Over the loudspeakers, the radio announcer said Julia “doesn’t take anything from anybody. A top-fifteen or -ten finish might be in the offing for Julia Landauer.” That would mean she’d have to climb at least six spots up. Julia’s family looked calm, like they were about to watch an opera instead of their child hurtling around in a sheet-metal box. Maybe they were just used to it.

The first few laps were promising. Julia advanced two cars almost right away, and by lap four she was in sixteenth place. A few laps later, she was fourteenth. Periodically a car would let out smoke or flames, and I would look worriedly at Glenn, who would reassure me that Julia was just fine and not on fire.

Suddenly, a car belonging to a driver named Ryan Klutt spun out into the barrier, to “oooh!”s from the audience. Klutt’s pit crew patched up his car and sent him back out onto the road. But the incident was enough to raise a yellow “caution” flag, meaning all the cars had to slow down while driving in the same order they were already in. This was good for Julia, since she would now be able to close up the gap between her car and that of the driver ahead of her, but not so much for Kevin Lacroix, who was in second and had a huge lead.

When they picked back up to normal speed, Julia tried, once again, to pass. But this time, she missed her mark and ended up far outside the other cars. Julia thought the problem might be her shock absorbers, so she took a pit stop so her crew could check out her car. But even after that, each time she rounded the corner, her wheel yawned away from the wheel well, as though threatening to detach. The car looked lopsided, drunk. Over the radio, Julia told Glenn she felt like she was on a roller coaster.

She gradually lost places, finishing sixteenth—just outside the range the announcers had pegged as a possibility for her. Kevin Lacroix finished second. The winner was a guy whose car was sponsored by EpiPen.

Julia drove her car back to her hauler. She came out clutching her sides, saying her obliques were sore. She felt like she had been holding the car together with all her might. The sway bar, a large metal rod across the front end, had come undone, leaving the car’s right side practically dragging along the ground.