By the time I'd gotten finished answering questions and giving comments to the various RSN reporters on the track, it was nearing six o clock. As I've said before, I take pride in the way I look; the way my paint shines and how polished my chrome is. So I decided that I needed to wash up a bit before meeting Hud at Smokey's, and luckily there was a tiny little car wash up the road from the track. It must've been good business over there, what with all the racers needing to get a hose down after sand got into every crevice of their bodies and coated their paintwork after the races. I hadn't even been racing that day but just from driving through the sand to get to my viewing spot had left my rocker panels and fenders dirtier than I'd prefer them to be.

I know what you must be thinking. What kind of dirt racer gives a crap about getting some sand in his grill? My answer to that is that I don't mind it on the track; it's expected there, but once a race had finished, I'd prefer a more showroom quality appearance. The magazine In Drive had already done a few photoshoots with me and a couple other 300's. We were of course being shown off as the new models for the year, but Coca-Cola had also taken out their own ad space in the magazine and thus I had to do some extra promo shoots with them. I never minded the photo shoots, and I still don't. I enjoy them a lot, and since I was continuously used (even more so than the other 300's might I add) I can assume others were enjoying my stuff too.

I always washed off rather fast though, which I find kind of ironic considering how highly I hold my appearance. So upon arriving at the carwash that night, I was in and out in less than thirty minutes which gave me some time to fill up with gas. I hadn't been living in Thomasville for more than a week at that point; I was still moving around a lot with the races, and I wasn't yet completely familiar with everything in town yet.

I'd ended up pulling into Smokey's without even realizing it to fill up with gas. He had two pumps outside with a small light so you could see them as you pulled up. His garage sign hadn't lit up yet. It was that time of evening where it was just slightly too dark to register exactly what it said if you weren't already familiar with it, but still too light I supposed to light it up.

I drove over the little pressure plate on the ground in front of the pump that said 'premium' to trigger the little ding of the bell to alert the attendant that a customer had arrived. I popped my hood and gas cap and patiently waited for a little pity or forklift to come out and offer an oil check along with my fuel but was immediately stunned to see Hud himself roll out of the garage and pull up to me. My eyes had gone wide and I stood up a little higher on my suspension than I usually did in surprise.

"Just couldn't get enough of us on the track, huh?"

He offered me a kind smile as he said it and pulled over to the otherside of the pump. I followed him with my eyes.

"I take it I pulled into Smokey's then? I'm still unfamiliar with this town, I was just stopping for some gas before heading your way."

I played it cool and gave a little 'heh' at the end of my response.

"You did. Good timing though. What'll you have?"

Hud looked at me as he prepared to start the pumps. The whole time I was still looking at him over my right fender. I'd already put myself in neutral and my parking brake on so that I wouldn't flick my lights nervously.

"The Fabulous Hudson Hornet serving me? Not what I was expecting."

I laughed and smiled, Hud did the same in return.

"Premium, and if you don't mind, don't stop at the first click. I like to brim my tank."

Hud nodded his hood in reply and clicked the nozzle into my gas tank before he pulled around back in front of me.

"Your hood's popped, I take it you want your oil checked?"

I had completely forgotten that my hood was open and upon being reminded of it I quickly locked it back into place.

"Just a top off on wiper fluid actually if you've got any. I've been running low lately and keep forgetting to get it filled."

I lied. My wiper fluid was fine but I would've felt bad making him check my oil; it wasn't his job and it would've gotten dirty I'm sure. Oil gets everywhere, and he'd clearly gotten cleaned up himself to go out too.

He nodded his hood and drove back into the garage and by the time he had come out, my tank was near overflowing as I liked and he pressed the button to pull the nozzle out. He then drove back in front of me and wheeled an apparatus to fill my wiper fluid towards me, so I popped my hood open fully and sat still while he positioned it and allowed the liquid to flow into the reservoir.

"How much do I owe ya?"

I asked while we waited for the container of wiper fluid to finish.

"Don't worry about it."

He replied nonchalantly as the canister finished. He then pulled the nozzle out from under my hood so I could shut it. He started driving towards the garage with the apparatus so I followed.

"No, no, no. We aren't doing that."

I replied firmly as we drove through the doorway into the light of the garage's interior. Hud placed the filler in a corner while I sat sternly waiting for him to respond.

"Oh we're not?"

He asked playfully with a smirk I'd expect to see out of myself. I knew what he was doing, he was playing alpha and while the concept appealed to me, this was Smokey's place and I wasn't gonna swindle the guy; I could pull my own weight.

Hud remained planted in his spot. He wasn't gonna budge on this unless I made him, but luckily I'm a brat and I spotted the dial-up machine that took down your payment information to my left and drove over to it. It was a newer one by the looks of it, with a dial on the ground where you could spin your tire over it to scroll through numbers and click a button directly next to it to input a digit. I typed out my credit numbers and the last four digits of my vin number, but I hadn't realized Hud had driven up next to me while I was typing until I went to input the price.

