We had a scavenger hunt at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway

Recently I took a trip to Indianapolis to participate in 3 days of fun with Crown Royal and other media influencers for the Jeff Kyle 400. I wasn’t sure what to expect at first, but I can honestly say it was one of the most fun weekends I’ve ever had. It had a little bit of everything; drinks, great food, awesome people and fast cars. Not to mention everything was totally comped! It was a great little man-cation away from the everyday hustle of NYC.

When we arrived at the J.W. Marriott, we all got acquainted with each other and were divided into teams for the weekend. My team ended up being the best, of course. It consisted of myself, Ascher from Writtalin and Alex from FlawlessCrowns. Our fearless team leader was Brianna from Taylor Strategy Public Relations. It was her job to make sure none of us got killed and that none of us cheated. Needless to say, she had a long weekend ahead of her. As for our team name, I’m not sure if it was Purple Rain or Sparkle Motion as there was much debate. I think it’s safe to say, we never actually had a team name.

Hotel Gift Bag

Hotel Room View

The grand prize for winning the scavenger hunt was well worth the effort. Each team member would win an iPad, Beats Headphones and a GoPro. We all wanted to win at any cost. We attempted to cheat, but Brianna wouldn’t let us, even though we tried to pay her off with gifts. People from North Carolina are just ethical I guess?

Anyways, we had two days to work on our scavenger hunt and we had free reign of the entire infield. For those of you that have never been to a Nascar race, the track is 2.5 miles long, so there is plenty to explore. Each team had their own golf carts and we could literally go and travel anywhere we wanted at the speedway. We even had all-access passes so we could hang out in the garages or the VIP suites if we so pleased.

There were over 100 different tasks that we had to complete for the hunt. Each task was worth a different amount of points depending on the difficulty level. Here’s a short list of just some of the tasks we had to complete:

Get a Nascar driver to Retweet you.
Get a journalist to Retweet you.
Find Miss. Sprint Cup and get a picture with her.
Get an autograph from Jeff Kyle and the rest of the “Name Your Hero” finalists.
Find someone with a Crown Royal tattoo.
Play corn hole with a veteran.
Buy a veteran a drink.
Find three fans tailgating with Crown Royal.
Get a photo with a pit crew chief.
Get a 5 second frencher from Danica Patrick. (Ok, I made that one up.)

Our team dominated the first day with a very comfortable lead. We got all the big tasks done which may or may not have involved begging a Nascar driver to Retweet us. It was smooth sailing to victory lane for us.

Find someone wearing a Crown Royal T-Shirt

Miss. Sprint Cup

Dale Earnhardt Jr.

View from our suite

That evening we went out to 45 degrees to celebrate with our heroes. It was an emotional and inspirational night and a perfect salute to all of the finalists. You can read more about the night here.

The next morning we felt confident and rejuvenated. We had this scavenger hunt in the bag. We only had a few hours to work on our tasks before the race was about to start. But first, we decided to take a team selfie.

Team Selfie

After taking the selfie in the RV (worth 45 points), it was time to knock out these last challenges and win the grand prize. We quickly realized that some of the other teams spent all morning strategizing their plans. Our lead slowly dwindled while others skyrocketed. We screwed up…

There’s now 30 minutes left in the scavenger hunt and our lead fell down to 3rd! We were desperate to find someone with a Crown Royal tattoo (worth 500 points) to get us back in the lead. We probably sounded like complete lunatics to strangers when we asked about their tattoo placements. We knocked off a few more tasks and the time limit ran up. At this point we had no idea if we won or lost, but had to wait patiently while the team leaders tallied up all the scores. We were all called into the Crown Royal Suite to announce the winners. “The winners are…. Joe’s team,” as Joe said aloud. Now i’m no mathematician, but we only had about 5 tasks left that we did not complete. I call collusion! I know what you did Joe, and I hope you’re enjoying your iPad!

In all seriousness though, the weekend was for an amazing cause and I hope to be asked back again next year. It was great meeting every single person that weekend and congrats to Joe’s team. Now here’s a few more photos for your enjoyment!