Continue the legacy Pt 1
Leclerc son x Verstappen daughter
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WC: 1,5 K
A/N: First Chapter. I promise that it gets better with time as we still have to come to the better part. This is some background information. Please let me know what you think. <3
2028
As Max crosses the finish line in first place, a wave of euphoria washes over the entire Red Bull garage. The sound of cheers and applause echoes through the pit lane, with crew members rushing to congratulate the newly crowned five-time world champion. GP's voice comes through Max's earphones, "Max Verstappen, you are a five-time world champion! What a phenomenal achievement!"
As Max drives around the track, he takes a moment to soak in the adoration of his team and the crowd. He looks around at the sea of faces, taking in the sheer joy and elation that are palpable in the air. "Thank you all for this great season," he says, his voice filled with gratitude. "The car was incredible, and each and every one of you has worked tirelessly to get us to this point. I'm so grateful to have had such an amazing team behind me."
As he continues to speak, his emotions become more raw and heartfelt. "Since the start of this season, I've felt like I've been on top of the world. The team has been so supportive and kind to me, and it means the world to me. This is an incredible way to end my career, and I'm so grateful to have been able to share it with all of you." The team erupts in applause once again.
Max parks his car at Parc ferme behind the number 1 board. Next to him were Charles Leclerc and Lando Norris, the two of his friends and newly world champions themselves. Standing on top of his car with five fingers in the air before running towards his team and launching himself on them. His mechanics ruffle his hair and give him pats on his back.
Later on the podium, he stands on the top step, his face looking into the crowd. He sees his wife and daughters smiling up at him with proud faces. Well, Sofie wasn't really showing emotion because she was only a couple of months old, but Penelope was clapping with joy. For the last time, the Dutch anthem would be played for him.
As the Austrian anthem ended and the trophies were given to the three drives, champagne was flying around the place. Lando and Charles have made it their mission to shower the Dutch in the sticky liquid and celebrate his last podium.
"Congratulations, mate." Charles pats his friend on the back before setting his champagne bottle down.
"We are grateful that you let us win these last three years." Lando adds.
"No problem. Sharing is caring." Max jokes and the other two drivers laugh in response.
As they settle in for the post-race interview, the three drivers are seated comfortably in front of a backdrop of gleaming trophies and team logos. Max sits in the middle, flanked by Charles to his left and Lando to his right.
"Max, congrats on your fifth world champion and probably your last one as you retire from racing. Can I ask what your reason for your decision was?"
"Firstly, thank you for your congrats. My decision to retire came from myself. At the beginning of this year, my daughter was born and I love to be able to spend time with her and the rest of my family. With racing, you are always all over the world and training and I don't think I can live with the fact that I am not home enough." The other people in the room listen intently, their faces sympathetic. On the sidelines, Max's family had been watching the interview, but his youngest daughter, who had been quietly observing from her mother's lap, suddenly began to cry. Her mother quickly whisked her away to a private area, trying to comfort the distressed child.
"Charles, you're a father too, do you have any plans on retiring soon?" the interviewer asks, turning to the Ferrari driver.
Charles picks up his microphone and thinks a bit before speaking. "At this moment not. Of course, I have some years of racing behind me, so time will tell when I quit. Jules is a year and a half right now and I try to be there as much as I can." The man on the other side nods and thanks them both for their answers.
"I don't really have plans on retiring. Thank you for asking," Lando jokes in a lighthearted tone, trying to lighten the mood. "Just being an uncle for now," Charles adds with a chuckle. Max laughs along with him, grateful for the distraction from his own emotional revelation.
Another person stands up to ask a question. "Max, is there already a person who is going to take your seat?"
"I don't think that is my place to tell. Just wait for the announcement." He sounds a bit annoyed at the end of his answer and the person just nods and doesn't ask any further.
"Lando, you were champions last year, do you think you will be again with Max leaving?"
"Max is a great driver, it is no surprise he wins."
"I think that is a negative way to ask this question."
The interview went on some more, asking about the race and plans for the summer break. Max felt a bit sad knowing that this was his last time. but thoughts about his family made him know that it was the right decision.
