Lightning McQueen was at Charlotte Motor Speedway on a beautiful Friday Morning. His Best Friend — Dale Earnhardt Jr, was suiting up ready to qualify for tomorrow's race in the NASCAR Xfinity Series.

Lightning was on his 88 pit box, with his crew chief. Lightning pushed his short/long hair to the side, the red haired man wore a Mario T-shirt and a pair of cargo shorts. Dale stepped into his car and got everything set up, his crew chief closed the window net and he started the engine to the car.

Lightning watched him ease onto the track — hopefully he can get into a good enough position to start off with. He turned to Dale's crew chief, an older man with brown hair and some wrinkles, wearing the same racing suit as him. Lightning wasn't wearing a suit, but he was just watching his best friend qualify.


Saturday morning rolled around, Lightning was up in the pits. eating a breakfast burrito, Phillip Bell turned to him and said; "Dude. Can you eat that somewhere else?"

Lightning turned to Philip, His remainder of his burrito in his left hand. "I'm almost done." he said, taking a bite out of it and wiping his hands with a napkin. "There," Lightning said. "Happy now, dude?"

"Very." he said, leaning back in his seat and watching the red, yellow and black Bass Pro Shops car speed onto the track.

"You got this bro!" Lightning said, into the headset.

"I'm gonna try to!" Dale commented through the headset to the Nintendo Sprint Cup driver. Lightning watched him do another lap, he qualified in tenth place. Dale drove the car into pit road, dropped the window net and climbed out, His helmet off, he went up to the pit box to grab a pair of shades and put them over his blue eyes.

"You did great, man!" Lightning told his best friend.

The brunette smiled, and gave him a fist bump. Lightning got a text from his wife, Jordyn Fox, now Jordyn McQueen. they'd gotten married six months ago, Lightning opened it up and saw that Spark — his son, got accepted into his basketball team, and Leam and Matt got into the team as well, they were all holding up their jerseys, Spark with the number 95 on the back, Liam, and Matt were holding up the numbers 3 and 88.

"Dude, our sons made it on the team!"

"No way! let me see." Dale said, taking off his sunglasses and squinting his eyes so he could see the picture.

Leam's, Matt's and Sparks' Jersey's were the same color — red. Their school's team name was the Charlotte Chargers. Jordyn sent another one of her and her son taking a picture together.

Amy was also there, holding up the red number 3, while kneeling down to their level.

״That's so cool! I'll ask her when's the first game." Dale said, Lightning unzipped his shorts pocket and pulled out a blue iPhone 15 and Amy sent him the pictures of their boys.

Lightning felt proud of his son for making the team, he was excited to see them all play together on the same team.

Spark, Leam and Matt met each other when they were in preschool; Lightning's late wife loved having them over the house and playing with their son. and Amy loved having them over so they could all play LEGOs or race cars.

Lightning still has Sally's videos saved on his phone when Spark was a baby and up until age nine. Lightning wished that she could see him now. He's really become a very smart and handsome boy, just like his dad.


Dale was with Lightning at a restaurant, Dale was eating his caesar salad, while Lightning picked at his tuna tartare with his fork. Lightning was wearing his AirPods, Dale saw his best friend, fork in his left hand. Lightning then started to eat.

"Lightning? you alright, dude?" he asked him.

Lightning looked up from the former Sprint Cup driver and nodded. "I'm fine… Just nerves."

"You sure?"

"Yeah… Just forget about it." He said. Dale nodded and went back to his salad. But something seems… Off, Dale could sense it. Lightning was making him worried, but he shrugged it off and ate his food.


Okay, you got this…. Let's race ! Dale told himself as he was driving to the green flag.

"And they're off! Number 88 is weaving through the pack."

It was now a few hours in, Dale was on the second to last lap. He was doing well, Number 7 — Justin Allgaier was coming for his spot, Justin's car swerved out of control and crashed into Dale at a dangerously fast rate.

Lightning held his breath as he saw his best friend's car fly up into the air, his hands shook as he stood up from his seat in the pit box. Lightning couldn't hold back anymore.

"DALE!" the Nintendo driver screamed out. Phillip turned his head to see Lightning jump off onto the track, it was filled with smoke, Lightning sprinted to his car and unhooked the window net.

"Come on buddy, come on!" he unclipped the seatbelts and dragged him out, Lightning took his helmet off and tossed it to the side. Lightning put his ear up to his chest, his heart was still beating and he let out a breath of relief.

Lightning saw the infield medics come in. Lightning did a double take, debating on what grabbed his best friend and carried him piggyback style. the Nintendo Racer sprinted to the hospital. Lightning was holding onto the man's ankles as he was running. Lightning was sprinting down the sidewalk, avoiding people.

"Sorry, sir!" he said as a man almost dropped his cup of coffee that he had in his hand. Lightning made it there, he felt the cool air enter his body, as he stopped at the receptionist desk.

"My friend needs help!" Lightning said, nearly in tears. The woman called for a stretcher and wheeled him off into the ER. Lightning sat on a chair in the waiting room and put some music on, He put on a song by Skillet.

If I wasn't here tomorrow would anybody care

If my time was up I'd wanna know

You were happy I was there

If I wasn't here tomorrow would anyone lose sleep

If I wasn't hard and hollow

Then maybe you would miss me

I know I'm a mess and I wanna be someone

Someone that I'd like better

I can never forget, so don't remind me of it forever

Lightning thought of the day they'd met. The day of the accident


A young Lightning Andrew McQueen walked into the garage after watching his father race, Lightning had his access pass around his neck to get into the pits, Lightning saw him in his Budwiser racing suit, Dale Earnhardt Jr. The ten year old saw his father Dale Earnhardt Sr. hit the wall in turn two. Dale looked up at the boy

Lightning had short red hair, he wore his Father's Blockbuster jacket. He also wore a pair of Air Jordan sixteen OGs in white and red. He also wore a Blockbuster hat, he had a blue shirt that had his number on it, Number 54. Lightning stood still, watching time slow to a stop.

