Local woman wins trip to Indy race

BY RICK ROUAN

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

BOARDMAN— Renee Underwood is giving new hope to people who say they never win anything.

On a whim, the Boardman resident sent a text message to enter a contest for a weekend with NASCAR after she saw it advertised on a Coors Light poster at Buffalo Wild Wings in Boardman earlier this year.

“I’ve never won anything,” she said.

Until now.

Underwood, 22, said she learned in early June that she had won a trip for two to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway to watch racers practice, meet NASCAR officials and take a guided garage tour before watching the AllState 400 on Sunday.

“I won it for my boyfriend,” said Underwood, who admits to not being a big racing fan yet: “I’m just kind of ready to go and get into it. I’m going along with it.”

Underwood’s boyfriend, Tom Morell, 23, of Boardman, is the real racing fan. He grew up a fan and has attended races at the Michigan International Speedway during Father’s Day weekend. Morell even races late model cars himself at the Lake Erie Speedway.

Morell said he was going to try to convince his girlfriend to follow racing with him and that the weekend might help.

“She’s pretty new to the whole thing, so we’re going to get her pretty accustomed to it this weekend,” he said.

Underwood said she has only ever watched her boyfriend race and that she’s looking forward to the weekend.

“It’s kind of scary when your loved one is doing it because you don’t know what’s going to happen,” she said. “I had to sit with his family and they were freaking out. This time, I heard it’s a bigger track, I’m excited about that.”

The weekend is sponsored by Coors Light, which will be giving the couple VIP treatment for the weekend.

“That’s like the first thing I’ve won that’s really been big,” Underwood said.

rrouan@vindy.com