"As the last question, Would you support it if your child chose to be a racing driver?" The three friends look between them to pick out who would answer first and Max just nods.
"Of course. If Penelope or Sofie want to start racing, I can help them both. I take P karting sometimes with her father and she always likes it. I don't know if she wants to do it professionally, and time will tell for Sofie."
After Max puts his mic down, Lando starts. "I don't have a child now, but of course I will. Dreams are made to come true, and I support them in all of their decisions. If it is racing or not."
"As Lando said, dreams are made to be true. If Jules wants to do karting, I take him karting." They wrap up the interview and leave the room.
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Later, when Max is back home in Monaco, he enters the apartment with Sofie in his arm. "Home sweet home." He places a kiss on her forehead and puts her in the crib next to the couch.
"Can we have pizza for dinner?' Penelope asks as she goes to sit on the couch. Max looks at his wife for approval and she smiles and responds.
"Of course we can. What kind do you want?" Just when P wants to answer, her sister starts to cry and move around in her crib.
Later, when Max is back home in Monaco, he enters the apartment with Sofie in his arm, relieved to be back after the busy season. The familiar sight of their living room brings a sense of comfort as he softly whispers, "Home sweet home," planting a loving kiss on Sofie's forehead before carefully laying her down in the crib next to the couch.
Penelope eagerly plops down on the couch and asks, "Can we have pizza for dinner?" Max glances at his wife, a grin tugging at his lips, seeking her approval. Kelly replies, "Of course we can. What kind do you want?" Penelope's eyes light up with excitement as she begins to rattle off her favorite toppings.
However, the rattle is interrupted by the little girl, who starts to cry and wriggle in her crib. Max and Kelly exchange a knowing glance, immediately springing into action to tend to their baby girl's needs. Max gently scoops her up, cradling her in his arms as he softly hums a soothing tune while Kelly prepares a bottle. The apartment is filled with the soft murmur of comforting words and the gentle rustle of a diaper change.
As the night progresses, the family gathers around the dining table, with different kinds of pizza laid out before them. Sofie, now content and snug in her high chair, beams up at her family, her innocent giggles adding to the joyous ambiance.
"My mom wants to know if we are coming for Christmas." Max points out between his bites.
"I want to see Luka and Lio," P says.
"We can spend Christmas in the Netherlands and the New Year with my family." Kelly says. Max nods and lets his mother know that they will be there.
After dinner, Penelope starts to get ready for bed after an exhausting day. Max and Kelly take a seat on their couch, ready to watch a movie, before heading off to bed. Sofie had been put in the crib in the master bedroom to not get interrupted from her sleep. The two cats jump on top of the couch and nestle against their dad as he gives them pats over their heads. The night went on and the couple drifted of to sleep on the couch
In the apartment not far from theirs, Charles enters his own. His wife quickly walks up and kisses him, their dog follows behind her. "Bonsoir, chérie. " Charles kisses the top of Alex head and kneels down to pet Leo.
"Jules is sleeping, I was just waiting for you." He smiles and walks over to the baby room. Jules was sleeping in a little Ferrari sleeping suit. Charles walks over and presses a soft kiss on his head, careful not to wake him up.
"Lets get to bed."
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NASCAR Numerology: How NASCAR's Current Teams Got Their Numbers: Part Five.
Alright guys, we've gotten to the last part of this little miniseries.
Today we're covering:
Front Row Motorsports, who run the #34 Ford for Michael McDowell and the #38 for Todd Gilliland in the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series.
Legacy Motor Club, who run the #42 Toyota for John Hunter Nemechek and the historic #43 for Erik Jones.
and JTG Daugherty Racing, who run the #47 Chevrolet for Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
Fittingly, we get to end on representation for all three brands.
Front Row Motorsports debuted in 2004, running the #92 Ford on a partial schedule with drivers like Brad Teague, Tony Raines, and Stanton Barrett, but they would fail to qualify for any races. Furthermore, the Mach 1 Motorsports team ran the #98/#96 car that year, splitting time between Ford and Dodge, and running drivers such as Todd and Geoff Bodine, Larry Gunselman, Derrike Cope, Chad Chaffin, and Randy LaJoie.
