While pacing down the back stretch before a race at Talladega Superspeedway, I felt very unconfident due to a lack of experience in restrictor plate racing and a rash of bad luck including a gut-wrenching hop into the catchfence in the previous race. I reluctantly started the race in 17th place out of 23 cars, with my friend in car number 25 right in the middle of the carnage with the second starting spot. As we rounded Turn 4 waiting for the pace car to drop, my worst fears were realized. A 12 year old driving car number 99 suddenly starts screeching on the voice chat over keeping the race clean and having a good finish. I checked the starting positions of the cars, and of course, he was starting in spot number one. Despite this being a 15 lap race, I predicted he would run the field up the track on the green flag and take an easy win as the drivers behind him would wreck; I was not looking forward to this race. As the green flag drops and all 23 cars roared to …show more content…
With a damaged car, I knew I could not keep up with the leaders unless a lapped car decided to help me. No lap cars were in sight, and the leaders had turned their fastest laps of the race – there was no hope for a win, and at best I was going to get a top 3 provided I did not get passed by any more cars or my engine blew. I was ready to give up and pull off the track, but with 2 laps ago, I made a bold move and stayed on the track. The white flag flew, with one lap to go in the race. I was losing speed quickly, going only 170 miles per hour while the leaders were going 205 miles per hour. While running down the backstretch, I was finally content with having a top 3 finish. Satisfied, I decelerated to half throttle and committed to cruising across the finish line, especially since third place was 15 seconds behind. But coming out of turn number four, this whole strategy flew out the window when I saw