Famed orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Richard Beckett, returns to his home town of Eagle Ridge after boyhood friend and track owner, Chris Chandler, offers him a job as a safety and medical officer at the speedway. When a driver is killed in a crash at the track, Chandler needs Beckett for the job even more. But Beckett is more interested in finding out what caused the wreck than in signing a contract.

A former con man turned evangelist sets up his tent on the track's infield, arousing both suspicion and support.

Beckett and his surgeon father are reunited while attempting to save an aging driver in need of a liver transplant.

When an up-and-coming driver dies in a fiery crash, Beckett and attorney Mimi find themselves on opposite sides of a lawsuit that puts the entire sport of racing on trial.

Beckett and Chandler rekindle their friendship in a two-man race, just like the old days. Divorce procedures between Nicole and Chandler are coming to an end. And things are heating up between Beckett and Nicole, picking up where they left off 15 years ago.

On a scorching day at the race track, a hand grenade arrives in Chandler's pizza. Temperatures and tensions rise as Chandler seems to be fouling up Sheriff Lowell Carter's attempts to nab the perpetrator until security footage reveals potentially incriminating evidence.

Chandler, vying for the presidency of CONTRAC, works on a TV package the current organization's president hands him. He tries to boost TV coverage by fostering grudges between drivers.

Beckett's college friend, a television producer, visits the speedway to get Beckett's assistance in developing a television series set in the world of stock car racing.

Beckett enjoys his quietest race day in weeks until a freak accident in a garage injures Dusty Stokes' wife and daughter, while Stokes is leading the Eagle Ridge 500 with just 100 laps to go.

Still in pursuit of a CONTRAC presidency, Chandler enlists Takeshta, mogul of a large Japanese company, to sponsor what has always been an All-American racing series.