On a Tuesday night in July 2012, Beauregard “Bug” Montage travels to a deserted highway in Shepherd’s Corner, Virginia. Needing money to pay the rent on his mechanic’s garage, he’s heading to this strange place with his cousin Kelvin because no one in his home county will race against his Plymouth Duster. He goads another driver, Warren Crocker, into racing him for $1000. Crocker has already won a couple of races that night, but Bug can hear a noise in the engine of Warren’s Cutlass, indicating a mechanical problem. Bug notices that Warren puts on his seatbelt, and he muses, “The Duster didn’t have seatbelts. His father used to say if they ever wrecked the only thing seatbelts would do was make it harder for the undertaker to get them out of the car” (5).

Bug easily defeats the Cutlass. Both cars return to the starting line at the convenience store, and Bug collects the two rolls of money, his $1000 and Warren’s. When Warren gets out of his car, he accuses Bug of starting early. They are about to fight when two police cars pull up, driven by white officers. The officers make all the racers and spectators, who are Black, sit down.