Excerpt from The Buddy Wayne Chronicles, Part 3

Here is the third excerpt of my book The Buddy Wayne Chronicles, available exclusively on this web site.

For more information, or to order, log on to http://www.lulu.com/content/780892.

This is about the ending to the Heritage Cup auto race, in which Buddy Wayne Barefoot represents his family in a quest for glory.  This was his return to the sport since the end of his NASCAR career and was highly anticipated.  At this point at the end of the race, he has bought his way back into the lead.  However, the excitement was just beginning and it all results in an ending that you will not believe.--D.H.

Some reference notes:

• "Brookshire, Blow and Lumpkin" are drivers Cody Joe Brookshire, Taylor Blow and Bubba Ray Lumpkin.
• "Crabtree, Ripperton, and Linville" are Bunky Crabtree, Lyman Ripperton, and Billy Joe Linville.
• Dylan Bryan-Brown is the New York businessman who has been secretly plotting with Crabtree to purchase Idealia for redevelopment as an urban village and resort.

Once the cars returned to racing under green on lap 259, Barefoot drove off like the proverbial bat out of heck.  He used all the racing lines available to him, going high on one lap, then low on the next, until he found the perfect line.  For the rest of the race, he went straight down the middle on the start-finish line, then edged up to a midpoint of the banking while he was between turns 1 and 2, then dived down to the edge of the apron of the straightaways, then back to the midpoint between turns 3 and 4, and then back to the middle lane of the frontstretch and back to the start-finish line.

Lap after lap, Barefoot recorded the fastest laps and advanced up the running order until lap 281, when he was second, only trailing Hawks.  At that point, the tension between the fan sections grew.  The two clans had become rivals, both on and off the track.  There was even a report of a major fight between the Barefoot and Bobbitt families in the infield prior to the opening of the gates.  Both sides dismissed the reports as "exaggerated."

But just as Barefoot was gaining momentum toward an epic late-race showdown, two quick cautions took the momentum away from him.  The first was caused when Lumpkin was clipped by a lapped car (Linville's) that was trying to gain back one of the six laps by which he was falling behind.  Lumpkin was tapped into the wall.  He was able to drive away, but could not avoid damage to his front valence.  Most importantly, the caution was thrown and the field was frozen.  Barefoot was second, but now had to try to find a way to beat both Hawks across the line and to avoid the lapped traffic that would undoubtedly be ahead of them when the race restarted.

This caution lasted until lap 285, when the Cup race restarted with just 15 laps to go in the scheduled distance.  But the cars had just gone back racing, with the 122-horsepower engines accelerated, when the caution flew again.  This time, the reason was that Ricky Ray Rebarker blew an engine a few feet off of turn 2 on the entrance to the backstretch.   The caution was so quick and abrupt that Barefoot had no chance to try to gain a clean restart on the leader.  Even if B.W. had made the pass cleanly, it would not have counted because of the reset of the running order to the last completed lap, which was of course under caution.

As Rebarker limped the #12 Ford Phantom with the pegasus back to the garage, Hawks and Barefoot were destined for at least one more duel off the restart.  Would the boy wonder of Rebel Racing hold off one final challenge, or would the beloved three-time NASCAR champion celebrate his return home by winning the biggest race of his career?

Buddy Wayne Barefoot was in so many pressure situations in his NASCAR career.  He was a Daytona 500 winner.  He won dozens of career races and three titles.  Two of them were during the pressure-filled Chase for the NEXTEL Cup.

But there was nothing like this.  He never had to deal with the tension of trying to winning a race for a family, a culture, a way of life.  This was a reminder that, on Idealia, family was literally everything.  It was the center of life, the backbone, the measure of success or failure in the entire society. 

And the Heritage Cup was symbolic of the role of sports in society: not as important as the critical issues of life and death, but important in the morale and the well-being of a society.  The sports were treated as tests of self-esteem and the athletes given exalted hero status.  In that sense, it was the latest in a long line, from the major sports contests of ancient Rome and the Greek Olympics, through the Oxford-Cambridge rowing regatta in England which started in the 17th century, to the spectacles of sports in the modern era, whether it was soccer matches throughout the world, any football game in America from the "Friday night lights" of high school to the National Football League, or of course the biggest NASCAR races.

