Dan Lowry the week's biggest name in NASCAR

Dan Lowry has his name on one of the hottest tickets for this weekend.

Lowry won a second annual Crown Royal contest, in which he was awarded naming rights to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race on Saturday. The race is officially titled "Crown Royal Presents The Dan Lowry 400."

Lowry, 29, of New Waterford, Ohio, will have his name appear on tickets, race merchandise and more. He will serve as Grand Marshal, partake in pace-car laps, watch the race from the No. 26 pit box and deliver the trophy — emblazoned with his name — to the race winner in victory lane.

A naval engineer, Lowry was selected from a pool of nearly 10,000 entrants as the winner of the Crown Royal "Your Name Here 400" contest. The Crown Royal Company selected the winners from written submissions chronicling each consumer's fondest Crown Royal memories that were enjoyed in a responsible manner. In his winning entry, Lowry recalled a moment when he wandered into a local restaurant while working thousands of miles away in Venezuela and caught sight of the purple and gold Crown Royal bag. Immediately, he was reminded of fond memories of home.

"This whole experience has been surreal," says Lowry. "One minute I'm a regular guy from Ohio, and the next thing you know, Crown Royal made me the winner of their contest and part of NASCAR history. It still hasn't sunk in that this is really my race."

Along with his wife, Amy, Lowry will be accompanied in Richmond by his parents and 25 close friends.

Lowry learned he had won the contest during an elaborate unveiling ceremony in February. He met Crown Royal driver Jamie McMurray, loaded into a helicopter and flew high above the Las Vegas Strip to a 10,000-square-foot desert mosaic featuring his name as part of the official race logo to be used at Richmond International Raceway.

"At Crown Royal we believe everyone deserves to be royalty for a day. We strive to create once-in-a-lifetime experiences and the Dan Lowry 400 fits the bill," says Ami-Lynn Bakshi, vice president, North American Whiskies at Diageo, Crown Royal’s parent company. "We think sports fans will appreciate what we've done for Dan, and we look forward to celebrating with everyone this weekend."