Expand: date=January 2007

Plot

Rookie driver Jimmy Bly (Kip Pardue) is tearing up this year's circuit, already winning 5 races. His brother/business manager Demille (Robert Sean Leonard) is right there with him working out endorsement deals and making sure the press come first, putting tremendous pressure upon Jimmy. Jimmy's winning is also angering former champion Beau Brandenburg (Til Schweiger) who decides he's not doing very well this year because of his fiancee Sophia (Estella Warren). He breaks up the engagement and she returns his ring, and he immediately starts winning again.

Young Jimmy Bly's team owner Carl Henry (Burt Reynolds) is concerned however because his last few races haven't gone so well, plagued with all sorts of mental errors. Carl is seeing a pattern he's seen before with an old driver of his who destroyed his career by doing the same sort of things. He calls that driver, Joe Tanto (Sylvester Stallone) and convinces him to come out of retirement so he can teach Jimmy how not to destroy his career like he did. Joe agrees and is brought in to replace Jimmy's teammate, Memo Moreno (Cristián de la Fuente).

The side story here is that Joe's ex-wife Cathy Heguy (Gina Gershon) is now married to Memo, the driver that Joe replaced.

The first race Joe is in comes down to the wire with Jimmy leading and Brandenburg a close second. Jimmy can't seem to pull away from him so Carl has Joe pit and holds him there until the leaders are about to come by. At the last second, Joe leaves the pit just in time to block out Brandenburg, allowing Jimmy to win the race. Jimmy is back in the winners circle once again and his brother Demille is right there with him. However, Demille doesn't like Joe and doesn't want Jimmy talking to him. Beau and Joe talk about his decision to break it off, with Joe urging him to re-connect with her; Beau, puzzled, asks him what Joe would do in his position to get Olivia back, and Joe responds that he would "crawl on his hands and knees" if that was what it took.

At a bar one night Jimmy meets Sophia and they hit it off right away. They start going out and a jealous Brandenburg can't stand it. It seems like Sophia really hasn't gotten over Brandenburg yet. One night at a party in Chicago, where the prototypes of next years cars are being introduced and all the drivers are there, Brandenburg gives Sophia her ring back and they are together again. She apologizes to Jimmy but he is so upset that he takes one of the new cars and races it out of the convention center. Joe hops into another of the new cars and chases him down the streets of Chicago.

Carl decides that bringing back Joe isn't successful so he reinstates original driver Memo.

The next race is a road course in Germany and it's another close one with Jimmy and Brandenburg fighting it out for first. Memo is supposed to be there just to protect Jimmy because he just needs one more victory to be crowned this years champion. Cathy gets on the radio and convinces Memo to "go for it" and Memo starts working his way up to third but when he tries to pass Jimmy, he clips him and Memo ends up in a horrific crash that sends him flying through the air and crashing into a lake on the far end of the course. Jimmy does a quick u-turn and drives his car to the lake and dives in after him. Brandenburg does the same and the two of them rescue Memo.