What if I just pulled myself together

Would it matter at all

What if I just tried not to remember

Would it matter at all

All the chances that have passed me by

Would it matter if I gave it one more try

Would it matter at all

Lightning moved his feet, he wanted to check on Dale to see how he's doing, but Lightning saw that he wasn't doing good. He wanted to make him feel better. The boy walked up towards the man sitting on the bench with his head in his hands.

If I wasn't here tomorrow would anybody care

Still stuck inside this sorrow

I got nothin' and going nowhere

I know I'm a mess and I wanna be someone

Someone that I'd like better

I can never forget, so don't remind me of it forever

"Um… Excuse me?" Lightning said the red haired boy stood there, he was nervous as all heck right now, he was talking to someone who just lost their family member a few minutes ago.

What if I just pulled myself together

Would it matter at all

What if I just tried not to remember

Would it matter at all

All the chances that have passed me by

Would it matter if I gave it one more try

Would it matter at all

Lightning took a deep breath and sat next to the racer on the bench, Dale looked up, his dirty blonde hair was sticking to his forehead, Dale's blue eyes were red and puffy from crying.

I know I'm a mess and I wanna be someone

Someone that I'd like better

Can you help me forget, don't wanna feel like this forever

Forever

Lightning and Dale looked at each other for a few minutes before Lightning said anything, but he didn't know how to, he couldn't just say; "Hi, I'm Lightning McQueen, I'm sorry for the loss of your father, do you want to get your mind off it?" He was only ten! He didn't know anything about this sensitive topic!

What if I just pulled myself together

Would it matter at all

What if I just tried not to remember

Would it matter at all

All the chances that have passed me by

Would it matter if I gave it one more try

Lightning finally said something to the number 8 driver. It wasn't something but he had to try.

"You really miss him, don't you?" Dale nodded and began to speak, this is the first time he spoke in a while.

"Yeah… I do. You don't know how much I do, and I drove past him…"

Lightning wanted to hug him as tight as he could at that moment in time, the boy leaned over and hugged his side, The racer looked at the boy clinging to him Dale couldn't help but wipe his tears away and smile. Junior leaned into him, wrapped his arms around the ten year old boy's body as they hugged each other.

If I left tomorrow would anybody care

Stuck in this sorrow

Going nowhere

All the chances that have passed me by

Would it matter if I gave it one more try

Would it matter at all

Just then, someone walked in, he had blonde hair, but he wasn't dirty blonde like Dale's. He also had icy blue eyes like Lightning' Eli McQueen walked into the number 8 pit garage, Dale looked up and sighed.

Wilson put a hand on his shoulder and stood next to them as Lightning and Dale sat on the bench. Lightning saw his father

"How are you doing?" Wilson asked.

Dale hung his head, he looked at his friend, Wilson knew what he was going though.

"Better than a few minutes ago…." Dale said. "I was so scared… Terrified. I knew he's been through a lot of accidents in his NASCAR career, but I thought that he was going to pull through and be walking again in a week, like he always does."

Wilson nodded. Lightning kept on hugging the racer as tears were forming in his eyes. Wilson smiled. He was proud of his son for keeping him company as he was grieving.

He was a good kid.

Wilson smiled and he grabbed Lightning and they said their goodbyes.

Lightning clinged onto his suit and looked at his father.

"What's up, little man?" he smiled

"Dad?" He asked.

Wilson smiled softly, holding onto his son. "What's up?"

" Please don't leave like Dale's father…" he said.

Wilson had no promises, but Lightning was asking him to do something that he couldn't control. That was a part of life, But. Wilson nodded and tried to keep his promise to his son.

Which he did…


Lightning jolted out of his thoughts and took his AirPods out, he put them back in its case and shut it. He saw the doctor walk up to him.

"He's out of surgery." Lightning held his breath. And what the doctor said next was reliving.

"He's going to be fine, you got him here in time, I saw you sprint out of the stadium to get Dale here, you two must be close." he said

Lightning nodded his head. "Yeah… We met twenty two years ago. Then again when I was starting out as a Nextel Cup driver."

The doctor nods. Lightning hoped that he could see him.

"Can I see him?" he nods.

Lightning and the doctor went up to the elevator to his room, The doctor walked out and escorted him to Dale's hospital room, Lightning walked in, Dale's eyes looked directly at Lightning, he smiled and held his fist up. "Hey, dude. how are you feeling?" Lightning said, giving his fist a bump.

Dale put his hand down as Lightning grabbed a chair next to his bedside.

"How are you feeling, Dale?"

"Fine…. Alive… Thank god I'm alive…."

"I thought you were dead… You didn't wake up…"

"Where strong, Lightning…. Well, I thought we were." Dale said, remembering.

Lightning hung his head in remorse for his best friend. He felt sorry for him. How he has to go through the milestones without him, his concussions, retirement from the Sprint Cup series, the arrival of his sons. Lightning put a hand on his arm, the short/long haired man looked at him.

"I'm glad you're still here Earnhardt…" Lightning said. "Hey, when you get better. How about a couple rounds of Mario Wonder on the Switch? we can invite Chanler and the others, even Cal Weathers can come."

"Thanks, dude. I'm so glad to have a best friend like you by your side. Thank you for everything that you and your father did for me back then…." Dale said, trying to hold back tears. "I knew that I would meet such an amazing person…"

Lightning's eyes filled with tears next. "Thanks, Dale….. You know I love you right? In a best friend way of course."

"I love you too, dude…" he said, Dale and Lightning both shared a hug.