Half a Second Down: In Clay County, second place pays the bills. Winning gets you everything else.

By Elowen Veyne

Second place keeps Mare Pettit's shop alive. Winning could cost her everything.

Since her father's death, Mare has run Pettit Racing by the numbers: conservative setups, clean finishes, and no risk she cannot justify. The approach pays the bills, keeps her crew employed, and protects the last piece of her family she still knows how to hold.

Then Dolan Rhys walks into her garage with a restricted license, a national-series past, and a question Mare does not want to answer: how fast could the number 14 car be if she stopped building it merely to survive?

Dolan needs wins to earn his way back. Mare needs steady results to keep a demanding sponsor from walking. As their season tightens and every tenth of a second becomes more expensive, each setup call tests the limits of the car, the team, and the trust growing between them.

Half a Second Down is a character-driven motorsports drama about grief, professional pride, and the dangerous difference between protecting what remains and risking it for something more.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0HJ57HFYV
• ISBN13: 9798172713590
• Release Date: September 2026
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 374 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.0" x 9.0"