotaged his car?
“We need to talk,” Tucker said as he stalked by Jared toward his own hauler.
Jared easily caught up with Tucker. “What about?”
“I’ll tell you when we’re alone.”
The garage had been cleared of everyone with cold passes and those with hot passes had been around long enough to stay away from Tucker. His entire team looked ready to rumble. Jared followed Tucker up the stairs and into his hauler.
Billy was already inside, seated at the table near the back going over some kind of paperwork.
“What did you want to talk to me about?” Jared asked when they were all seated.
“I think someone from Dave’s team sabotaged my car.”
“Why? That makes no sense.”
“But it’s supposed to be believable that I’d throw away a chance at the championship?”
“No, that doesn’t makes sense, either. Even the officials can’t believe you’d deliberately do something this stupid,” Jared said.
“I’ve never broken the rules. I’ve pushed and tried to see how far I could get an official to go for certain things but I’d never do something like this,” Billy said.
“What do you mean?” Jared asked. He hadn’t been to see the car yet.
“It was very obvious when we took the car apart? it’s like we were trying to get caught. The carburetor is totally illegal, not even close to the one I installed.”
Jared nodded. “Who would do something like this?”
“I already told you. Dave Jenner. He wants me totally out of the race.”
Jared had a hard time imagining “Gentleman Dave” sneaking around Tucker’s garage and planting an illegal piece of equipment in his car. It just didn’t seem like the kind of thing that he’d do.
“Was there any mention of one of his guys in your garage? I think the officials would have noticed if someone from his team was messing with your car.”
Tucker stood up. “No. No one saw anything.”
“Well…” Without proof it was going to be hard to prove that anyone did anything to the car.
“Well, what? All that proves is that they were sneaky. And don’t you think it’s a little suspicious that Annie wasn’t in my garage today. Every week she stops by, but not this week. What’s up with that?”
Jared realized where Tucker was going with this. “I don’t think that’s why she stayed away. She hasn’t been around for several weeks.”