Shelby Manning (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
shelbycobra) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
muserevival2016-04-03 01:44 am
shelbycobra) wrote in muserevival2016-04-03 01:44 am
Entry tags:
119.2.2 - quote
"Never, ever underestimate the importance of having fun."
With everything that goes into being a Verizon IndyCar Series team, it's sometimes easy to forget why you compete in the first place: because you love it. Such is the case on Saturday night for the No. 2 Team Penske squad at Phoenix International Raceway. They've spent so much time, dating back to the preseason test day in February and who knows how many simulator runs before that, to get this evening right. It's been circled on their calendar since the 2016 schedule was announced, with a silent reminder: This is the race where we see what we're made of this year.
If that is in the fact the case, they have nothing to worry about. Shelby posted the fastest time in the second open test session two months ago and was fastest in practice yesterday until all of the latecomers hit their flying laps. She qualified third even if it had her gripping the wheel a little bit. Now on race day, the only day that really matters, she's comfortably cruising second behind Scott Dixon and it doesn't even bother her that she can't catch him. She didn't think that she would be anywhere close enough to have this problem.
"I'm not dreaming, right?" she asks over the radio once she realizes that the race is ending under caution and so all she can do is hold serve the final two laps. "Nobody's going to wake me up?"
From where he's standing in her pit box, Shane Worthington actually laughs. "No, you're not dreaming," he tells her.
Because once they got out there on the track this ended up being much less difficult than they thought it would be. She has just calmly held her own all night, working back up every time that something has pushed her down the field. Aside from that scare about blowing a tire - that was good for five laps of freaking out - they've had an uneventful race. All they've had to do is keep the car steady, hit the pit stops, and avoid everyone else's crazy manuevers. It's not that hard at all.
Shelby eases the car to a halt in pit lane. When she climbs out, the smile on her face is one that can only be described as beaming. It's the happiest she's ever been not to win a race. Then she's caught unaware by a strong arm around her waist, a huge hug courtesy of Shane, who almost never hugs anyone but he feels like it tonight. "I'm so proud of you," he says, kissing her cheek gently. He knows just how many hours she's put in for months to be good on this night and wants her to know that he recognizes that effort.
"Thanks," she replies. "Come on, I've got a trophy to go get!" And then she's disentangling herself from him, jogging a little bit to catch up to the procession headed for Victory Lane where Scott has just now climbed out of the No. 9 Chip Ganassi Racing car. She smiles watching him do his post-victory interview; there's no one else she'd rather lose to. And nobody else she'd rather share the podium with than her teammate Will Power, whom she claps on the back as he joins them. It's good to see him back and back strong after his little scare last week.
As they go through the umpteen motions of the trophy presentation and everything that goes with it she can't remember a time when she's ever felt so free. Not even after the Indy 500, because she hadn't spent months worried about the Indy 500. She had obsessed over Phoenix. She had wanted something to erase that terrible 20th place finish from this time a year ago and she wasn't sure she'd get it on a track she'd never driven before. But here she stands, having qualified three places higher than she did at New Orleans and finishing a hell of a lot better. Her car isn't in pieces in the garage.
She'd have even more reasons to celebrate if she didn't have a strict "keep your mouth shut" policy amongst her team. They've just learned that the second place finish means she's now the 2016 championship leader. Earlier this afternoon someone looked at a calendar and realized that the next race, in two weeks at Long Beach, actually takes place on Shelby's 30th birthday. Ideas are already being circulated as to what they should do for her special day even if the best celebration would be to win.
But Shelby is, as usual, oblivious to all this. She's just standing in Victory Lane, posing for pictures with her new trophy and two of her best friends, feeling accomplished and like there isn't a single weight on her shoulders. She came here vowing to do well and she did far better than she thought. She knows she can contend at these new racetracks that are in front of her. And that the magic that propelled the No. 2 team to a championship last year wasn't a one-off miracle. It still exists. Everything in her world is right.
"Anybody want to go do that again?" she asks aloud, and cracks up laughing. If she wasn't so tired from three hours of six-G racing, she'd absolutely do it all again.
