How would you react to cars speeding underneath you at 190 mph?

Picture this: You're standing on an overpass with the interstate beneath you. Everything is pretty calm, nothing out of the ordinary. Then all of a sudden, a frenzied pack of cars rushes toward you, engines screaming, some of them side by side as they went by.

Essentially, that was my view Friday morning.

Only there was no bridge. And there was no interstate. Instead, there was a flag stand on top of the start/finish line at Pocono Raceway.

There I stood in the stand, green flag in my hand as NASCAR Sprint Cup Series cars and drivers sat on pit road, waiting for practice to begin.

"Don't ... drop ... the ... flag," I kept reminding myself.

To the drivers, this was a normal practice session. To the NASCAR officials, this was a normal practice session. For almost everyone else, this was a normal practice session.

To me, this was anything but a normal practice session.

Let me give you a little background.

I've been a NASCAR fan since I was 3 years old. When I was a kid, my dad made me my own set of flags that I would wave as I watched on television. (I was eight by then, OK?)

Eventually, I think I got pretty good at it. I mean, what's a cooler party trick than telling everyone, "Hey! I can wave this flag like a real flagman!" (I later learned that there are actually many cooler party tricks. Go figure.)

Fast forward about 14 years. All of a sudden, that "experience" was finally going to pay off for me.

I arrived at the track at 9:45 a.m., just in time for press conferences. But the only thing I could think about was the fact that I had to be at the base of the flag stand in one hour.

I had done a pretty good job of downplaying it in my mind. All the way until my girlfriend texted me at 10:21 a.m., when she wrote, "You excited?!"

That's when it hit me. I was so excited and had been all week. She knew that more than anybody. But then the nervousness hit me. So did the suspense and anticipation.

NASCAR's senior communications coordinator Becky Williams led me over from the media center to the flag stand. We got there 15 minutes before practice was scheduled to begin.

Shortly thereafter, NASCAR official and flagman Jerry Hines arrived. I asked him if he had any advice for me before I walked up the daunting stairs of the stand.

"Don't drop it," Hines said.

No pressure.

I was nervous, but I was ready. I think I was, anyway. But then, Pocono race-weekend weather showed up. There were some wet spots on the track, creating a roughly 20-minute delay. That meant about 20 more minutes for me to think about ways I could screw this up.

Fast forward through those 20 minutes.

"We're getting ready here," Hines said.

He tapped me on the back, signaling me to wave the flag. Cars began rolling off pit road, and since they're so far away from the start/finish line, it almost felt anticlimactic.

That was until I saw Matt Kenseth start rolling off Turn 3 and onto the front straightaway at full speed.

I swear time slowed down for a few seconds. I paused, braced myself, leaned over and waved the flag as the bright yellow No. 20 Toyota roared by me at 190 mph. He was followed by a string of star drivers — Jamie McMurray, Ryan Newman, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ryan Blaney.

And as they rolled by, I entered a zone of sorts. I was so focused on the cars coming by and making sure they saw the flag. Even standing about 30 feet above the track, the rush of wind coming off the cars actually blew the flag a bit. Needless to say, I gripped even tighter — something I didn't think I could do at that point.

I pulled the flag back in after the first 15 or so cars went by. At that point, I had to take a deep breath and take it all in. How often does anyone get to experience this?

I took some video for myself to remember this moment. I don't think anything could ever compare to the feeling, sight, or sound of 800-horsepower cars screaming by as you wave the green flag.

But out of everything, I think the biggest accomplishment of the day was this: I didn't drop the flag.