#nascar 2019

[deansraspberrypie]

❤😍 Grand Marshal Jensen Ackles 😘🔥

NASCAR 2019

Jensen’s Insta Stories

🍰 Tag list: @avanatural @undisputedchick2 @jranutter @fortheloveof-jackles @kazsrm67 @muchamusedaboutnothing @breath-of-snow-and-ashes @bluedragonflylady @mrsjenniferwinchester @unabashed-lover-of-fictional-men 🥧

[dozydawn]

[sortanonymous]

Meta Knightmare Bonus Plans Under the Cut (+ Announcement for Meta Knightmare IV)

Once it's been a bit after finishing Meta Knightmare (either February-April next year for its second anniversary or maybe sooner if I feel like it), I feel like making a separate fic that's like a commentary track on a Blu-Ray. Basically commenting on and giving behind-the-scenes info on certain lines as it goes along. (Don't worry, considering how it will have taken me well over four years to write all of this darn thing, I doubt I'll be struggling to find much to say.) And there may be more cool Meta Knightmare "bonus feature" works to be published in the sorta-distant future like some very old drafts, my private first Kirby fanfic series from 2019 (don't get your hopes up for that one to be unironically good though), and, if I have time for it, perhaps a whole documentary-style "fic" on how it all came to be.

It's honestly exciting for me to think about (even if, well, there's a reason that 2019 fic and those 2020-21 MKM drafts have been left to rot at the middle of my Google Drive for so long), but of course, I kinda need to write the fourth one. And I'll just say that there's no 131% guarantee that I finish this by the date I want. It's totally doable, but my mind could absolutely drift from it yet again, I've got the last quarter of the school year to do, and I'm frankly kind of intimidated by the idea of writing out what I've planned for MKMIV. (I have a weird attitude where when it takes so much time to do something and I get to the point where I can see the final mountaintop, it just makes that homestretch to paydirt look the most daunting. Yeah, I've already completed 76 chapters and have just about 22 left to write, but that just makes those last 22 look like the longest chapters ever - which in fairness, a lot of them will probably be very, very, very long.)

That said, if all goes according to plan and I don't jump the gun at any point, at the very latest...

Saturday, June 1st, 2024. 5:00 p.m. ET. Save The Date IV The Unforgettable Star-Studded Finale.

I know, I would have preferred to drop that after a mini knightmare fic again, too. And I might try to wrap up some mini fic idea I barfed out half of during a sick day recently and publish that, but no promises.

[percocet]

jenson button p34. guenther steiner on comms. ryan blaney down in the dust. bubba wallace out. once again cota commits violence against me

[ryanthedemiboy]

As a queer trans NASCAR fan, I highly recommend it! And now is a great time to join — they've really put a lot of effort into making it a safe place for everyone.

They're certainly not perfect, but they've done a great job with this.

They have a diversity program to help non-white folks afford being a racer, at every level.

They fined and booted a racer a couple years ago for saying the n word, and he could only come back after completing a... sensitivity training course? I don't remember the correct phrase. But it took him months to come back.

They even banned him from iRacing and other NASCAR leagues — he raced in indycar to keep in shape (yes, shape. Seriously.) while he was out.

I don't have the attention span to talk about how amazing nascar is, but it is genuinely amazing.

The fuel they use, btw, is specifically made for NASCAR from corn.

The season starts in February, and ends in November.

I won't go on any more about it, but it's so fucking good.

enough reclaiming slurs, I think in 2023 we should reclaim nascar. they banned the confederate flag on all properties & their stance on lgbtq+ isn’t just performative bc in 2013 they fined a driver 10k for using a homophobic slur, condemned indiana in a statement for an anti lgbt law, and partnered w carolina’s lgbt+ chamber of conference in 2022. nascar was founded by anti-cop moonshiners/bootleggers who drove suped-up fords to out-run the police. #yaaascar

[blusical]

NOOO DILLON :(

[karmaalwayswins]

S1apSh0es "The Worst Sponsors, Team Owners, and Track Promoters in NASCAR history" (2019)

[dennyhamlin-11]

[caesium-55]

—seven days. [ vi.ii ]

pairing: max verstappen x manager! reader.

summary: as the third time world champion, max verstappen's manager, you function on the belief that whatever max verstappen wanted, max verstappen shall get. but this time, after four years of working as his manager, you can't give him what he wants anymore and that was to stay.

author's note: guess who's not listening in her calculus lecture rn. also, wifi is acting funny rn.

tags: @whatamidoingwithmylife-ramdom @eugene-emt-roe @bellezaycafe @barnestatic @theseerbetweenus @wcnorris @notyouraveragemochii @lpab @vildetry06 @a-beaverhausen @formula1mount @loloekie @alucardsdaddyissues @juky-ps @cassianswh0reeee @devotedlycrookeddonut @amberpanda99 @supermaxv1 @evie-119 @spideylovin @harianaswhore @formulaal

masterlist.

2020

There have been a lot of new protocols to follow. Social distancing. Wearing face masks. Races being rescheduled. Australia, China, Netherlands, Monaco, Azerbaijan, Canada, and France are canceled. Vietnam is postponed. The first race of the season takes place in the Red Bull Ring in Austria and Max gets a fucking DNF.

After exchanging Instagram accounts in December, Max has spent a normal amount of time stalking your feed. That's what you do when you’re trapped inside your apartment alone because of a global health crisis, you explore the online world.

It seems like you’ve been operating the account since your university days and a lot of your posts show a side of you that’s different from the manager he knows. He learns that you play billiards competitively. You've even reached an Australian tournament. He learns that you watch NASCAR and motocross and drift racing. He learns that you know how to drive a firetruck. He learns that you like partying in LA and you took up volunteer work in the LA fire brigade around your sophomore year. He learns that you’re particularly fond of taking pictures of the skies at different times of the day and the things you’re studying. He notices that you only post group selfies or low angle blurry selfies of you. You don't take pretty pictures of just you.

