Dan saw the promotion about a year ago because he follows McMurray, who is sponsored by Crown Royal. So he wrote 50 words about the time three years ago he was working in Venezuela — his first time outside the United States — and he and his colleagues went in a bar. He saw a bottle of Crown Royal in its purple bag and that made him think of home.

“I never imagined to get the grand prize,” Dan says. “That was a dream in itself. I really just filled it out. I saw all the prizes involved and said, ‘What do I have to lose?’ A lottery ticket costs a buck. This was free. Filled it out in June; never heard anything else about it.”

He had a lot going on in his life last year, culminating in his marriage in October to his girlfriend of four years, Amy, and a change of jobs two days after the wedding. So things were pretty hectic in a very good way.

Then in January, after a night out with his buddies in the pool league, he got a phone call from someone saying he was a finalist in the "Crown Royal Presents The Your-Name-Here 400" essay contest and giving him a number to call to confirm his identity and find out what he needed to do next.

“I thought it was one of my buddies pranking me, 'cuz I just got home from playing pool,” he says. “I didn’t really remember entering. So I had to go back, do some research. I looked online, then I remembered writing the essay.”

Still, to be sure, he waited until around 2:30 in the morning to call the number he’d been give. “I figured if it was one of buddies, I’d wake him up — and he’d deserve it,” Dan laughs.

It wasn’t a prank. He really was a finalist and would be going to Las Vegas to find out if he won the grand prize or had to settle for something less — like the new Mustang offered for second place. He knew that the previous year, the first year of the promotion, 10 finalists had been assembled, so he figured there would be somewhere around that number. But two days before he was to go to Vegas, he was told there were just two finalists. The worst he could do was a new Mustang.

Everything started to pick up speed then. He got to meet his favorite driver, McMurray, and the Crown Royal executives, who, he said, have treated him like, well, like crowned royalty. There was a news conference, then the two finalists were taken to the roof of their casino-hotel, loaded onto a helicopter — another first for Dan — and flown out over the desert, where a huge mosaic had been laid out to promote the event.

Finally, a car drove through the display, unveiling the name of the winner — Dan Lowry.

He’s an understated guy; “awesome” doesn’t seem to be in his vocabulary. I ask him to describe what it was like. He says, “It was definitely a heck of an experience.”

He works in Pittsburgh, where football is the reigning sport, and he has had to try to explain to his bosses and co-workers what the Dan Lowry 400 means to a lifelong NASCAR fan.

“Riding in the pace car would be like going to a football game and riding in the Goodyear blimp,” he tells them.

“Saying, 'Gentlemen, start your engines' would be like going to a boxing match and saying, 'Let’s get ready to rumble.'

“Sitting with McMurray’s crew chief is like being next to the coach on the sidelines.

“The whole thing is just unbelievable.”

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