Old Flame, New Sparks

9780373217793_PL.inddExtracted 1 threads from 9780373217793-exw.PDFUntitled Article 01: UntitledoeTHE RACING COMMUNITYis in mourning today follow- ing the loss of one of our most beloved personalities. James Jinx Hammond, two-time NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series champion and tireless ambassador for the sport of stock car racing, was known first and foremost for his skill behind the wheel. But when that career was taken from him in a tragic run-in with a drunk driver that left Hammond a paraplegic, he started up Hammond Racing, Inc., along with his wife, Kellie. oeThis next season, watch for eighteen-year-old racing sensation, Jamie Hammond, who will bring his fathers legendary Number 56 car out of retirement and show fans everywhere that the apple doesnt fall far from the tree. We extend our deepest sympathy to the friends and family of Jinx Hammond.oeI SWEAR, JINX, Kellie Hammond murmured. oeI never met anyone who had worse luck than you. What had her late husband always said?Life has a twisted sense of humor. Me, Im one of lifes better jokes. She stared at his grave site where moments before a freak snow cloud had covered up the sun and sent a minor ice-and-snow storm swirling through the crowd of mourners. The grounds had cleared out faster than pit road after a race, leaving Kellie to offer her husband a final farewell in private. The solitude suited her. She stood within the biting embrace of the storm, her head tipped back. Snow pelted her face, mingling with her tears of grief. The icy flakes melted into her hair and the in-your-face, flame- red silk skirt and jacket she wore, an outfit Jinx had chosen personally for the occasion. Not that she cared if her clothes were ruined. Shed never wear them again. God, she missed Jinx. Shed never met anyone better able to find laughter in tragedy. Not when a drunk driver had confined him to a wheelchair at the height of his racing career. Not even when pancreatic cancer had cut his life short only a few months after his fiftieth birthday. A blizzard at his funeral? It was only to be expected. oeYou had a bigger heart than anyone Ive ever met. She dropped the silky checkered racing flag she held onto his coffin. oeIm going to miss you, sweetheart. She sensed a presence behind her and turned, assuming shed find her son or father standing behind her. Instead, she found the one man she least wanted to seeLucas oeBad Boyce. The years had been kind to him, his black hair still rich and full, his bottle-green eyes still as direct and astute as ever. Shed first met him when hed been a tall, lanky twenty-one-year-old. Now, pushing forty, hed matured into one of NASCARs most revered drivers, while still embodying the dangerous edge and air of in- timidation that had earned him the nickname oeBad Boyce that the fans and media slurred so it sounded like oeBad Boyz. aSLeclaire, Day is the author of 'Old Flame, New Sparks ', published 2007 under ISBN 9780373217793 and ISBN 037321779X.