The oldest post is a photo of you offering a middle finger while smiling and filling up the gas tank of a truck. You're also wearing a red sweatshirt with the letters USC written at the front and skinny ripped jeans. If you swipe right, the next photo shows a picture of you and your group of friends writing on papers on the hood of the truck. Max sees numbers and scratches and crossed out sketches. Max notices a canned beer on your other hand while you press down on your scientific calculator buttons and shakes his head. You do not change.

The latest post is a photo dump of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in 2019. A picture of the aerial show, grainy zoomed in pictures of the garage, selfies with the mechanics, a bathroom mirror selfie, and a blurry picture of a beer in your hand from the after party. He presses like in every post, latest to the oldest.

you: fucking stalker

max: fuck you

max: *sent a photo*

max: nice teeth by the way

you: i hate you

you: *sent a photo*

you: ya think im the only one who looks ugly with braces?

Since then, Max’s relationship with you has considerably improved. The two of you spend a lot of nights dm-ing each other on Instagram and sending each other reels.

max: SOS

you: ??

max: I THINK THE STOVE IS ON FIRE

you: the stove is supposed to have fire

max: ITS ON FIRE

You and Max sit on the floor, back against the kitchen counter, chest heaving in quick breaths, shoulders bumping against each other. You hold the fire extinguisher close to your chest and your eyes are closed and your lips are parted a little. Max observes your side profile.

You're not a categorically attractive woman. But with the way the sun rays enter Max’s kitchen window and hit your face at all the right angles, you look like someone worth missing a sunset over. Max allows himself to stare and mentally tries to convince himself that this is a very normal amount of staring at one’s manager slash friend.

He’s crossing the line that divides friendship and something unnamed.

“Do you need me to call maintenance so we can get your stove replaced?”

Max nods.

“Yes please.”

You post a new picture on Instagram after a long period of dryness. Max gets a notification. He checks it out.

The caption reads: meet my full time dog and part time boyfriend

The picture is blurry and grainy but Max can make out your face perfectly. There’s a billiard table. Max sees a person in the background. A man. He's wearing a Williams shirt.

Is that a racer? Max immediately thinks of Nicholas Latifi. You and him are around the same age. But the blurry man in the picture doesn't look like Nicholas. The hair color and the build is different. George, maybe? He’s a year younger than Max. Do you prefer your men younger? Scratch that. That’s impossible. Max knows he has a girlfriend named Carmel or Carmen or something.

max: you have a boyfriend

you: youre fast

max: when did this happen?

you: uh

you: earlier?

Max resists the urge to hurl his phone across the room.

max: details [name]

max: i need details

you: nuh uh kid you havent unlocked that level of friendship yet

you: that's friendship level 8 ur still on level 6

max: i will hunt you down and force you to tell me

max: and don't call me kid i'm one year younger than you

you: id like to see you try

max: i think u forgot im the one who gave you the apartment where u live rn

You introduce Leo to Max a month later.

Leo is a British brunette guy with a face that one would consider mid in Europe but a ten in the US. He is one of the Williams mechanics. You mention that he used to do karting as a kid and even went up to F3 but he’s decided to discontinue his racing career because he thinks engineering and the technical aspects of a formula car is far more interesting than racing.

He’s basically the complete opposite of Max.

He’s a good guy, Max can tell. He’s well-mannered, he’s calm, he knows how to treat you right. Above all else, he makes you the happiest. You have the most genuine and beautiful smile on your face when he comes into your view.

He also handles your relationship very maturely. He doesn't demand. He understands that you work for different racing teams with different jobs and that means different priorities.

The weekly IG posts are also too cute. It looks like it came out of a Pinterest board.

Max will never tell you that he spends a good hour every time you post something with Leo in it like an obsessive freak. He tries to make sense of the feeling in his chest. Something green. Something ugly. Something he can't name.

Max should be happy that you found a guy as great as Leo. But he cannot, for the life of him, be fully happy for you. He doesn't know why.

“PR told me that you received a dinner invite from Kelly Piquet,” you state, sitting down on the empty chair across from him and putting your packed lunch on the table. You carefully lay the folded clothes on the other chair. Max deduces they will be the ones he’ll be wearing for the interview scheduled in about two hours. You already sent him the list of questions in his email but he hasn't opened them yet.

“Yeah,” Max says after swallowing. “She’s been sending invites since two months ago.”

“And you left her on seen?”

Max scoffs, “I didn't leave her on seen. I just…well, I saw them late and declined them politely.”

He knows Kelly Piquet. He’s aware of the history she shared with former Red Bull Racing now Toro Rosso driver, Daniil Kvyat. Max also knows she’s the daughter of Nelson Piquet, retired Formula One champion. He thinks it's rude to take the guy’s ex-girlfriend after he’s taken his seat in Red Bull.

“She’s interested in you,” you claim, opening the tupperware and quickly saying grace before digging in.

Max is not good with dealing with women. Twenty-three years old and he’s still girlfriend-less. But he knows how to recognize people who are interested in him. A significant number of women have tried their chances with him since he began racing professionally and he may have used you as some sort of getaway driver to get him out of all the awkward situations where he has to deal with women who are interested in him.

You have a very scary resting bitch face if you try hard enough. Its efficiency in scaring off people is proven to be, well, efficient.

“Yeah, I suppose.”

“Are you interested in her?” you question.

Max thinks about it. Really thinks about it.

“Do you think it’ll be good if I get a girlfriend?” he throws you a question instead of an answer.

“You're twenty-three, man. It's about time you start doin’ somethin’ about your empty dating history.”

Max nose scrunches but doesn't say anything because it's the truth. His dating history is hilariously empty.

“What’s your opinion of Kelly?”