The Barefoot family had to win.  If it happened, it would be the climax of the rags-to-riches story that had started some years ago with the daring "rescue" from an evil father's clutches and led to worlds that no one could have dreamed of.  If it did not, all of that time and effort would be wasted.  The family would have to deal with the questions and regrets.  He was a champion, a best-selling singer, even a movie star in Hollywood.  But what would that mean to the Barefoots if he didn't win this?

When William MacBobbitt Hawks led the field to the restart, which would be on lap 290, he was heard cracking jokes and laughing on his car's radio.  He said some derogatory things about Barefoot on the radio.  Among other things, he called Barefoot a "thief" and a "cheater" and that he was "NASCAR's little boy."

This description did not jibe with any of the facts.  Of course, everyone knew that Barefoot had a chilly relationship with NASCAR officials during the time he was there.  It was possible that this had changed in the last few months before he left, but it was not likely.

As for the "cheater" comments, it probably had to do with the rapid pace of his NASCAR career before he left.  Buddy Wayne had 40 career victories in just 146 starts in NASCAR, by far the best winning percentage of all time at 27.3 percent.  (The previous record was Tim Flock's 21.6 percent in the 1950s, and in the more competitive modern era-since 1971-10 to 12 percent was considered very good.)  There were rumors that the car was using more advanced equipment than was allowed under the rules, and that perhaps NASCAR itself had allowed the cars onto the track, possibly to help market Barefoot's career (remember that he was already a top country singer at the time he debuted).  But the cars he drove passed every inspection, before and after the races.  So another overlooked factor had to be considered: perhaps Barefoot was the most talented driver NASCAR had ever seen.  Remember the comparison earlier mentioned, the combination of Earnhardt, D. Waltrip, Petty, and Gordon?  All four were among the legends of the sport, with a combined win total of 435 as of the end of the 2006 season.  If that driver indeed was out there, he seemingly could not lose.  Such was the case with B.W.

The "thief" comments weren't easily explainable, except possibly that Barefoot was a symbol of outside invaders winning races at the expense of the locals who were part of this obscure circuit.  This was similar to the "Busch Whacker" phenomenon in the Busch Series back in America (and also Canada and Mexico, race sites in 2007).  But this comment would be hypocritical: remember that Hawks drove in the same series under the name Bobby Baker, and even won a race there.  But that wasn't all: when Hawks was in NBS, he claimed that he was the son of a pastor named the Rev. Bobby Baker.  Only he and his family and some close friends knew that "the Reverend" did not exist.  Hawks, for whatever reason, simply made up the story!

Barefoot was told of these comments as Alonzo relayed them to him.  His only response was emphatic: "I'll show him!"

The restart was not what he wanted.  Barefoot did not get the jump he wanted, and fell further behind.  Worse, the lapped cars were forming a barrier between him and Hawks in the lead.  Although Hawks started behind several trailing cars, who were put ahead of the leaders at the end of the lead lap, he made up the ground quickly and widened the lead over the second-place ex-champion.

In the Bobbitt family stands, the rooters were crowing with pride.  As much as the Barefoots would be devastated by a defeat, the Bobbitts would love to celebrate this victory.  "This is better talking about this than about Lorena cutting off John Wayne's penis," Brown Bobbitt said, referring to the repulsive, headline-grabbing event in the middle 1990s.

As the laps wound down, Buddy Wayne stopped worrying about family significance and started focusing on how to get past the lapped cars to gain ground on Hawks, who now looked unbeatable.  Meanwhile, the lapped cars behaved in one of two very different ways.  Those who were loyal to Barefoot (like Brookshire, Blow, and Lumpkin) pulled to the side of the racetrack and let him through.  But the younger drivers with less of a relationship (like Crabtree, Ripperton, and Linville) put blocks in front of him to keep the distance between Barefoot and Hawks.  As a result, Barefoot's #3 Chevy Spirit suffered damage that was more substantial than Hawks', and the concern was that it would affect its handling and hurt greatly his chances to win the race. 

