Racecar hobby taking back seat to other priorities in windfall spending plan
A novice scratch-off player from Capitol Heights turned to her dad for advice after she bought a Money Explosion instant ticket, revealed the game’s play area and became unsure if what she saw meant she won a prize.
“It was my first time ever playing the Lottery,” said the daughter, who bought the game on a whim at D&S General Store located at 3507 Enterprise Road in Mitchellville. “Something just sort of struck me. I took a chance.”
Stumped by what she saw, the 42-year-old turned to her father for help. “I told my dad to check it over,” said the winner, who is a racecar enthusiast and driver. Her dad has won a variety of Lottery prizes up to $11,000 so she was confident in his instant ticket checking skills. He carefully looked the game over and gave her great news – you won big!
The $20 Money Explosion game has a top prize of $1 million, but the second-tier prize that she won is a hefty $50,000. The game launched in July 2021 with seven prizes at the $1 million level and eight at the $50,000 level.
The Prince George’s County resident plans to use her prize to have some work done on her house and pay off bills. She will then spend some funds on her prize racecar, a flashy vintage muscle car that’s fitted out for the dragstrip. While she hasn’t had a chance to put her car to the test, she has put her daily vehicle – a Dodge Challenger SRT8 – to the quarter-mile test, clocking a respectable 12.91-second run for a street-legal vehicle.
