Saturday was a much busier day. Ryan has final practice and qualifying, as well as a meet and greet with Dent Wizard, the weekends sponsor. He was decent in practice and qualified tenth for the race.

Race

Ryan started tenth, then took the lead on lap nineteen, and led until his first scheduled pit stop of the day on lap thirty four. Unfortunately, he spun by himself getting onto pit road and was assessed a speeding penalty.

"I'm so sorry guys." Ryan apologized to his crew.

Luckily, the caution would wave on lap thirty eight, and the team topped off for fuel and Ryan began his charge back to the front. He finished stage one in tenth, but then it began to rain. The cars were brought to pit road and covered while the track drying process began.

Due to steady rainfall, the race was postponed until Monday afternoon.

Olivia was unhappy about having to stay in Talladega another day, knowing she was having to put off the inevitable task of telling her parents about her pregnancy. However, there was nothing that could be done about it. They would just have to tell them on Tuesday. Probably after her doctors appointment.

On Monday afternoon, the race resumed. Olivia realized she had a pretty good feeling about today. She started thinking that maybe Ryan had gotten the bad luck out of his system with his spin the day before.

Ryan restarted in tenth, but by lap seventy, he made his way back into the lead, and held on for the next twelve laps.

On lap 108, Alex Bowman spun, and brought out a big crash, which Ryan narrowly avoided, and that forced stage two to end under caution and Ryan was scored with a sixth place finish in the stage. Olivia realized that Chase was also caught up in the crash, and she felt terrible for Nicole and Carly. Chase was able to continue after several pit stops to make repairs, but Alex was done for the day.

Ryan continued to run near the front of the field, and managed to avoid two more big crashes.

He moved back into the lead on lap 182, just before the caution came out for another multi car crash.

The race went back to green on lap 186, setting up a two lap shootout to the finish. Ryan Newman moved to the outside and made a pass for the lead on the last lap. A strong push from Aric Almirola allowed Ryan to pull ahead of Newman and beat Newman to the line by a nose, picking up his first win of the season and locking himself into the round of eight.

For a brief moment, Ryan was unsure if he had actually won the race. The finish was so close, and coming to the finish, he was actually forced below the yellow line for just a second, and was not sure if the finish would hold up.

He held off on celebrating, nervously telling his team he was forced below the line, and was waiting on NASCAR to make the official call.

Olivia held her breath nervously, until she heard over the radio.

"We need the 12 to victory lane."

Olivia released the breath she was holding and began jumping up and down excitedly, hugging various crew members.

"Yeah baby yeah!!!" Ryan said excitedly over the radio.

Olivia climbed down from the pit box. Someone picked her up and spun her around, and she realized it was Dean, grinning ear to ear. "Your boy did it." He said excitedly.

"Round of eight. Celebrate. Celebrate." Ryan said over the radio. The crowd was going wild.

After Ryan had finished his interviews for NBC, Olivia joined him and the team in victory lane for photos. Ryan looked as if the weight of the world had been lifted off of his shoulders. All the bad luck he had experienced throughout the season had finally come to an end, and Olivia was over the moon to be able to share this moment with him.

After a big hug and a kiss, he whispered in her ear. "This is the happiest moment of my life, and it's because of you. I love you." His hand briefly touched her stomach, but he quickly pulled it away, knowing cameras were on them. She cried happy tears because it was the best moment of her life as well.

*******

They arrived back home late that night, both exhausted, but too excited to sleep. They both had several messages on their phones wishing congratulations, but it was too late to return them, so they would wait until morning. Olivia had a few messages from her mom and dad, also congratulating Ryan on his win, and wanting to celebrate the following evening. She couldn't help but wonder how much they would want to celebrate once they heard her news. Her and Ryan's news.

*******

The following morning, Olivia slept in late, while Ryan was out shooting his podcast. She woke up with a big smile on her face, refusing to let anything get her down today, choosing to be positive in regards to seeing her mom and dad later that evening. It would be fine. They would see how in love and happy she and Ryan were, and they would not only accept the news, but they would be happy as well.

She returned a few phone calls and submitted her post race press release. She watched the ending of the race, as well as the interviews and checked out the photos online.

She logged onto her Twitter and posted the following tweet:

@LivvyJ:
So proud of you @Blaney!!! Sky's the limit. We have so much to look forward to. I love you!!!😘 😘😘

She watched as the likes jumped up into the thousands. She didn't post much on her personal Twitter, she especially didn't post much personal information, but she didn't care. She wanted the world to know just how proud she was. She smiled when she saw Ryan like, then reply to her tweet.

@Blaney
I love you @LivvyJ ♥️

He wasn't much for posting a lot of personal information either, so this was huge for him, and her heart literally melted.

She spent some time with Sturgill, then went to get ready for her appointment. They would be leaving as soon as Ryan got home, probably within the next half hour or so.

While getting dressed, she noticed she was spotting a little. It wasn't much, very faint, but it was enough to worry her.

She tried not to panic. She knew spotting early in pregnancy was fairly common, and usually no cause for alarm, but she couldn't help but be concerned. It really was very little, but she called her doctors office anyway.

The nurse tried to reassure her that as long as it was faint, it was probably nothing, but they would see her soon and she could discuss all of her concerns with her doctor that afternoon.

She felt a little better after talking to the nurse, she just wished Ryan would hurry up and come home so they could go to the appointment. She would not feel entirely at ease until she saw the doctor.