"That wasn't seven dollars worth of gas, hotrod."

"I'm a big car."

I replied, and before he could protest, I confirmed the sale and backed away from the machine and turned to face the Hornet with a smirk which he returned.

"I didn't count on you knowing how that thing works."

"My mom runs a detailing shop; I used to run the register."

Hud chuckled and proceeded to start driving out of the garage; I followed.

"Well you've utterly defeated me once now, so what do you say we go grab some celebratory drinks."

Hud spoke as he began to pull out onto the empty road; flicking his lights on. I followed behind and turned my own on before pulling up beside him as we drove down the road to the bar. You could see the bar itself from Smokey's so we didn't even bother turning on our engines to make the short drive, and we didn't talk until we pulled through the front door.

Hud spoke up first as we made our way inside; music was being played by a band of forklifts on the stage in the back left corner.

"Alright fellas, big red over here's with me. He's gonna be racing next season so make him feel welcome."

Hud's voice caused everyone to look over at us and regard us with warm smiles. He led us to a table where a 1950 Nash Ambassador and 1940 Ford V8 Coupe were enjoying some drinks. I recognized the two immediately: Louise Nash and Junior Moon, both highly respected racers in the Piston Cup and part of Hud's friend group.

"Well if it isn't the Fabulous Hudson Hornet and one of the new fellas. What's your name, rookie?"

Louise's voice reminded me of a sweet school teacher; not someone you'd expect to be so aggressive out on the track. I respected her just as much if not more than I did Hud, she fought her way into the sport and showed a bunch of uptight men what a girl could do.

I smiled at her and bowed my hood a bit.

"Daytona Vett, Miss Nash. It's an honor to meet such an inspirational racer and it'll be even more of an honor to race with you."

Louise smiled.

"Northern boy huh? We don't get too many of you 'round here."

I smiled in return as Hud and I settled into our spots at their table.

"I should've guessed my Jersey accent would give me away."

I laughed, as did Louise before responding.

"I've also seen your pictures in the magazines. You 300's are quite the talk of the track and you in particular seem to be leading the pack when it comes to media coverage."

A smile creeped across my bumper at that one.

"My sponsors have been putting me in ads wherever they can."

Hud took that opportunity to put his own two cents in on the topic.

"Can you blame them for wanting to? Pretty Boy over here's a good looking car."

Hud chuckled at the end of his statement with his usual friendly smile.

I however felt my oil run cold. I had started to become a bit suspicious of Hud ever since he offered to fill me up with gas. Now that he was openly almost flaunting me around, my suspicion grew. I was becoming more and more convinced the Hornet wanted to get to know me more… intimately.

"So you convinced Coke to sponsor you next season?"

Junior's voice broke through my thoughts. I had been staring off into space a bit but immediately snapped my attention towards the old race car. The way he looked at me was a bit jarring; he tended to have a bit of a cold stare. I noticed it when he would give interviews so I knew it wasn't necessarily directed at me most likely, just something he did.

"Uh, yeah. Yeah, they actually reached out to me first. I was getting settled into my garage and I got a call from one of their representatives. Said they wanted to talk to me about a potential sponsorship for the '55 season."

Junior seemed to roll his eyes a bit which took me aback, I didn't think I said anything offensive.

"They've turned me down for a sponsorship quite a few times. Guess they prefer new exciting models."

Junior's response came off a bit irritated but not necessarily aimed towards me. He seemed to harbor a bit of resentment for the company which I could understand; being turned down more than once only to see a rookie get it without even asking would leave anyone a bit pissed off in my opinion.

"Junior, you have a mouth on you that would sour just about any big name company out there."

Hud had jumped in with his own retort; seemingly picking up on the awkwardness of the situation. He spoke in a joking tone which earned a giggle out of Louise and even a smirk out of Junior himself. He then turned his attention to me and tapped me with his tire.

"So what's your poison?"

I leaned slightly to my left, angled towards the Hornet to reply.

"I don't drink actually. I have no idea what's good or not, but I would prefer something with some flavor. I don't wanna drink to get drunk. I'd rather enjoy it."

I felt my fenders grow a bit warm. I was afraid I was about to get made fun of for not '"drinking like a man" but Hud simply smiled and drove up to the bar. He returned with something I can't even remember, but it was tasty. I remember it tasting a bit like a soda but with some alcohol in it.

Hud and the others had all ordered what I assumed was a bit less stereotypically girly in this town, but stopped at their second round. It was nice to see that I wouldn't have to babysit three drunk cars. There had been a few nights I and the other 300's I was doing photoshoots with would get so plastered that they'd trade their designer rims with other cars. They'd get chewed out by the magazine reps the next day for showing up with old dented Ford and General Motors hubcaps.