This team did manage to make some races (keyword: some) and in 2005, Mach 1 would attempt the full schedule with a #34 Chevrolet while another slew of drivers (mainly LaJoie, Chaffin, and PJ Jones) but by the end of 2005, the team was up for sale. Front Row Motorsports would buy this #34 car, as well as Mach 1's shop, and build their team around it.
Often running as a start-and-park team with a revolving door of drivers, Front Row finally got some stability in 2009, with John Andretti driving the #34, and dragging it up to three top twenty finishes, at Daytona, Loudon, and Fontana.
Andretti left after the 2010 Daytona 500, but the top twenty streak remained, with Travis Kvapil scoring an 18th at Talladega and Kevin Conway a 14th at the summer Daytona race.
David Gilliland (Todd's father) ran the full 2011 season and scored a third place at the Daytona 500, building on the results of the last three years to make Front Row Motorsports a proper contender on the superspeedways.
For 2012, Gilliland was moved to the #38 (more on that later) while David Ragan took over the #34. This car would top off FRM's superspeedway streak by winning the 2013 Aaron's 499 at Talladega.
Ragan would leave FRM after the 2015 Daytona 500 to get the opportunity to fill in for the injured Kyle Busch, so that season was a bit of a revolving door for the #34 yet again. Yet, for 2016, they got a technical alliance with Roush Fenway Racing in exchange for running Roush development driver Chris Buescher.
And Chris Buescher would win the 2016 Pennsylvania 400 for them on a Monday after a rainy weekend followed by a foggy weekend led to a segmented and ultimately shortened race. It took a bit of luck, but it got FRM its second win, and the first that wasn't on a superspeedway.
Chris Buescher went to JTG Daugherty of all places for 2017 (more on that later), so FRM hired Landon Cassill, without much success, before signing Michael McDowell for 2018.
McDowell has seen FRM become a legitimate team, winning the 2021 Daytona 500 and the 2023 Verizon 200 at the Brickyard at the IMS Road Course. Furthermore, in 2024, now in alliance with Team Penske, Front Row Motorsports is no longer an ironic name, as McDowell has started first or second multiple times this season, including at Daytona, Atlanta, and even Gateway, the latter two being pole positions.
Michael McDowell, however, will be moving to the Spire Motorsports #71 for 2025.
FRM has built their numbering scheme off of the #34, running other cars such as the #35, #37, and most commonly the #36, but its second full time car has been the #38.
Driven by David Gilliland from 2012-2015 and son Todd Gilliand ever since 2022, the car has also seen drives from Landon Cassill, David Ragan (in a return to FRM), John-Hunter Nemechek, Anthony Alfredo, and Zane Smith. With four top tens and a further ten top twenties, 2024 has thus far been the most successful season to date for the #38.
FRM will run a third full time car in 2025, having bought a charter from SHR, and has signed SHR's Noah Gragson, but it is unknown was number he will run. FRM ran the #36 this season for Kaz Grala, but Bob Jenkins says he's not married to this numbering scheme. Still, even numbers in the mid-30s are as close to consistent numbering as FRM has ever gotten, so I hope they do decide to stick with the #36.
Onto Legacy Motor Club.
First things first, this team is a Frankenstein's Monster mess of forgotten NASCAR teams in hilarious fashion. Petty Enterprises, officially ran from 1949 to 2008, when sponsorship could not be found, leading to the team merging with Gillett-Evernham Motorsports for 2009. Gillett-Evernham Motorsports consisted of Evernham Motorsports, the former Dodge factory team that ran the #9 and the #19, MBV Motorsports (which was essentially the #10 car owned by Valvoline at this point), and money from George Gillett, who was at the time the controversial owner of the Montreal Canadiens and Liverpool FC.
So already, you had the Petty #43, Petty #45, Evernham #9, Evernham #19, and Valvoline #10 merging into one team, but for 2010, they also bought Yates Racing to take over Paul Menard and his #98 Ford. This allowed the entire team to switch from Dodge to Ford.
So come 2010, the team is running the #9, #19, #43, and #98 with relics from three different numbering schemes remaining in the team. It's freaking awesome.