“Uh, cool pussy, I guess. Don't really care.”

Max rolls his eyes, “You’re so crude.”

You shrug uncaringly.

“But I don't mind who you wanna date, man. I mean, it's your life. Date who you wanna date. Live the life you wanna live. All the jazz and shedazzle.”

Max accepts the dinner invite.

The 2020 season ends with Hamilton standing at the top, officially becoming a seven-time world champion. Bottas is behind him. Verstappen, like 2019, still stands in third place. Max vows 2020 will be the last year Hamilton becomes a world champion. The team doesn't hold a big afterparty like it usually does and Max flies home to Monaco immediately.

It's been months since he's started seeing Kelly and the woman is pleasant company. Her daughter, Penelope, is the most adorable human being that ever stepped on Earth. Max loves the little bean with all his heart and he himself is surprised that he’s capable of loving a little human this much. He’s practically convinced that he’ll be a shitty father one day. He does not have a good model figure to look up to when it comes to fatherhood.

Little P, Max learns, is obsessed with crocheted things. Max sees her little bags and little hats—all crocheted. Kelly says she pays their housekeeper to make things for little Penelope because she likes them so much.

Max decides he wants to learn how to crochet. He buys the material and learns through hundreds of Youtube videos. His first masterpiece is a bag. It's white and light orange. He shows it to his mum, who questions how on Earth did her son take an interest in a hobby other than racing or anything car-related. Despite that, she compliments it and Max feels confident that you’ll like it, too, now that he’s gotten his mother’s approval.

He finishes making it by the eighteenth day of December and he calls you, hoping he has the chance to give it before you fly down to Texas for the off-season. But you already left Monaco, just the day before and are now spending the first few weeks of the break in New Zealand with Leo.

“So it's serious?” Max asks you over the phone. He stares at the dark sky in Belgium. There's no stars tonight. Only the moon and it’s looking down at him like it's mocking him. Max wonders what the sky looks like in New Zealand right now.

“Of course,” you say.

“Well then, enjoy the holidays.”

“You, too, man.”

The call ends.

2021

Max sees you enter the Red Bull hospitality. The first thing he notices is that your shoes are brand new. Same model—the black and gold YSL Opyum heels, yes he knows the name because he searched it on Google—but brand new. Your bag is also brand new and it’s not the old cream-colored tote bag with peach prints. It's a cream-colored tote bag with Van Gogh’s painting—the Starry Night—printed at the front. You show it to Max excitedly and tell him that it's from Leo, the bag and the shoes, and Max fakes a smile the whole time. When he returns to his room in the evening, he throws the crochet bag he made over December in the trash bin. Kelly sees it but she doesn't question it.

“PR suggests that you film a Tiktok.”

Max groans, throwing his head back and rolling his eyes to the back of his head.

“Tell them no.”

“Come on, it’ll be fun,” you encourage him, shaking his shoulders. “There's a lot of dance trends right now.”

“I said no, [Name].”

“Max.”

You throw your hands on your waist, looking at him pointedly with your lips pursed. Max returns the stare.

He gives up after five seconds.

“Fine.”

You huff in triumph.

“But you’re doing it with me,” Max bargains.

“Oh come on,” you throw your hands in the air.

“Now you know how it feels. Tell PR that I’m not going to film a Tiktok unless you film it with me,” Max smiles cheekily.

You're not going to film a Tiktok video with him. He knows you hate filming yourself and posting it for the public. There's a reason why you avoided cameras as if it’s the sun and you're a vampire and had all your social media accounts in private.

You pull an unexpected move and you nod your head.

“Fine.”

Max’s smile drops.

You film a Tiktok using Red Bull Racing’s official Tiktok account. A simple dance. Max does not know the title. The steps are simple and it's easy to memorize. He believes he can do this fairly easily. You don't look like you’re having fun while memorizing the dance steps but you're not overly struggling.

You film the video in three takes. When Max sees the final outcome, he cringes. His long limbs look awkward as he performs the steps despite thinking that he’s doing fine while filming it. You, on the other hand, look fine.

You look good while dancing actually. There’s a certain grace that accompanied your movements.

“You dance good,” Max comments.

“It’s the Latina in me,” you claim, raising your chin a little.

Max snorts.

You show the draft video to the PR team. Without hesitation, they scratched it.

“Why?” Max asks, brows furrowing.

“Apparently, they're too tired releasing statements that we’re not dating. They're afraid that the Tiktok video would bring back our dating rumors,” you roll your eyes. “They’ve decided to just make you do a Tiktok filter game.”

Max does the one filter where he has to solve the simple math equations projected on the screen. He has to tilt his head to the side where the right answer is placed and he needs to do it quickly.

Max is not bad at Mathematics. He’s not good at it either. He’ll say that he’s just average at it like every human being on Earth.

You sit beside him, barking him the answers before his brain can even process and perform the required operations.

“60 points. That's not good enough,” he says.

You nod, “Damn right. You're not tilting your head to the right answer fast enough.”

“Maybe you're not giving the answers quick enough.”

The video gets more than ten takes. The two of you don't stop until you get the perfect score.

Monza is a disaster. To summarize: the 53-lap race is won by Daniel Ricciardo, who has now moved to McLaren. He capitalizes on a good front-row start and the crash between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton to take the race lead. Lando, Daniel’s teammate comes in second with Mercedes' Valtteri Bottas in third. Max and Lewis—DNF.

Max doesn't remember the last time he’s been that angry and the anger doubles when he sees the seven-time world champion celebrate on the tracks. Max then decides that he’s going to be more risky, especially now that he knows how safe the car is. Max is willing to risk his life for number one.

Max lies in the medical bay and he hears voices outside. Too many voices. He’ll appreciate it greatly if the voices disappear. He's too angry right now that the noise of the outside world is too much.

“Max?”

