PUNTA GORDA — Jessica Bryant was standing with her cousin and a friend at the Charlotte County Motorsports Park when a skinny 14-year-old boy ran behind the three teen girls, trying to hide from one of the friends he had brought to the racetrack.

Bryant had been spending her Saturdays at the track for nearly a year by that summer night in 2006, having learned to love a sport she had once found dumb. She thought Chris Loney, the young driver hiding from a girl, was pretty goofy.