Pulling one leg on at a time Jason hoisted the bright blue firesuit over his hips letting the remainder of it hang loosely at his side. He left his muscles go taut as they did before every race he had ever run. The sounds of the track, the other racers and teams preparing for that day's qualifying race skirted around him yet he stayed focused on himself alone. He circled his car giving it the final once over not that his intricate inspection was really necessary. Jason trusted Jake Russell, his crew chief, with his life and by climbing behind the wheel of his brilliant blue car proved it time and time again.

Once satisfied with his examination Jason let his fingers graze the raised lettering that read – In loving memory of Erik Morgan. Jason felt his heart skip a beat at the thought of his father. He reached into the toolbox that sat adjacent to his car and pulled out a tattered photo of his father, Erik Morgan. It was a photo from the day Erik had won his very first NASCAR race. Jason smiled at the memory of that day. Even though he was much younger he still recalled it vividly. The sheer elation his father expressed was almost infectious. It certainly had infected Jason. Not only had his father been a driver but also Jason was raised in the heart of NASCAR Country – somewhere between Raleigh and Charlotte, North Carolina. He grew up knowing only one way of life – racing. Jason could change a tire on his father, Erik's, stock car before he could tie his own shoes. To his mother, Alison, he was the spitting image of his father and reminded her daily why she had fallen in love with Erik Morgan in the first place.

Alison defied her family's wishes when it came to the 'good for nothing' amateur stock car driver, Erik Morgan. She fell in love with him instantly and when he decided to up and move across country to North Carolina, Alison followed the man that owned her heart without a moments hesitation much to her family's dismay. She had endless conversations with her parents trying to explain to them Erik's reasoning for moving to North Carolina. He said that's where racers were made. Alison's parents stood by teary eyed as the car she rode in drove off into the distance. Soon after arriving in North Carolina Erik asked Alison to be his wife. She joyfully accepted his proposal and soon they had a baby boy they named Jason. Jason was the light of both Alison and Erik's life but for Erik in Jason he had found a kindred spirit when it came to racing.

Their life was a struggle as Erik lumbered through the amateur ranks in the hopes of catching the eye of a sponsor or two that would put his career on the map. It wasn't until a man named Jake Russell took interest in him that things began to change. Jake Russell waltzed into the ramshackle barn that Erik used as a garage and things were never quite the same. Jake loved a challenge and that's what he had seen Erik as. He could see the bones of a hell of a great racer in Erik Morgan but he just needed some fine polishing starting with his car. Jason listened and watched as Erik and Jake went to work on Erik's car. First the fiberglass body was removed piece by piece until there was nothing left but the tubing that made up the framework of the car. Jake took notice of Jason's interest in the mechanics and pulled the eager boy into the mix showing him the proper way the suspension should be shimmed for the steep banks that most of the NASCAR tracks had. He showed both Morgan men where they could afford to lose some of the dead weight in their framing that was slowing them down without sacrificing safety. Jason was mesmerized by it all. It didn't take long before he was experienced in all facets of racing. He could easily set up the chassis to run on any track condition. There wasn't a motor built he couldn't tear down to make it run better and faster. Soon his father was labeling him the whiz kid.

After Erik and Jake had rebuilt the car from the ground up they were off to prove what Erik could do in a well-built machine and Jason was right by their side. Jake saw the value in Jason's enthusiasm and made him part of the pit crew. Jason was beyond elated. For him the sun rose and set on his father and being part of his crew was like a dream come true. From then on Jason's dream of being just like his father was born.

It hadn't taken long for Erik Morgan to prove his prowess behind the wheel and the sponsors that he had dreamed of finally materialized. As he steadily climbed the ranks within NASCAR Jake added several other mechanics to their crew but it was Jason he relied on heavily. The pair forged a tight friendship in the years that Jason studied under him and his father. And that bond would be tested the day that Erik Morgan never finished the race.