The voices disappear and it's only you he can see, he can hear, he can feel. You're everything.

You said it. His name. It sounds even better than he imagined.

“[Name].”

After making sure he’s okay, you tell Max that you wish to go to Danny and congratulate him for winning. Max grabs your hand, unwilling to let go.

“You're not his manager anymore,” Max reminds you. “You're mine.”

He’s very much aware that he sounds like a child who refuses to let his older brother borrow his favorite toy but he cannot find himself to care. Screw Daniel.

You give him a long look but follows his demands anyway, “We’re gonna congratulate him later whether you like it or not. He’s our friend and he just got P1. We’re gonna be happy for him 'cuz that's what friends do. I’ll drag your ass to his hotel room if I have to.”

Jos Verstappen is not happy. When has he ever been happy with Max anyway? He calls Max after the Monza race and proceeds to yell because that’s all he ever does with Max. He yells. Max is embarrassed that he’s twenty-three and he’s still getting yelled at by his own father.

“Your Dad’s an asshole,” you stated after he ends the call. Max knows you heard his father’s voice even though he has not put the call on loudspeaker.

“Don't talk to my Dad like that,” he reprimands, though not unkindly. “But yeah, he is.”

You snort, “You okay?”

Max lets out a shaky breath, nodding weakly.

"Yeah, I'm fine. You would think that after all this time I would get used to it but I don't know. It still makes me feel so uncomfortable and like I'm doing everything wrong even though I've been doing that for such a long time now and I've achieved so many things he asked for."

Your gaze softens and Max mentally begs that you stop looking at him like that. He does not want your pity. Pity is for the weak. Max is not weak.

You open your arms, “Rein it in, big guy.”

“What are you doing?”

“You need a hug.”

Max hesitates but he invites himself to your arms anyway. He allows himself to melt. In your arms, he feels like he's home and that he's good enough.

The breakup happens two race weekends later. Max is not dumb nor is he so emotionally indifferent that he cannot sense if a person is going through a breakup especially if that person is someone so close to him. He already knows there’s something wrong and he knows exactly what’s wrong and yet he still asks, “What's wrong?”

“Nothin’,” you say a little too quickly as if you already know that Max is going to ask the question.

“[Name],” his fingers circle around your wrist. “It's not nothing. Your eyes are red. Have you been crying?”

He wants you to open up. He wants you to say something. He wants you to share the heartache you carry so it won't feel heavy on your shoulders. He wants to be someone who’ll carry your problems with you when the world feels too big and you too small.

You sigh shakily, forcing a polite smile. Your hand comes up to squish Max’s cheek in between your palms and Max’s brows rise slightly at the action. Your hands feel cold and they’re trembling slightly and Max wants to point it out, but he sees how your lips wobble and his mind just blanks, “It's not important. You only have one thing to think about and that is to win. You hear me?”

Max considers marching to the Williams Racing livery and demanding for Leo Stark but he chooses not to. You won't want him to, anyway.

Max never realizes how horrifying blood is until he sees it dripping down the side of your head. He watches as your face changes from shock to realization to absolute anger. It’s like watching you transform from human to a rabid animal who wants to shed blood. At first, he tries to pull you away and calm you down. When he sees the girl’s boyfriend appear, Max joins the fight. No man is allowed to hit you. Not on his watch.

The higher-ups are not the happiest when they learn of what happened. The PR team is having a field day as well. Someone captured the event in video and posted it online. Max has been given a script for the video he’ll have to do to save his image but it’s written differently. Different in a way that the way the words are arranged feels odd to him unlike the way you write your scripts for Max. You write the scripts as if Max is the one who writes them. You write the script in a way Max will write them. Because you know him enough to know what kind of words he wants to use and how he’ll phrase things. You choose words that are easy on his tongue and you structure the sentences so that he can memorize them easily.

Helmut is the one who says, “She should leave the team.”

“If you fire her, I’m leaving,” Max decides.

Christian narrows his eyes at him, “You won't dare.”

“Try me,” he challenges. “I am willing to pay millions to leave if she leaves.”

The other teams want him, Max knows. They know he’s rising to stardom, a racer who can stand equal to Lewis Hamilton in the right time. Red Bull is too afraid of spitting out their star now. Not when Max is already giving Lewis Hamilton a big run for his money this year. Not when Max just showed the world that he’s capable of more than just being third place.

The wretched Hamilton fan decides to sue and Max calls upon his mother’s help to find the best lawyers to fight for you. Sophie willingly helps him.

Max is going to protect you, like you always do to him.

[icemankazansky86]

Just a little first bit of an Us (2019)/Top Gun (1986) au fic I’m working on. I guess we’ll call it the calm before the storm.

June 7th, 1986

Miramar, San Diego, California

It’s 10:30 when Maverick comes bounding up to the door like a hyper Golden Retriever puppy. His eyes are alive with whatever brand of chaos he’s got cooking up in his head.

As if endowed with some sort of sixth sense— in all honesty, he must have developed one at some point after being around the tornado that Mitchell is— Ice pulls the door open before the other man even gets the chance to knock. “You’ve got that look in your eyes, Mitchell,” Ice remarks knowingly.

“That “look,” Maverick parrots him, his face incredulous and none the wiser, lending further credence to the Golden Retriever puppy comparison.

Ice shoots him a look of his own, only his veers more towards “irritated mother”. “Yes, Mitchell,” he replies with a succinct nod of his head. “And you know damn well what I mean when I say that too.”

Ice sighs. “What sort of shit have you, Kerner, and Bradshaw got cooked up for the beach trip to Santa Cruz?”

Again, Maverick has that stupid look on his face. The one where his brows furrow to cast shadows down on his eyes. And then, out of nowhere the expression shifts and a grin lights up his face. “Oh, ye of little faith, Kazansky.”

