Hey guys! SO this story idea has been on my mind for a while now and I decided it was finally time to put pen to paper so to speak. For future reference of this story, there are Cars 3 spoilers in this story so if you haven't seen it yet and don't want spoilers, don't read. If you don't care, feel free to read on.

Second, I just wanted to let you know that some of the ideas and themes that I am writing about, I don't necessarily believe in. I just thought it would be a cool story to write. If you have any questions on what that entails, I'd be more than happy to PM you about it. But if you don't also feel free to read on.

So without further ado, let's get onto the story! :D

"Cruise, you're too tight on that turn! Loosen your wheels and it will help you make that turn better!"

Smokey heard Lightning McQueen yell out to his protege as they rounded the banked turn in Willy's Butte. He was amazed at how long they had been going at the second turn of the track as McQueen was attempting to teach Cruz how to drift better. He had seen her do it on the track in Thomasville, but here in Radiator Springs she seemed to be getting better at it.

"You hear that Cruz," Smokey gently wheeled forward towards the edge of the hill overlooking the track and called out to the yellow car zipping by, "The old man is telling you to loosen up!"

Cruz laughed loud enough, that it could be heard over the roar of both of the race cars' engines.

"Haha, very funny Smokey," McQueen sent a half-hearted glare towards the truck as he rounded the track near Smokey's location. Smokey could tell that McQueen had long since given up at trying to convince others that he wasn't that much older than them.

Smokey loved watching those two practice. It was like good old times when he would get Hud to practice on a dirt track much like this. He remembered when he first taught Doc how to drift and he could remember how excited his student was when he finally drifted around the last turn to the finish line during a practice run. He could practically feel the excitement radiate off of the blue paint that Doc wore all the time after that.

Boy what he would give to have Doc sitting next to him watching these two race.

"Beautiful isn't it?" Smokey backed up out of instinct thinking that the voice he heard wasn't real and it was all in his head. But what he saw next was beyond anything he could have ever imagined.

Doc Hudson was sitting next to him, smiling and looking as if he wasn't dead.

"But...but you are..."

"Dead?" Hudson finished his mentor's sentence before wheeling a bit forward to glance down at his star pupil, "I am still very much so. I was just granted one last chance to see you both in person."

"Us both?" Smokey was still having a hard time believing that HIS protege was sitting right there next to him, watching as McQueen and Cruz continued their laps around the track.

"You and Lightning," Doc wheeled back from the edge of the hill when he saw McQueen round the corner and glance up in Smokey's direction.

"Oh. Then why are you backing up?" Smokey noticed this gesture, "I can bring him right in if you..."

"No, I want to see him in person by himself. I have some things I would like to tell him."

Smokey respected that, despite the urge to press for an answer as to what he wanted to say to McQueen.

"Who's the kid racing with him?" Smokey failed to notice that Doc had rolled up to the curve once again and watched the two younger members of the racing tree (Spin on family tree) continued running circles around each other.

"That is Cruz Ramirez," Smokey gestured to the yellow blur that just blazed past the two elder cars, "She is McQueen's trainer turned protege."

Doc just stared and watched in silence.

"Cruz what are you doing?" Doc heard Lightning call out to the yellow vehicle as she took a shortcut across the middle of the Butte and ended up in front of McQueen.

"I am racing, what do you think?"

Smokey and Doc chuckled at the same time when the heard McQueen give Cruz a mini lecture on cheating in a race.

"Wait protege?" Doc turned towards his mentor and friend in surprise.

"You don't know what happened do you?"

"Not much no," Smokey pressed his lips together in a surprised confusion before gesturing for Doc to follow him to Doc's old barn.

Inside it remained much the same as Doc remembered it. First, it was still filled with boxes and parts from Mater's junkyard that happened to find its way inside.

But what really caught Doc's eyes were the many newspaper clippings that plastered one of the walls. Some had pictures of different races that McQueen had one and others were of him at interviews.

The one though that really piqued his interest was one of a picture of a car that was almost completely unrecognizable by just the pictures. It was of a race car that sported a red paint job all crumpled on the side of the road, having just crashed. It also showed several cars in the background that Doc couldn't make out.

"Who's that?" Doc continued to eye it and off the corner of his eye, noticed that Smokey had noticed what he was looking at.

He just stared at Doc waiting for the gears to click into place. Doc continued to study the picture and only then did he notice the faint symbol of Lightning's sponsor adorning the hood of the wrecked car in the picture.

"No it can't be," Doc wheeled closer and saw that the cars in the background were none other than Sally, Mater, Luigi and Guido who all were rushing towards their friend.

Smokey recounted the events leading up to Smokey meeting McQueen. He told him about how McQueen went to find a trainer, which happened to be Cruz and then told him about the events leading up to his arrival in Thomasville. Even though he hadn't watched or had known exactly what had happened to McQueen during the time between his wreck and when he met him, he tried his best to tell Doc all of what McQueen told him.

But with pride, Smokey recanted the race he witnessed. He spared no detail in how McQueen moved up in the pack, but then gave up his spot of the track to let Cruz race her first.

"McQueen gave up his racing tires to let her race her first race," Smokey turned toward the ghostly figure of Doc Hudson and watched as Hud studied the pictures intensely. Each of them depicted McQueen in the crew chief stand sporting Doc's racing colors and with Cruz racing along the track.

Doc remained silent. He didn't even know that his protege would do something like that in his life. Letting go of racing was the hardest thing for him to do and he couldn't imagine what it had done to McQueen.

Doc mindlessly wheeled out of the shop and back down to the track and found McQueen and the yellow car, Cruz, sitting on the track completely out of breath, just talking over some things.

"Since McQueen has taken over as her crew chief, she's won every race she's run so far," Smokey pointed to the pair.

Doc just smiled.

"Are you sure you don't want me to bring him in to see you?"

"I'm sure!" Smokey just stared at Doc. He watched the delight flicker through the blue car's eyes as he watched Lightning and Cruz make one more lap and then back up towards them.

"Last one to Flo's buys!" Smokey's thoughts were disrupted when Cruz blasted past him in a mad dash back for town.

"No fair Cruz!" Lightning soon followed suit and also began making his way back towards town, "You know you're faster than me!"

"I know!"

"That never gets old, does it Hud?" Smokey turned to face Hudson one last time, but found him to be nowhere in sight.

Smokey looked around for a few more seconds, before his eyes settled on the tire tracks left in the dirt. He smiled.

"Thank you Doc," And with that Smokey wheeled off towards town.