One Final Ride

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Summary: It’s the end of an era.

AUTHOR: Zippit
EMAIL: zippit@cryptoffic.com
RATING: PG
CHARACTER: Dale Earnhardt Jr, Dale Jr POV
PROMPT: Taming the Muse #70 - arcane (7.15)
COMPLETED: December 15, 2007
WORD COUNT: 920
DISCLAIMER: Not real; don’t know them, don’t claim to know them. Only the makings of my imagination. I own NOTHING and am affiliated with NO ONE mentioned here. Not the drivers, not the teams, no one. This is all fiction and fun. In other words...NOT REAL, NOT REAL, NOT REAL. ;-)
AUTHOR'S NOTE: This made me cry. :( But at least next year he’s off to better things.
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“Race ‘em hard, give ‘em hell.” It’s something I’ve been told to do so many times over my life. To think this is the last weekend in my majestic red car. Daddy meant for me to stay at DEI for the rest of my career. A lifetime contract like Jeff has and now Jimmie’s gonna get. Budweiser’s not supposed to leave. I ain’t supposed to leave.

Ain’t right, ain’t fair. This one final ride in the Bud 8 car. It’s who I am, who I been the moment I stepped onto the Cup stage. The years I watched Daddy racing, the years I didn’t know the man I called Daddy. Then there was the year I spent away, the year spent away with nothing but Kelley and my drawings.

I kept straight after that. Couldn’t be kept away no more. I didn’t love it as intensely as I would come to. At one point I loved this more than anything, that ain’t now. Ain’t been in awhile. Probably when Daddy was alive, when we finally found common ground, when I was finally more than his son just in name.

‘Member when I was a kid, if I wasn’t in Daddy’s garage, I was in Rick’s. He wasn’t worried about spying then. I was the kid brother allowed to run amok long as I didn’t break anything. Daddy wouldn’t let me go often. Then there were the times he couldn’t stand the sight of me and wanted me as far away from the RCR shops as I could get.

Daddy would’ve skinned Rick alive if he’d known about that playful contract we signed once at dinner. Cause Daddy knew Rick and he knew Rick would one day get his way. That day is today as I say goodbye to the crew…my crew I’ve had for years. YEARS!

It ain’t right. It ain’t supposed to end this way. My daddy’s dreams crumbling at my feet as I stand here and walk away. It ain’t by choice. It ain’t the way I wanted to go. It should’ve been with Championships and wins, drive the last couple years of my Cup career with Daddy’s team in a black car.

Now who knows if I’ll ever? I know I ain’t coming back to DEI. It’s not happening. I wish ‘em luck. They’ll need it. I see the changes and they’re big strides in the right direction, but it’s too little, too late for me.

I guess my leaving will give Daddy’s dream some hope to live on. Cause if I live up to potential, live up to Daddy’s genes flowing in me, Rick won’t let me go. Not for a long, long time. Black car may no longer be in my future, no longer the cap to a career of Championships and wins.

Glance around at the familiar Budweiser hauler that will no longer be mine. The 8 hauler that’s no longer mine. The crew I’m leaving, the friends, the family I won’t see every day. They’ll look me up, I’ll look them up. Ain’t no other way we’ll have it. Even the Bud folks feel like good friends if not family. I’ll never not have a case of Bud on hand.

I sat beside Tony Gibson on the end of the hauler for several quiet minutes. Remembrance for what’s no more. No more struggling, no more fighting so hard for each other that coming home we’re too exhausted for anything else.

We both wanted it, the world knows I did. The whole fucking 8 team wanted it. But it’s in Martin’s hands now. Martin and Bono and Max and everyone else at DEI. It ain’t in Teresa’s. She never cared ‘til it was too late. ‘Til I finally put my foot down and made a stand for myself.

Never knew how much I was worth cause DEI was family. The bidding opened my eyes. The shops opened my eyes even wider. All the shit they had? All the shit we lacked…. It’s done. I’m going someplace better. Got the off season to put it behind me. Family, friends, everything I need.

But right now, right now, there’s only one person I wanna see. Only one person who could even begin to understand. Daddy would hate it, but then maybe, hopefully he’d see I’m happy. I’d be worse off without him and I’d fight Daddy for him. He could do anything he wanted to me, but I’m not losing him. I can’t.

He’s waiting at our coach and that brings a small smile to my face. He’s there for me, he’s what makes me whole. I hope I do the same for him. This year’s been forgettable and soon it will be forgotten. I just gotta let time do its work while I lose myself with him.

I don’t know what the next season will bring, but I know what this off season will. Light and happiness, family and friends. All I need, all I want. The reasons why I left DEI are known, but understood by few, only the few that matter. But it’s the right decision. One that’s been a long time coming.

Reach him standing at the coach door and take him tight in my arms. Kiss him soundly and with a look he doesn’t need me to say a word. He knows. Smile softly at him and with my arm wrapped around his waist, we slip inside and close the door on the world. It’s us, only us. All I need.

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Zippit - zippit@cryptoffic.com