The #19 and #98 went away after 2010, leaving the team with the #9 and the #43.
The #9 was initially their most successful car, with Kasey Kahne winning Sonoma 2009 and Fall Atlanta 2009 with the team, before Australian Marcos Ambrose won Watkins Glen for the team in 2011 and 2012.
The #43 would, to its credit, with the 2014 Coke Zero 400 at Daytona with Aric Almirola, and it would become the team's only car after 2016.
After the 2021 season, GMS Racing, a truck team, bought into Petty, becoming Petty GMS. Ahead of the 2023 season, the team became Legacy Motor Club, with Jimmie Johnson buying in, Richard Petty chasing out, and Maury Gallagher of GMS becoming majority owner. Petty remained involved a spokesman for the team, however.
So, finally, onto their numbers. They run the #43 and have since practically the beginning of time, because that was Richard Petty's number? Why, well, that actually takes us to their second car, the #42, which was Lee Petty's number.
Why did Lee Petty pick the #42? Legend has it was the first two numbers in his license plate.
So, Lee Petty ran the #42, his son Richard ran the #43, Richard's son Kyle would eventually run the #44, and Kyle's son Adam would run the #45. Each generation building on the last. When Adam died, Kyle took over the #45 in his memory.
Thad Moffitt in the Truck series is a grandson of Richard Petty through Petty's youngest daughter Rebecca, and he continues this trend by running the #46.
In any case, when Petty GMS bought a second car in 2022, they chose to run the #42 - recently vacated by Chip Ganassi - reuniting the original two Petty numbers.
This arrangement continued as Petty became Legacy and eventually switched to Toyota for 2024. Currently the #43 is driven by Erik Jones, who won Darlington in it in 2022, and the #42 by John Hunter Nemechek.
Also, fun fact, Kyle Petty drove the #42 at Team SABCO (which would eventually become Chip Ganassi Racing) from 1989 to 1996, so it was a Petty number even when it wasn't.
And now JTG Daugherty Racing. It started in 2007, running a second car (#47) in alliance with the Wood Brothers. I cannot find any specific reason for the #47, only that Tad Geschickter ran a #47 Busch car ever since 1996, so maybe it was an availability thing. In any case, they ran the #47 and made their Cup debut in 2007, with Ken Schrader and Jon Wood each trying and failing to qualify for a race.
The #47 managed a few starts in 2008 with Marcos Ambrose, finishing third at the Glen, which prompted JTG to split with the Wood Brothers to try and go full time for the 2009 season with Ambrose in a #47 Toyota. This lasted two years before Mabrose moved to the aforementioned Richard Petty Motorsports, with JTG instead drafting in Bobby Labonte.
They would sign AJ Allmendinger in 2013 as Labonte began scaling back his races, and with AJ full time in 2014, they'd win at Watkins Glen. Allmendinger would last until 2018, when Ryan Preece was hired for that car, but then Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was chosen for 2020. Ricky would win the 2023 Daytona 500 with the team.
JTG Daugherty also briefly has a second car, the #37 - ten less than #47, also apparently Tad used this number in college sports - the #37 ran with Chris Buescher for 2017, 2018, and 2019, before running with Ryan Preece for 2020 and 2021.
This brings up another interesting aspect of JTG Daugherty Racing - despite the fact that they're a Chevy team, they kinda have this unique relationship with RFK Racing. First of all, Chris Buescher was a Roush development driver. Second of all, that #37 car for Buescher was run on the charter for Roush's #16.
Third, was that when Roush took Chris Buescher back for the 2020 season, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. then went the other way, going from the Roush #17 to the JTG Daugherty #47.
Oh, and as recently as 2023, JTG Daugherty's pit crew was on loan from Roush. Yeah, odd.
So yeah, that is all 36 chartered teams for the 2024 NASCAR Cup series and the story of a couple other numbers that are relevant to the story. I hope you guys enjoyed all that, but I think I'm gonna write about some other motorsports for a little while. The blog has been a bit NASCAR heavy lately and this week added a whole five extra blogposts to it.
I do enjoy blabbing on about NASCAR, but I also enjoy blabbing on about MotoGP and Indycar. Formula One is also a sport that exists.
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