“You think I was kidding?” Ice asks, his brows shooting up towards the ceiling. “No, I’m serious… if you three are planning on doing something stupid—“ he’s cut off by Maverick swatting at the air in front of him.

“No, no…” the other pilot stops and places one hand over his heart, feigning a look of hurt. “How could you think that?” Ice meets his question with an unamused expression and Maverick sighs.

“We’re not doing anything nuts. Well at least not in the realm of what you’d consider “nuts.” He grins then, which makes Ice a bit nervous. “We did rent a boat though.”

“Oh, well, you three enjoy yourselves because I will not be getting on that boat.” Ice states. Maverick presses his lips together and snorts in amusement. “Ice, man… you’re in the Navy and you’re scared of a teensy little speed boat?”

“Ah-ah,” Ice wags a finger at him like a mother would. “I’m not scared of the boat. I’m scared of the three— no, two idiots— who will be on it with me.”

Maverick’s face shifts to a mask of confusion. “Two idiots? There will be three of us on the boat, Kazansky. Me,” he puts his thumb up. “Goose,” then his index finger. “And Slider… simple math, Mr. Snow Miser.”

“No, no, I know how to count, Maverick. The two idiots I’m referring to would be you and Slider. There are three brain cells shared between the three of you and Goose has two of them.”

“Oh, fuck you, Kazansky. C’mon, grab your bag, Goose and Slider are waiting in the Jeep outside.” Maverick’s eyes fall away from the man in front of him and land on the calico cat doing figure eights around his ankles. “Looks like your little friend is gonna miss you.” He points out.

“Yeah.” Ice glances down at the purring feline. “Ana’s going to drop by and feed Rivkah while I’m gone. She’ll be okay, it’s just a couple days.” He heaves out a sigh and picks his bag up off the floor. “Alright, let’s go. I hope Bradshaw’s driving.”

“Slider does drive like he’s in NASCAR.” Maverick comments as Ice locks the front door behind him. He gets a low ‘hm’ of agreement from the blond man.

“So Carole and Bradley aren’t coming?” Ice asks on their way to the car. Maverick shakes his head. “Nah, Carole took Bradley to her mom’s to visit. It’s just gonna be us four.” Ice nods.

“Hey, Ice! How’s it going?” Goose’s cheerful tone reaches his ears and Ice can’t help but crack a half smile. “Not bad, Mother Goose. I hope you’ll help me keep an eye on Thing 1 and Thing 2…” Goose lets out a laugh. “Oh, I’ll definitely try, but you know I can only do so much, man.”

“I know. It’s unfortunate, really.” Ice mutters half-jokingly as he sets his bag on the floor between his legs. Goose gives him a good-natured punch in the shoulder. “Santa Cruz is gonna be great. …As long as we keep Mav and Slider under adult supervision.”

[deansraspberrypie]

🎤🔥 "Oh here we go. Drivers, start your engines!!!" 🎤💥

NASCAR 2019

🍰 Tag list: @avanatural @undisputedchick2 @jranutter @fortheloveof-jackles @kazsrm67 @muchamusedaboutnothing @breath-of-snow-and-ashes @bluedragonflylady @mrsjenniferwinchester @unabashed-lover-of-fictional-men 🥧

[bisexualmcqueen]

ok so i hc the cars' "model year" to be when they reach maturity around ages 20-25. and i was curious what ages the characters could realistically be in 2024. so here are some of my hcs + thought processes:

(on cars being 'born' or being kids at some point: see Coriander Widetrack, Maddy McGear, and Cruz's backstory.)

(baseline: cars 1 takes place in late 2005, the year it was scheduled to release before the delay (also confirmed in cars VG epilogue). by this logic, cars 3 takes place partly in late 2017/mainly early 2018, the year it was scheduled to release before it swapped releases with TS4).

cruz + jackson: ~31

2017 CRS sports coupe. 2017 one of a kind stock car. likely born early 90's. racers irl dont reach cup levels til theyve proven themselves for many years in lower divisions. cruz already had a successful career as a top-level PT in 2018. my guess is they were around age 25 in cars 3. (jackson is probably younger than cruz if anything, but they do have the same model year still. its not an exact science.)

lightning: ~43

2006 one of a kind stock car. we know lightning raced in the regionals (book excerpt) before the cup series- he spent his younger years trying to prove himself. he is based on a G4 nascar stock car (specifically the 2002 monte carlo ss [image source: cars 1 art book]) (bonus post), which ran until 2007.

cal: ~42 (lol)

cal is implied to have been a rookie in the 2006 or 2007 season, taking up the dinoco team spot after strip retired in 2005. his body style resembles the G5 and the G4 nascar body types.

bobby and brick: ~40

bobby and brick have more modern bodystyles, and thus are implied to have been rookies after 2007 when the G4 retired. they are either based on the COT (G5), but they more closely resemble G6's, which was the type being raced while cars 3 was in production.

sally: ~47

2002 porsche carerra 911 (+ additional bc half the early 00's sources died of link rot). at the very least she is 4 years older than lightning. she went to 7 years of law school and was practicing law in CA. after that, she had time to restart her life and refurbish an entire motel. shes probably closer to 50.

mater: ~66

(i will edit this post with his passport when i find the op who posted the image bc i dont wanna repost the image but its from the cars 2 credits crawl iirc?)

mack: ~59

aprox a 1985 mack superliner mk.2. my source on this is that i looked at superliners from the eighties in like 2019 and this was the closest one visually to mack iirc. but with many of the cars it may not be exact!

westley (OC): ~30ish

roger (OC): ~39ish

might add more characters another time but this is a good start!

[coimbrabertone]

NASCAR Numerology: How NASCAR's Current Teams Got Their Numbers: Part Four.

Welcome everybody to the mission creep blog! We've done Trackhouse, Penske, Wood Brothers, RCR, SHR, Hendrick, RFK, and Spire, which means we've cleared the first ten numbers!

