rockover

Azucena was able to snag a "life altering" opportunity called "Wave the Green Flag Experience" from Bank of America with her NASCAR Points(by the way, even though this is normally worth 500,000 points, we only needed 150,000 for this one time offer!!! O M G). You see, we've used the NASCAR credit card for several years now, getting NASCAR points with each purchase. All large purchases including house renovations, animals, HEB and anything she bought went on the card.
Originally her goal was to get two garage passes at the value of 150,000 points. Oh, the race is in Charlotte on October 11th at 7:25pm. The race is called... Bank of America 500.
Anyway, Monday she gets an email from the credit card company with a one time offer, first come first serve, only 1 opportunity available. Like putting 100,000 names in a hat and only one can be drawn. We deliberated for about 2 minutes (mostly if I would be able to take off, which being close to our Annual Conference, is questionable). I gave the ok, she called, they said Congratulations.
We get to wave the green flag, have access to the stage where drivers are introduced, Garage/Pit passes and a "gourmet" meal in the club suites, plus they'll try to get us a meeting with Jeff Gordon and his crew. They mentioned wanting to take our pictures and maybe video tape us(I guess they plan on turning us into celebrities).
Even though Azucena is the winner, instead of trying to meet her driver Brian Vickers, she opted to try to meet with Jeff Gordon and his crew, since he's so hard to track down. As a concession, I'll have to wear the Brian Vickers coat when I wave the green flag (Yes, she turned it down and said I had to do it. S'Okay wid me).
To give you an idea on how much it would normally cost us, Pit passes run about $100. Club suites and food run at least $550. Waving the Flag and Driver Intro are truly priceless since they don't sell these "events".
It's not totally free for us. If this was Texas Motor Speedway, it'd be easy. Drive, camp and have fun. But this is Charlotte. We fly, rent and have fun. All for about $800 more than it would be if it were Texas. Plus, now she's talking about renting a motor home and staying at the track instead of a hotel. But we'd be at the track, where if we stayed at a hotel, we'd have to drive back and forth and miss other opportunities. Hmmmm. Donations anyone? Update: RV's are already sold out, so we are "stuck" with the hotel scenario.
Oh, I almost forgot. Azucena will be in the pre race pace car. This either leads the drivers to the podium, or after their introduction. I don't know which is more cool, waving the flag, or riding in the pace car. Only the flag waving can get you in a whole lot of trouble if you drop the flag. I think Richard Petty lost his hat when he waved the flag at Daytona 500 this year. And no, we don't get to tell the drivers to start their engines - That's another winner altogether.