--
Shelby Manning
Need for Speed OC
886 words
With everything that goes into being a Verizon IndyCar Series team, it's sometimes easy to forget why you compete in the first place: because you love it. Such is the case on Saturday night for the No. 2 Team Penske squad at Phoenix International Raceway. They've spent so much time, dating back to the preseason test day in February and who knows how many simulator runs before that, to get this evening right. It's been circled on their calendar since the 2016 schedule was announced, with a silent reminder: This is the race where we see what we're made of this year.
If that is in the fact the case, they have nothing to worry about. Shelby posted the fastest time in the second open test session two months ago and was fastest in practice yesterday until all of the latecomers hit their flying laps. She qualified third even if it had her gripping the wheel a little bit. Now on race day, the only day that really matters, she's comfortably cruising second behind Scott Dixon and it doesn't even bother her that she can't catch him. She didn't think that she would be anywhere close enough to have this problem.
"I'm not dreaming, right?" she asks over the radio once she realizes that the race is ending under caution and so all she can do is hold serve the final two laps. "Nobody's going to wake me up?"
From where he's standing in her pit box, Shane Worthington actually laughs. "No, you're not dreaming," he tells her.
Because once they got out there on the track this ended up being much less difficult than they thought it would be. She has just calmly held her own all night, working back up every time that something has pushed her down the field. Aside from that scare about blowing a tire - that was good for five laps of freaking out - they've had an uneventful race. All they've had to do is keep the car steady, hit the pit stops, and avoid everyone else's crazy manuevers. It's not that hard at all.
Shelby eases the car to a halt in pit lane. When she climbs out, the smile on her face is one that can only be described as beaming. It's the happiest she's ever been not to win a race. Then she's caught unaware by a strong arm around her waist, a huge hug courtesy of Shane, who almost never hugs anyone but he feels like it tonight. "I'm so proud of you," he says, kissing her cheek gently. He knows just how many hours she's put in for months to be good on this night and wants her to know that he recognizes that effort.
"Thanks," she replies. "Come on, I've got a trophy to go get!" And then she's disentangling herself from him, jogging a little bit to catch up to the procession headed for Victory Lane where Scott has just now climbed out of the No. 9 Chip Ganassi Racing car. She smiles watching him do his post-victory interview; there's no one else she'd rather lose to. And nobody else she'd rather share the podium with than her teammate Will Power, whom she claps on the back as he joins them. It's good to see him back and back strong after his little scare last week.
As they go through the umpteen motions of the trophy presentation and everything that goes with it she can't remember a time when she's ever felt so free. Not even after the Indy 500, because she hadn't spent months worried about the Indy 500. She had obsessed over Phoenix. She had wanted something to erase that terrible 20th place finish from this time a year ago and she wasn't sure she'd get it on a track she'd never driven before. But here she stands, having qualified three places higher than she did at New Orleans and finishing a hell of a lot better. Her car isn't in pieces in the garage.
She'd have even more reasons to celebrate if she didn't have a strict "keep your mouth shut" policy amongst her team. They've just learned that the second place finish means she's now the 2016 championship leader. Earlier this afternoon someone looked at a calendar and realized that the next race, in two weeks at Long Beach, actually takes place on Shelby's 30th birthday. Ideas are already being circulated as to what they should do for her special day even if the best celebration would be to win.
But Shelby is, as usual, oblivious to all this. She's just standing in Victory Lane, posing for pictures with her new trophy and two of her best friends, feeling accomplished and like there isn't a single weight on her shoulders. She came here vowing to do well and she did far better than she thought. She knows she can contend at these new racetracks that are in front of her. And that the magic that propelled the No. 2 team to a championship last year wasn't a one-off miracle. It still exists. Everything in her world is right.
"Anybody want to go do that again?" she asks aloud, and cracks up laughing. If she wasn't so tired from three hours of six-G racing, she'd absolutely do it all again.
--
Shelby Manning
Need for Speed OC
886 words