Today we're going to talk about:

Joe Gibbs Racing, who runs the #11, the #19, the #20, and the #54 this year.

Kaulig Racing, who runs the #13, the #16, and the #31.

Rick Ware Racing, who run the #15 and the #51,

and 23XI Racing, who run the #23, the #45, and sometimes the #50.

So, starting with Joe Gibbs Racing...and their story starts with none of their current numbers! Rather, it starts with the #18 in 1992.

Why the #18? Once again, it was a story of lowest available number, as 1-12 were taken, the #13 was being used by a part time time along with various superstitions around it, and #14, #15, #16, and #17 were taken as well. Thus, JGR debuted in 1992 with Dale Jarrett in the Interstate Batteries Chevrolet. This partnership won the Daytona 500 in 1993 and won at the fall Charlotte race in 1994, but for 1995, Dale Jarrett would leave. He moved to Yates Racing to take over the #28, subbing for the injured Ernie Irvan, and when Irvan returned to the #28 in 1996, Jarrett moved to a second Yates car, the #88.

Thus, JGR had to make their own story with Bobby Labonte, who impressed immediately by winning the 1995 Coke 600 and sweeping Charlotte.

1997 would bring only one win, at Atlanta, so for 1997, JGR switched to Pontiac. This era of JGR, with Bobby Labonte running the Interstate Batteries #18 Pontiac, is when the team really broke into the top of NASCAR.

Bobby would finish second to Dale Jarrett in 1999, but in 2000, Bobby Labonte would win the championship for JGR.

This was also the time that JGR became a two car team for the first time, but more on that in a moment.

For now, Labonte continued in JGR through the end of the 2005 season, with his last three years in a Chevrolet as GM began phasing out the Pontiac brand in NASCAR. Upon his retirement, he was replaced by JGR development driver JJ Yeley, but Yeley would only last two winless seasons.

He would be shuffled off to Hall of Fame Racing for 2008.

This is when JGR experienced its biggest change in history when, feeling like they were second or even third fiddle at Chevrolet, they switched to Toyota for the 2008 season. Toyota looked downright bad in 2007, but with a year of experience and JGR making the switch, there was hope.

Another reason to hope was that Kyle Busch, the hotheaded but fast kid from Hendrick Motorsports, made the switch, with JGR signing M&Ms as a sponsor over from Yates.

Thus, one of the most recognizable partnerships in modern NASCAR began, with Kyle Busch, Toyota, and M&Ms - they won the 2015 and 2019 championships together, took countless wins, and along with Kevin Harvick of SHR and Martin Truex Jr., Kyle formed part of the "Big Three" drivers that dominated the late Gen 6 era of NASCAR, particularly 2017-2019.

However, during the 2022 season, Mars Inc., parent company of M&Ms, announced that they were ending their NASCAR sponsorship. Kyle Busch was forced to move to the #8 car at RCR, while Joe Gibbs announced that his grandson, Ty Gibbs, would move up to the NASCAR Cup Series.

Rather than the #18, he would continue in his Xfinity number, driving the #54.

Ironically enough, the #54 originates with Kyle Busch, as Kyle Busch Motorsports has long run the #51 (a tribute to Days of Thunder antagonist Rowdy Burns, who Kyle has nicknamed himself after) and the #4 in trucks. When KBM moved up to the second-tier Nationwide series in 2012 neither number was available, so they ran the #54 instead.

Kyle and Kurt Busch split the season, with Kurt taking its only win at Richmond.

For 2013, KBM's Nationwide team was sold to Joe Gibbs Racing, where, in 2022, Ty Gibbs ran the #54 to the Xfinity series championship (for those who don't know, Busch, Nationwide, and Xfinity are all the second-tier NASCAR series, it just doesn't have a proper name so it has always been known by its title sponsor, which has changed a few times).

So, the #18 became the #54.

Meanwhile, Joe Gibbs' second number was the #20, introduced in 1999. Why the #20? Because the #19 was taken by a part-time team at the time, so the #20 was the next available number after #18. This number was initially ran by Tony Stewart with immediate success, winning the championship in 2002 with Pontiac and 2005 with Chevrolet. The Home Depot #20 was one of the iconic cars of NASCAR's boom era, and Tony Stewart was its superstar driver. In 2008, however, JGR switched to Toyota, while Tony was an all-American GM guy to his core.

The awkward partnership only lasted for one year before Tony left JGR to start his own team with Gene Haas, forming SHR.

Joey Logano replaced Tony in the #20, showing flashes of brilliance, but with only two wins in four seasons, Logano was replaced with Matt Kenseth for 2013. Logano would move to Penske, with much more success there than he had at JGR.

Matt Kenseth, meanwhile, saw the #20 switch from Home Depot sponsorship to running a Dollar General primary. Nevertheless, Kenseth showed immediate success, taking seven wins and falling just nineteen points off championship leader Jimmie Johnson.

Two years later in 2015, Kenseth was on for another championship contending season before being spun out from the lead at Kansas by none other than Joey Logano. Getting caught up in a wreck at the next race at Talladega saw Matt Kenseth get eliminated in the round of 12, while Logano won his third race in a row at Talladega to sweep the round of 12.

In retribution, at Martinsville two weeks later - the first race of the round of eight - Matt Kenseth wrecked Joey Logano as the crowd cheered. Kenseth was suspended for two races, but getting wrecked at Martinsville, a tyre problem at Texas, and failing to win Phoenix meant that Joey Logano didn't advance either.

A historic feud between drivers of the #20.

Kenseth would leave JGR after 2017, handing the #20 over to Erik Jones for three seasons, before it ended up in the hands of current driver Christopher Bell in 2021.

Bell has made the championship four in both 2022 and 2023, but finished fourth in the standings both years.

