In which Shelby brings an unexpected guest.

[shelbycobra]

It had been a while since Shelby had visited the Nexus, and in that time, many things had changed. She had made the decision to stay at Team Penske despite getting a very good offer from Chip Ganassi Racing, unable to walk away from the teammates and crew members that she considered family after they had supported her through the majority of her career. She had reunited with her strategist Shane Worthington, and the two of them had made a pact that they were going to make her giving up her dream job worth it. Unfortunately the 2022 season had not yielded the success that they wanted.

While Shelby had won a race, her other teammates had won more. And though she was leading the championship standings by virtue of consistently finishing in the Top 5, that still felt disappointing when she'd had years where she had won three or four events and dominated. There were only four races left in the season and she felt like she hadn't reached her full potential. She was also adjusting to changes off-track with rumors about where she might be driving in 2023 and having to balance a personal life. After almost a decade of friendship and over a year of circling each other, she and her ex-strategist Peter Fowler had finally entered into a romantic relationship. While Shelby loved Peter deeply, the transition hadn't been easy and she wasn't used to having to think about her home life during the racing season. She also had no idea that he had bought an engagement ring in Toronto.

Add all that up and she wasn't surprised the Nexus thought she needed a getaway once they had finished the Indianapolis race and things had relatively settled back to normal. What did surprise her was that Peter had gone through the door with her. That had never happened before, but one second they'd been headed for the garage to try and distract themselves by working on her Cobra, and now here they were. Peter was the most down to earth person she knew, so Shelby's first reaction was to turn around and see exactly how perplexed he was. He was just staring at her like he thought she was going to say something, and so she just grabbed him by the waist to get his 6'2" self out of the way.

"Okay, how does anybody else feel about surprises?" she quipped, wondering who was around right now and what they were going to say when she introduced them to her boyfriend.

Comments

[shelbycobra]

Luckily, since Shelby and Peter navigate for a living, it's easy to follow the provided directions to their restaurant of choice. She does give her boyfriend a look at the proposed topic of conversation but that's as much as she betrays to any jealousy. Once they've settled at the table in a cozy little Chinese place and had time to go over the menu, Shelby's all smiles again. She reminds herself she can't be mad when the other people all in question are some of her oldest friends.

"To answer your sort of question, it's probably him and my teammate Josef Newgarden," she says with a nod of her head toward Peter. "They've won five races out of the 15 this year. That's practically unheard of with the level of competition in our sport. The only reason they don't have the points lead is because of my level of consistency." She hadn't won nearly as many races, but she had a tendency to be competitive at all of them.

"There are still two races to go," Peter points out, shaking his head. He knows that five race victories - which will amount to a third of the season - is a huge advantage and that she's probably right but he has never been one to get excited about anything before it happens. Race wins and points leads can be lost in seconds. "It's been one of our best seasons, but she's right when she says the competition has been great. There aren't a lot of backmarkers this year."

"Which is what we want. We want to be pushed and challenged. Sports aren't fun if there isn't any honest competition," Shelby says. No one can win all the time and the not knowing is what makes it worth pushing themselves so hard and giving up so much. They get to be the best versions of themselves. "I'm sure you get your own kind of adrenaline rush doing what you do, Danny."

[telekinesis_kills]

"So you're a threat even when you don't win, Shelby?" Danny asks, with a smile. He listens to Peter's reply, but two races don't seem like enough time to close whatever lead this Josef Newgarden has over the others. To Peter, Danny asks, "Backmarker? I haven't heard that term before. What's it mean?"

Danny shrugs. "I suppose I do. I wouldn't say I'm in it for the adrenaline rush, but I'd be lying if I said I don't enjoy it when it happens. The people we go after are the sort who push the envelope in all kinds of ways. Most of them are smart, and outsmarting them makes me feel accomplished."

He swirls the straw in his soda, and wrinkles his nose a little to push his glasses back up the bridge. "And, it's kind of funny when their dumb muscle is expecting no challenge from the little nerd in glasses, and I kick their ass anyway."

[shelbycobra]

Shelby laughs at that. "I bet," she says knowingly. "I had a sort of similar thing when I first started out. There were some keyboard warriors who either just wanted to talk about how hot I was, or said I only had a job because I was a woman. It took until we won the pole for the Indy 500 to shut people up and make them realize I could actually drive. I was lucky, though, because that stuff was mostly limited to the fans. The actual people who know, the guys in the other cars and the teams, everyone's always been gracious and supportive."

Peter nods knowingly. He'd been there with her from the beginning, and it hadn't helped that he had also been new at his job, so they were both under a microscope at the time. A few years later, they were both working for the top team in the league and both had resumes they could be proud of. "To answer your question, Danny, a backmarker is one of the cars that always drives around in the back. Drivers who don't have as much experience, or their car may not be as competitive. We don't have a lot of those this year."

It was the Catch-22 of their profession. They wanted to see one another do well and to provide great competition, but they also wanted to win. If Shelby were to lose the title to her teammate, she would be thrilled for him and Peter and know that they deserved it. At the same time, she would be disappointed in herself. There was no real way to get around any of that.

"We should have had you around the track a few weeks ago," she quipped. "We were racing in Nashville and there were so many wrecks it was just debris everywhere. The cleanup was insane. It was like six figures of damages."