Jason looked down again at the photo of his father and tried to forget the fiery crash that had claimed his life. Somehow even though many years had passed and memories were supposed to fade this one didn't. If anything it just became more and more vivid. Jason Morgan was twenty years old the day he lost his father – and his mother whom never quite recovered from the loss of her husband.

Alison Morgan had been sitting in the stands that day and watched like her son as her husband's neon yellow car flipped end over end finally careening into the wall. For her it all played out in slow motion as she sat there willing it to be any other driver but Erik. Yet in the end she had known it was him. Alison was nearly shattered by the loss of her husband to the point that she wasn't able to function while Jason plodded aimlessly through his life. It was months before he was even able to look at his father's mangled racecar. When he did finally have the courage to approach Jake about beginning to work on the wreckage Alison flew into a hysterical rage making him promise to never – ever get behind the wheel of a race car.

Jake sat back quietly understanding Alison's pain. She had lost her husband and he respected her in that right but he saw how desperately Jason needed to work on his father's car. Jake knew that for Jason that wreck of a car was his only tie to his father. He needed the closure even if Alison couldn't see it. So one day Jake pulled off the tarp and began stripping the car as he had done the many years before when he took Erik under his wing. Jason entered the garage that afternoon as Jake began his endeavor. Taking a torch Jason sliced through the metal around the area of the car that held Erik's name in bold script. Jake knew that behind the shield of the welding mask Jason was crying yet he never let on since he had done the same thing on many occasions since Erik's death.

Side by side the two grieving men repaired what once had been Erik's car. Piece by piece the car was restored to its former glory. When they finished Jake motioned to Jason that the car was his saying that he knew that Erik would want him to have it. Jason shook Jake's hand and climbed inside. He turned the engine over with a loud roar and smiled as he thought about every time his dad had done that. He felt the chassis rumble beneath him and looked at Jake who had tears matching Jason's in his own eyes. For Jake it was like looking at a much younger version of Erik – very much like the young man who he had come to help so many years before. So when Jason asked him to help him the way he had his dad – there was little Jake could do to refuse.

When Jason announced his plans to his mother, the statement was met with resounding disapproval. The last thing she wanted to do was watch another person she loved get behind the wheel of a racecar and she wasn't shy about letting those feelings be known. Since Erik's death she had been talking with her family and had decided it was time that she and her son went back to be with them. Without Erik North Carolina held little if any appeal for her. Tracks like North Carolina Speedway and Lowe's Motor Speedway were only stark reminders of what she now despised about that part of the country and she wanted Jason as far away from them as possible.

Alison and Jason went round and round about her decision to up root him from the only life he had ever known – and ever wanted to know. Jason wanted to race like his father. He wanted to realize his father's dream. He wanted to make the Morgan name stand out in the NASCAR circuit – something Erik had died before he had been able to do. Jason felt he owed it to his father. Alison didn't want to hear that. She didn't want to sit by and potentially watch her son die so she left. She packed up her belongings and headed to her family in Texas saying she loved him but she couldn't watch him die. Jason was dumbfounded. While he wasn't a child – only being twenty years old and left to fend for himself was daunting to say the least.

Jake tried to reason with Alison. He tried to make her understand that Jason had a right to make his own choices just as she had when she ran away to North Carolina with Erik in the first place. Yet his reasoning fell on deaf ears. The tragic death of her husband and the shattered dreams of what her life was supposed to be like forever-changed Alison. She left North Carolina without so much as a backward glance her only hope was that the next call she received from Jake wasn't one telling her Jason was injured or worse yet dead.

After Alison left Jake took Jason in and became the father that Jason needed him to be. He would visit Erik's grave asking for guidance on how to raise his friend's son – and when Jason began showing the promise of being a driver to rival even his father's standards Jake told his friend's headstone that as well. Jake Russell knew that somewhere in heaven Erik Morgan was smiling down on his son.

"Hey man, get finished suiting up," Jake's gruff voice pulled Jason from his memories. "They're starting the drivers meeting."

"I'll be right there," Jason said as he tucked the photo of his father in the inside pocket of his firesuit. He patted his chest gently as he spoke, "This one's for you dad."