"This thing is just junk," Buddy Wayne said with about six laps left.

"All I can say is that you're absolutely right," Bobby Ray replied.  "I can see it clearly from here.  Just do your best and we'll deal with whatever happens later."

But hope grew as the laps wound down.  With five laps to go, Hawks' lead was 1.8 seconds.  But one lap later, it was down to 1.4 seconds, and with three to go, it was down to 0.77 seconds.  Barefoot went to a different tactic this time: he took advantage of any gap he could find between the driving lines.  It was like threading a needle through cloth, as he was knitting a beautiful piece of clothing.

Soon, although vicious battles were going on for position throughout the race track, all eyes were on the leaders.  Barefoot had pulled to Hawks' side with 2½ laps to go, and now everyone was watching the final two laps.

The next lap took about 20 seconds to run, but it appeared to be an eternity.  Barefoot slipped under the left rear corner of Hawks' tire in an attempt to pass for the lead, but he simply could not do it.  A few seconds later, the cars returned to single file, one behind the other.  Around turn 3, Barefoot made one more attempt to pass for the lead, using the air around him to find the room to go laterally around Hawks' car.  But again the #24 car and its cocky driver held on as the race headed for its final lap.

"This is the moment you have been waiting for," Bobby Ray encouraged his brother as the cars headed for the turn.

This was the last of 300 laps of the most important race, indeed the most important social and societal event in all of Idealia.  All the preparation, the focus, the intensity, and the hype of twelve months-only a few in Barefoot's case-now led to one single lap.  It was now all or nothing.

Everyone was standing.  Some of the families were simply looking for their driving representative as they rounded the course to complete the event.  But two of them were looking for the checkered flag and the biggest prize of all.

Around turn 1, Barefoot made yet another attempt to pass Hawks, again slipping into the inside lane.  But again, Hawks let Barefoot get close, but not close enough.  But because of the wide lane on the backstretch, the two were able to stay side-by-side throughout the lap.

In the pit box, the family members started to despair.  Alonzo Barefoot was even starting to prepare the remarks that his "son" would give to the local writers when he crossed the finish line second:

Buddy Wayne ran the best race he could tonight.  Although I am disappointed in the outcome, I must congratulate Will for his talent and effort and recognize his victory.  It was a great race tonight, and I would like to thank all of the family and friends of the Barefoot clan for their efforts.

Some representatives of the Bobbitts were already down in the infield, toward the start-finish lane which also served as the victory lane on this race track.  Some of them had to be gloating inside about another win at the speedway of one of their despised rivals. (The Bowlings had hated the Bobbitts due to the latter family's apparent lack of work ethic.)

But the Heritage Cup was not over yet.

Barefoot and Hawks had continued to race all the way through the backstretch. They beat and banged and rubbed, with neither side giving any ground to the other all lap long.  The collisions grew more and more violent until the entrance to turn 3.  Then came a small tap by Barefoot, which was enough to spin Hawks's car into the infield.  But Hawks slipped back in front of the lapped traffic, which seemed to be enough to assure the #24 driver his third win in the Heritage Cup competition, assuring him of a place among the legends of the Bowling Hill Speedway.

With Barefoot now back behind lapped traffic, and with only a few yards to go before the Cup was lost, he tried one more thing.  It was so daring, so crazy, that no one had even conceived of it before this very time.  In fact, it could be argued as the most dangerous move ever attempted in the history of auto racing.  It was the very definition of the age-old question, "What was he thinking?"

What he did resembled what he did in the Rebel movie script.  This time, however, he was the real driver Buddy Wayne Barefoot, not the superhero hiding out as Bobby Dean Beasley.