The four of us chatted, told stories and jokes for about an hour and a half. I got them all laughing with stories about the RSN photoshoots, and the shenanigans we pulled on one another. The three other race cars took particular interest in my short but eventful racing career up to that point. They seemed to be extremely curious about my rather unique style of racing. I had learned how to become extremely nimble in corners like a small European sports car rather than relying on my straight line power the other 300's tended to do.

After a while, Junior and Louise excused themselves for the evening. I expressed how nice it was to meet them and they left our table, now only Hud and I remained.

Hud quickly turned his attention towards me once the two other cars had left. He had on his suave smile he did when he was particularly proud of something he'd done in a race.

"So I know you're a great racer, I know you came from Jersey and that your parents run a little detailing shop, and I also know that you're a hell of a lot of fun to talk to; you have a good sense of humor."

Hud then glanced over to our right. I followed his gaze where I saw three girls sitting at a table across the room who kept smirking at me and enticing me to come over to them by blinking flirtatiously. Hud then glanced at me again and started talking which made me fix my attention back on him.

"You also seem to have a few girls swooning over you. You hitched yet?"

I have to say I wasn't expecting the question at all. I was used to cars flirting with me at bars; in fact I was usually the one acting more outwardly interested in the other guys to get the few brave ones to come talk to me. For some reason though, I wasn't expecting it coming from Hud. Maybe it was because I wasn't acting in my usual suave fashion that night because the car I was really interested in was Hud, but either way, I wasn't ready for the sudden shift in mood.

"Not interested in girls."

My reply was short and a common one I'd give if other guy cars asked something similar. It was open ended and left me with room to back track if the guy was looking for trouble, but also left the door open for those who knew what it meant. Call it the early version of fag language.

"Same here. Louise asked me out once, but I told her I don't like fast women."

From the moment he asked the question about being hitched I knew exactly what he was doing. You had to be careful in the 50's when you hit on other guys so loaded language was common among us, and easily picked up by those in the know. Hud's response about Louise told me what I needed to know, and I decided to get bold.

"Fast guys however… different story."

I smirked as Hud nodded his hood once. Our secrets were now out in the open, and common interest between us was established. I didn't even try to slow my tail light flickering at that point.

"You flicker your lights a lot. Nervous habit?"

I have big tail lights, and it's easy to spot them turning on and off if you look down my sides. That being said, Hud was easily able to see that it was tick which made me a bit embarrassed.

"Heh, yeah."

I glanced off to the side to avoid eye contact with him. He chuckled though which made me glance toward him again. Hud then glanced down at my hood.

"Lemme hear it."

I looked at Hud a bit confused. He smirked and lightly tapped my bumper.

"Rev it. I wanna hear it in person."

Now I understood. I started my engine and without even thinking about the fact that we were in a building, I made sure my brakes were on and my transmission in neutral before I gunned my accelerator and let my engine spool up, loudly. The whole time I kept a cocky smirk plastered to my bumper, a bit of showing off on my part was enough to get me over my embarrassment.

Hud's smirk widened and I could've swore he bit the corner of his bumper a bit.

We heard other cars in the bar whistle and say things like "damn!". Hud and I glanced around a bit as they all looked at us for a moment but then turned their attention back to whatever they were doing when they saw that I wasn't planning on doing it again nor was it the start of a bar fight.

We looked back towards one another. Hud suddenly rolled forward and planted a little kiss on my bumper before quickly pulling back. I sat there slightly stunned. I should've expected one of us would start cranking up the heat a bit more, but the fact that the Fabulous Hudson Hornet was the one doing it still didn't seem real to me.

"I don't wanna hookup with you. I wanna get to know you more and go on a couple of dates. You understand what I'm saying?"

Hud spoke in a low tone. He was looking to pursue me long term which I definitely wasn't ready to hear.

I simply nodded my hood.

"Good. Meet me at the track tomorrow morning; 'round 10. There's no race but I wanna see you in action, maybe see a bit more too."

Hud winked which made my fenders go red hot.

I nodded again in reply, and the Hornet left me with another smirk before driving off. I was, as I've now said many times, shocked. I'm getting repetitive but it's the only way I can describe how I was feeling at that moment. I seemed to be glued to my spot for about five minutes before I too left the bar and drove the five minute drive to my garage.

Author's Note:

Hey there! I've decided to post this chapter as you see it now but I'd like some feedback specifically where Daytona mentions that he and the other racers shared stories. Please let me know if you'd like me to add to that part and put some dialogue in there! I wanted to get this chapter out yesterday so I'm a bit antsy about posting it so I'll leave it up to you readers if you'd like to see that scene unfold a bit more! Thank you for reading!