Joe Denette was out of work and down on his luck three years ago when he bought a fistful of Mega Millions lottery tickets.
Like most lottery players, Denette fantasized about would he would do with the millions of dollars from winning the jackpot. Denette, a rabid auto racing fan from Fredericksburg, Va., imagined buying a new RV and traveling to every NASCAR track in the country.
“’I’d buy $23 in tickets,” Denette said. “Three of the plays, I would play NASCAR numbers. My favorite four drivers, first and foremost Bill Elliott, I played the 9 on one ticket … the 11 … retired champions on another ticket … Davey Allison … Richard Petty’s 43 … numbers of drivers who have died in the sport … Dale Earnhardt’s No. 3 … then I’d let the computer pick $20 worth.”
Sure enough, in May 2009, the computer delivered the winning numbers, giving Denette, who had been laid off from his construction job for four months, a cool $76.5 million.
Instead of settling for just a new RV among some other “toys,” Denette ended up buying a whole new NASCAR Camping World Truck Series team, and he’ll have two trucks on the track in Saturday’s SFP 250 at Kansas Speedway, including one driven by four-time series champion Ron Hornaday Jr.
“I love NASCAR,” said Denette, who turned 50 last week. “I would rather go to a NASCAR racing event than go on vacation. I actually spent last week in Hawaii, came back and went to the race at Rockingham (N.C.), and I enjoyed Rockingham more than I enjoyed Hawaii.”
Of the $75.6 million jackpot, Denette chose a lump-sum payment of $46 million, which after taxes shrunk to almost $33 million.
That was still more than enough to start a truck team on a part-time basis with former Nationwide Series regular Hermie Sadler behind the wheel, before Sadler took over day-to-day operations of Joe Denette Motorsports last year.
“We crunched numbers,” Denette said. “Hermie knows anybody and everybody in NASCAR. That was my leg up. I told him, ‘You run the team. Let’s go for it.’ We got some sponsorship, hired a driver, got our feet wet. I told him, ‘Whatever we need, I can come up with finances. Just build us a winning team.’ ”
Last year, in Joe Denette Motorsports’ first full season in the series, Jason White finished 15th in the standings, while a second truck driven on a part-time basis by Elliott Sadler won the pole at Bristol and finished seventh in the season finale at Homestead, two spots ahead of White, one of five top-10 finishes in 2011.
“I learned a lot about racing in general,” Denette said, “and I learned that if you really want a good team, you’ve got to have the right people, hire the right personnel. Last year, the driver I had was OK, but I didn’t want just an OK driver; I wanted someone who was going to go out there wanting nothing but to win championships.
“My whole desire in all of this is to win the championship. That would be my greatest goal. I’d be happy getting a trophy. That’s what I want. I want a NASCAR trophy at my house. You can’t buy a trophy … well, maybe you can … but it’s not the same as building a team and winning a race.”
Denette found a champion in Hornaday, whose four truck titles and 51 victories (including 2008 at Kansas Speedway) are the most in series history, but was out of a ride after Kevin Harvick, Inc., closed its doors following the 2011 season. Denette bought trucks from Harvick, is leasing the Harvick shop and hired a lot of his employees, including Hornaday.
“That was like signing Peyton Manning as your quarterback,” Denette gushed. “He’s a proven champion, knows the tracks, is somebody I feel is going to win races and have a legitimate chance at winning championships.”
In addition to putting Hornaday, 53, in his No. 9 (there’s that number again) Denette added rookie Max Gresham, 18, to the stable in the No. 24 Chevrolet.
“It’s pretty exciting,” said Hornaday, who is ninth in the standings after three races. “Joe is a really pumped about his race team, and it’s quite an honor to drive for Joe and his whole family. Bringing Max aboard shows how much dedication they have.”
It takes about $3 million a year to fully fund a trucks team, and Denette eventually wants to own a Sprint Cup team, which takes at least $20 million to be competitive.
“That’s everybody in NASCAR’s dream, to sit there and say, ‘Hey, I own that car,’ ” Denette said. “But first you’ve got to get a reputation. Once you have a reputation, you can get sponsorship. Once you get the right sponsors, the money comes in. But they don’t want to put sponsorship on a 30th place car or truck. They want somebody who is out front. They want their product to be seen.”
Denette, married and a father of two sons, usually visits the race shop outside Charlotte, N.C., once a month but is still mostly a fan. Before winning the lottery, Denette attended NASCAR races within a five- to six-hour drive, including Charlotte, Bristol and Richmond.
“My going on vacation would be a three-day weekend in Charlotte at the races,” he said.
Now, he jets to all of the races, coast to coast.
“At the races, I talk to all the guys, put on my headphones and listen in during the race, try to hype them up, and that’s pretty much it,” Denette said. “I don’t do anything with the team. If they need somebody to catch tires coming across the wall, I’ll do that. I’ll do anything they ask me to do.
“The lottery has changed my lifestyle, but it hasn’t really changed me. I’m still the same person. I still like going to the races and tailgating … I would rather tailgate with the fans than the drivers … that’s what I am. First and foremost, I’m a fan.”
A rich one at that.