JGR's third car was the #11, co-owned by JD Gibbs and running the #11, which was the number JD used in college football at William & Mary. The #11 debuted in 2004, running various drivers such as JJ Yeley, Jason Leffler, Ricky Craven, and even Terry Labonte before settling on Denny Hamlin at the end of 2005. Hamlin went full time for 2006.

The team, with primary sponsorship from FedEx, has run ever since.

Denny Hamlin and the #11 team have won three Daytona 500s, fifty-four races, and have basically done everything in NASCAR besides winning a championship. Truly the Chicago Cubs of the stock car racing world.

Last on the list for JGR is the #19, which Joe Gibbs was finally able to secure in 2015. They had already poached Matt Kenseth from Roush for the #20, so Gibbs decided to do it again and nabbed Carl Edwards for the #19, a partnership that lasted two years before Carl abruptly retired at the end of the 2016 season for reasons NASCAR fans still speculate about to this day.

In the words of Carl Edwards himself...he had taken too many knocks to the head over the years and with him then starting a young family with a neurosurgeon wife, he decided to retire.

Daniel Suárez replaced Edwards for 2017 and 2018, before the other leading Toyota team in the form of Furniture Row Racing collapsed, giving JGR the chance to pick up 2017 champion Martin Truex Jr. for the 2019 season. Truex brought sponsors Bass Pro Shops and Auto Owners Insurance over with him.

2024, however, will be Truex's last season. Chase Briscoe will take over the #19 for 2025.

One team down.

Kaulig Racing has two full time cars, the #16 and the #31, as well as a part-time #13. The #31 is driven by Daniel Hemric, the #16 by AJ Allmendinger, Shane van Gisbergen, Josh Williams, Derek Kraus, and Ty Dillon, and the #13 has been used by Allmendinger in races where both he and SVG were running, such as COTA and Chicago.

Kaulig took #16 since it was available in 2021 (their usual Xfinity numbers, #10 and #11, were both taken), the #31 was chosen for their chartered entry for 2022 since RCR had vacated it after 2019, and the #13 because one: it was vacated, and two: it's the inverse of the #13. Yeah, not much story there, Kaulig is a new team and their numbers don't have much historic meaning behind them.

I mean, Roush ran the #16 for a long time, most successfully with Greg Biffle, but there's no link between that and Kaulig.

Kaulig does have two wins - Indianapolis Road Course 2021 and Charlotte Roval 2023 - with AJ Allmendinger, which is the most success the #16 has had since Biffle, for whatever that's worth.

Now onto Rick Ware Racing.

Rick Ware Racing has built up their history as a start-and-park team running the #51, and initially their numbering scheme was built on that, running numbers such as #52, #53, and the #54 as well. This is also the number that Rick Ware uses on its co-entries in other series, such as its alliance with Dale Coyne Racing in Indycar - where the #51 is currently run by a slew of drivers, of which Katherine Legge is expected to finish out the season - and IMSA LMP3 racing, where Rick Ware runs his son Cody.

Cody Ware was arrested in 2023 for assaulting and strangling his then girlfriend, so that's the first and only time I will mention him on this blog.

Anyway, more recently Rick Ware Racing has started professionalizing its NASCAR efforts, with Justin Haley showing promise in the #51 car that he runs in alliance with RFK Racing. Their other car, the #15, is still somewhat of a revolving door of drivers, but it does appear to be improving.

So, that's the #11, the #13, the #15, and the #16. Roush has the #17, the #18 is currently vacant, JGR has the #19 and the #20, Wood Brothers has the #21, Penske the #22...that means 23XI is next.

23Xi Racing, a joint venture by Michael Jordan (the 23 part) and Denny Hamlin (the 11 part, or XI in Roman numerals) is another new NASCAR team, having entered NASCAR in 2021 in alliance with Joe Gibbs Racing.

The history of their numbers is quite simple, the #23 is Jordan's jersey number, and the #45 is the number he wore when he returned to the Chicago Bulls in 1995 after a brief sabbatical during which time he played for the White Sox's minor league affiliates.

Bubba Wallace has run the #23 since it was established in 2021, while Kurt Busch was the initial driver of the #45 before a career-ending crash at Pocono. Ty Gibbs was drafted in to replace Kurt, before 23Xi briefly switched Bubba into the #45 to compete for the owner points playoffs. Daniel Hemric and John Hunter Nemechek also had starts in 23XI cars in 2022.

For 2023 though, Tyler Reddick has been brought in to drive the #45, winning twice in 2023, and another two times so far in 2024.

Bubba, meanwhile, won Talladega 2021 in his #23, and Kansas 2022 while filling in in the #45.

23XI's third car was initially the #67 - get it, like 2,3,4,5,6,7? - but this year, in a promotion with sponsor Mobil 1, it has run as the #50 to celebrate their 50th anniversary.

Travis Pastrana, Kamui Kobayashi, and Corey Heim have all started in the #67/#50, while Juan Pablo Montoya is scheduled to run the #50 at the 2024 NASCAR Cup race at Watkins Glen.

So yeah, we started with a college football number in the #11, and we finish on a team named after basketball numbers with 23XI.

I believe tomorrow will be the end of this series, as Front Row Motorsports with the #34 and #38, Legacy Motor Club with the #42 and the #43, and JTG Daugherty with the #47 are the only remaining full-time teams.

Higher numbers are a bit sparse in NASCAR these days, huh?