Just off of turn 4 and into the backstretch, Barefoot found Lumpkin's lapped car and tapped off his bumper.  He then turned on the accelerator and the #3 car started to barrel-roll.  Just at this moment, the momentum of the combination of brake on one foot and accelerator on the other moved the car upside down and in the air.

Suddenly, the crowd gasped in disbelief and concern.  Where was the car going to land?  Would Barefoot be OK when it landed?  Would other drivers be affected as they were involved in the possible incident?  Would Will MacBobbitt Hawks' apparent victory be rendered hollow?  Could someone die in this supposed heaven too, exposing this place as a fraud too?

At the very spot of the start-finish line, Barefoot pulled the brake off to land the car.  It was upside down maybe 4 to 6 inches from the line.  Hawks was in about the same spot, slightly to the outside.  Barefoot had one more thing to do before he could complete the improbable comeback: he had to move the car right-side-up before Hawks crossed.  To do that, he moved the steering wheel as far to his left as he could.  The momentum resulted in the car being flipped over.  Then the land's new king of daring slid the car across the start-finish line in front of the disbelieving Hawks.

Then the checkered flag waved, and the impossible happened.

Buddy Wayne Barefoot won the Heritage Cup.  By inches!

Officially, the margin was .005 seconds, a little more than a fender's length.  But that wasn't the story.  It was something that defied description, engaged every emotion, and represented all that was possible in an ideal world.  The dashing hero, who had finally found his place in all of reality, had won over the villain who represented all that was holding him back.

For a moment, the fans were stunned into awe by what they had just witnessed.  This was one occasion where words were inadequate, where even the best of poets were hardpressed to come up with anything to say to describe the events that had occurred.  But once the realization came, the crowd, which was from a variety of families that had come into the speedway as rivals, rose to their feet at one and gave one of the largest ovations ever heard in the history of sports, in this world or any other.  It was enough to rattle the hunting lodges and cabins of the Hill Country, the windows of the buildings of the Town Square, the shacks of the Bottom, and the castles and row houses of the West Country and Little Ireland.  And yes, it could probably even be heard on the Earth below.  Maybe there, Dylan Bryan-Brown and his minions, obsessed with money and power, could listen to the echoes.

The post-race celebration included the presentation of the trophy, which depicted a knight arriving in a "horseless carriage," which was an unusual design of a Model T that looked like a convertible.  Barefoot clinched the trophy, presented by none other than Brittany L. Spears, as if it represented his life, which it did.   (Spears was still booed, but not as loudly as before.)  Then he addressed the crowd:

I want to thank you for coming to the racetrack tonight.  All of us, all these families, gave you a great race and all of you should be congratulated.  As for me, you may think I was crazy, but I disagree.  I only did what I had to do in order to be the winning driver.  When the stakes are as high as they are, you will do anything!  But as much as this trophy, my biggest memory is the happy and glorious reunion we all had.  In one sense, we compete against each other, but in another sense we drive together, for the common cause of our heritage and our history.  From the immigrant ancestors that defied British rule to the daredevil race drivers we have today, our history is rich and strong.  We are pleased that we were able to write the next chapter tonight.  Thank you, God bless, and good night to you all.

Next came an extraordinary moment.  Every other driver and family pit crew member formed a receiving line as Barefoot returned to the car and drove it back to the hauler through the infield.   He recognized that scene; it was just as it was when Dale Earnhardt won the 1998 Daytona 500.  Later, Alonzo told him that he hoped that this scene would become an annual tradition.  "What a scene," he said.  "We didn't know what they would think of us, but now-well, one thing's for sure: no one will ever pick on the Barefoot family again!"

The family returned to their Hill Country home and partied long into the night.  Of course, it was none other than Buddy Wayne that performed the music.  The last song of the night put a climax to the evening.  It was the same tune that ended all of his shows:

I must say goodbye to all of you right now,

Bid farewell to family and friends,

But be assured that sooner or later, in some way,

We will be together once again

At this point, there was no doubt.  Buddy Wayne Barefoot would be on Idealia to stay.  There were just too much pride, too much joy, too much happiness for him to go back to the world he once knew.