Sprint Experience winner part of title celebration

Miss Sprint Cup Anne Marie Rhodes doesn't lie to NASCAR fans often. She did tell a little white one this past weekend at Homestead Miami Speedway. But it was in support of what's commonly known as "The Greater Cause," or to put it less cryptically, The Fans.

Rhodes and Monica Palumbo, her Miss Sprint Cup cohort at the races and on social networking sites, were making a Saturday appearance at the Sprint Experience, an interactive fan pavilion at every Sprint Cup Series event. The attraction's 3-D race simulators, games and prize giveaways have been especially popular with fans this season as attendance shot up 50 percent versus the previous year. During a 10-month season, that adds up to a half-million fans.

The Sprint Experience winner celebrates with the champion.

With Speed's Rutledge Wood in tow, the plan was to capture on video the 500,000th fan to enter the Sprint Experience since February's Daytona 500.

Which brings us to Anne Marie's little white lie.

At 1:03 p.m., Sprint executives were comfortable with their calculations. The milestone mark was about to be reached. There stood Sylvia and Rob Anderson, a couple from Ontario, Canada, who had driven 26 hours for one final chance to see NASCAR racing close enough to smell the wrecks.

Rhodes asked Sylvia if she'd like to win a free hat. All Sylvia had to do, Miss Sprint Cup said, was walk into the Sprint Experience with Rutledge. Speed just needed to get some footage for a story they were doing. Do that, and the hat was hers.

It was an easy proposition any race fan would accept.

Sylvia and Rob strolled in for the surprise of their lives. They were the story. Booming cannons exploded a blizzard of shiny colorful biodegradable confetti into the air. Celebratory music blasted through speakers as big as a refrigerator. Ever the gentleman, Rob had let Sylvia lead the way, and she was crowned the 500,000th fan to visit the Sprint Experience.

The couple would receive a lot more than the promised ball cap. They were stunned to learn they'd watch the Ford 400 race in Sprint's suite over the start/finish line and take part in Sunday evening's post-race Victory Lane celebration with the 2009 Cup Series champion. Even better, before the race during driver introductions, Sylvia would present the Chase for the Sprint Cup points leader flag to Jimmie Johnson.

Johnson, of course, went on to win his fourth consecutive championship, making the Andersons' lucky impromptu prize all the sweeter. Rob had worked at the Chevy plant in Oshawa, Canada, where Johnson stopped by several years ago to meet the employees. He became an avid Johnson fan, as did Sylvia.

Rob and Sylvia never miss a NASCAR race on Sundays, when their two daughters know not to even try to contact them. At Homestead, they were attending their third race of the 2009 season after trips to Richmond and Pocono.

(Denny Hamlin won each of the three Sprint Cup races the Andersons attended in 2009. J.D. Gibbs would be smart to get them to the Daytona 500.)

"This experience Sprint brought us is just absolutely amazing, beyond words really," Sylvia said Sunday night, in Victory Lane, as more confetti rained down on her head for the second consecutive day, while she and Rob watched their driver accept another title trophy and an immovable place in sports history.

Cindy Peace poses with Kyle Busch, driver of the No. 18 M&M's Toyota.

M&M's rewards Most Colorful Fan

As Sprint provided the memory of a lifetime to the Andersons, M&M's was rocking the world of Cindy Peace, the new Most Colorful Fan of NASCAR. Cindy also will be the first fan honored inside the new NASCAR Hall of Fame in a special branded exhibit.

This year, the popular M&M's Most Colorful Fan contest, which encouraged race fans to submit their most passionate and colorful race-themed photos to NASCAR.COM, generated seven million fan votes. Peace's photo bested the shots of thousands of other fans who participated.

The devoted Kyle Petty fan sent her photo next to a race car at the Richard Petty Driving Experience with the caption, "I Wanna Be A Petty."

Peace became a fan soon after meeting her husband of 20 years, Bobby. The former U.S. Army infantryman and National Guardsman raced as a teenager at Spoon River Speedway in Canton, Ill. He's been fiercely devoted to NASCAR his entire life.

"I figured if I wanted to spend Sundays with Bobby, I might as well watch and learn about NASCAR," Peace said.

She was the consummate student, quickly catching the NASCAR bug and pulling for Kyle Petty. She now participates in five different NASCAR fantasy leagues. As the Most Colorful Fan of NASCAR, Peace knows she'll be living a true-life fantasy when she takes her place in the sport's new Hall of Fame, opening in Charlotte, N.C., on May 11, 2010.

"It still hasn't sunk in," Cindy said. "I feel I'm gonna be laying in bed, wake up, and realize, what a great dream! I just can't imagine I'll be in the same building as Richard Petty, Dale Earnhardt, Junior Johnson and the Frances, for goodness sake. It's mind-blowing."

It's fitting that when Johnson stepped from his No. 48 Chevy after taking his historic title, he thanked all NASCAR fans.

Johnson's feat on the track is mind-blowing, but then again, so are the experiences NASCAR sponsors continue to provide the fans making the sport possible.

Andrew Giangola is author of "The Weekend Starts on Wednesday: True Stories of Remarkable NASCAR Fans" (Motorbooks, 2010) now available for pre-order in the NASCAR.COM Superstore (click here).