[badasscoffeemug]

expanding on my tags on this wonderful drawing by @moeyoon (hope that's okay), because i can, in fact, not stop thinking about it. guess i'll hereby out myself as an insane f1 girlie but i have Thoughts, so:

bucktommy formula 1 drivers au

buck is absolutely max verstappen-esque, a prodigy already a standout in karting but really caught the attention of several driver academies the moment he set foot in a single-seater

rough around the edges but with so much raw speed everyone Knows he's something special. aka the exact type the red bull driver academy of old would've loved

so he's signed, thrown into toro rosso/alpha tauri/vcarb (whichever name the faenza-based rb junior team is called at the time), impresses, gets promoted to red bull racing, becomes their Golden Boy. the One they rest their hopes and dreams on

his driving style is aggressive, daring, especially in his early years in the sport. maybe he causes a few incidents. maybe some other drivers aren't too fond of his antics. what of it?

but he's good, undeniably. and he mellows out over the years, though he never loses that edge, never afraid to push it right to the limit on track (just knows how to pick his battles now)

his attitude is a bit divisive with the audience, but he is well-liked in the paddock, even good friends with some of his peers. he is fiercely loyal to his team, absolutely intends to stay with them for the rest of his career (that's his Family), but does not put up with any shit and does not hold back from speaking his mind when he's unhappy with things

generational talent, even his detractors won't deny. won at least 3 world drivers' championships to show for it (i'm giving him 5-6 if we're going by buck's current canon age, but i'd probably age 'em down a bit if i ever were to flesh this au out further, for realism's sake)

bonus: buck fucking kills the grill the grid challenges every year, he is filled to the brim with trivia knowledge and hypercompetitive, that's His thing

(reference, max verstappen's action of the year winning overtake in 2019, max winning in 2024, max and his beloved engineer gp)

tommy, on the other hand, is part of the old gen. nearing retirement at this point. well past his prime, but you don't get to stick around for this long if you aren't still good

where i envision a near one-on-one comparison to verstappen's career trajectory for buck, i don't exactly have a clear one for tommy's. but probably something halfway between fernando alonso and kimi räikkönnen

he's talented from the jump, but the timing is never quite right, always driving at his best during someone else's dominance. changes teams a fair few times. never quite lived up to his perceived potential. some may call it "poor career choices", but that's easy with hindsight

did one significant stint at a top team though and got one, maybe two wdcs out of it

"retires" a champion, does some other motorsport (rallying probably, maybe some nascar races for fun) comes back a year later for the love of the game

a known asset for any team due to his experience and renowned skills regarding car set-up and development

doesn't care much for the media side of things, has a bit of a reputation as standoffish, though every team will insist he's great to work with even if he doesn't socialize much

his illustrious career lends to some reverence though, some of the younger gen drivers may even name tommy kinard as their idol, if they were the right age to grow up watching him race at the peak of his success

as for current teams i'd put him in aston martin i think, alonso-like role. alpine would love to have him but anyone with a bit of reputation to spare would steer clear of that mess right now, sauber maybe but tommy's better than dead last, haas was an option but he's still a champion and they cannot afford a driver with that type of salary lmao

(reference, kimi räikönnen in 2007, fernando alonso in the 2023 aston martin)

[dear-ao3]

ok seeng your haas commentary is killing me bc I grew up with nascar and Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) which gene founded with tony, its a whole story, was a powerhouse pain in the ass problem causing team and then their european cousin is the poorest little meow meow i fucking love it

haas f1 forgot to tighten the bolts on their tires in australia in 2019 after qualifying the highest they ever had and then it all went downhill from there

[whipplefilter]

In the shower today, I was making a mental tally of the "most commonly occurring NASCAR quotes" in the groupchat, and somehow Erik Jones is the subject of 50% of them. I don't know why, because it's not out of any true enmity against Erik Jones, but that makes it even funnier to me. 😂

I also couldn't tell you why it's *these* quotes that get the primetime, but it does suggest that JGR is the only NASCAR team that has ever mattered and will ever matter.

Our top quotes are:

1. "meaningless" - Denny Hamlin, Indy 2018

#meaningless is an all-purpose quote we use when someone otherwise irrelevant to the race impacts a race win. In the original use case it was Denny Hamlin losing to Brad Keselowski after a caution brought out by Landon Cassill and Jeffrey Earnhardt, but we will use it on anyone, regardless of whether they're a backrunner or not.

Denny is a gem. Nay, an entire mine!!

2. "we lost Erik" - Joe Gibbs, ????????

(This is only an excerpt of the many we lost eriks)

I'm PRETTY sure this was Joe Gibbs in reference to Toyota attempting team orders at a drafting track (this has never gone well for them), but we don't even know which race this is from. But we say it all the time???? In reference to Erik Jones and also pretty much anyone else. Regardless of who it's in reference to, though, it's always "we lost Erik." Easily the most random quote on this list, because it's just something Joe Gibbs happened to say during an on-track interview--I assume during a yellow or red flag.

3. "the 2017 version of Erik Jones" - Kyle Larson, Michigan [2] 2018

This is also all-purpose, but I think it's become part of our lexicon based purely on the fact that it is so incredibly weirdly specific?

Which in the last few years is something I've come to associate with Kyle Larson. Usually it's about weirdly specific recollections of his own races, but at least in those cases it's his own race, so I guess that makes sense. (Though I do not remember anything *I* do.) But then sometimes he'll just randomly say something weirdly specific about someone else's race, and it's like, why do you know that? why do you remember that??

Like, someone asked Bubba what his best race of 2022 so far was, and even before Bubba could answer KL was like, "Michigan!!!" so fast it was like he was participating in some kind of game show. Fam, I was at that race in person, I love Bubba, and even *I* didn't remember what Bubba's Michigan was like. (But apparently he finished P2!)

Anyway, here's Wonderwall Kyle Larson's weirdly specific memories of the 2017 version of Erik Jones:

And sometimes your own words get used against you:

^Also factually accurate to 2017 Kyle Larson, because my only memory of Kyle Larson restarts is him consistently getting eaten alive by Martin Truex Jr. during them

4. "I don't want to know nothing. I want to be stupid." - Kyle Busch, Sonoma 2019

Very few circumstances where this sentiment is not true.