Virginian bought truck series team after hitting it big
MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Joe Denette bought a team in the Camping World Truck Series with one very important demand — it can't be like work.
After winning the Mega Millions lottery drawing on May 1, 2009, Denette vowed to never punch another time clock. The rest of his life would be dedicated to having fun — and spending his $30 million winnings.
"That's why I decided on the trucks; it's real racing," Denette said. "The Cup side is too much like a business. I don't want to be in business. I don't want to have to work at anything. I want to have fun."
Denette owns the No. 23 Chevrolet Silverado driven by Jason White. The team is off to a slow start with two crashes in the first four races, but it hasn't kept the former construction worker from Thornburg, Va., from having fun.
"I'm still living a dream," he said.
Without NASCAR, Denette said he probably wouldn't have had one of three winning tickets in the $227 million jackpot. His luck started earlier in the week when he won four tickets to Richmond International Raceway from a local radio station.
That set into motion a series of events that forever changed his life.
He stopped at a convenience store to buy 23 tickets on the way to the airport to pick up his brother, who was using one of the four tickets. One of those Mega Millions tickets held the winning numbers: 9, 16, 24, 40 and 43 with the mega ball 35. The winning ticket was a computer-generated quick pick.
"If I hadn't won the race tickets, I wouldn't have stopped to play the lottery then," he said. "Some things are just meant to be."
His share was $75.6 million. The cash option was $47.8 million. After taxes, he took home $30 million.
"I'll make do," he said.
An hour after he realized he had a winning ticket, he was back at the Richmond track for the Sprint Cup race.
"It was on then," he said. "I told everybody sitting around me I just won the lottery, but nobody believed me. We tailgated and drank beer and had a blast that night.
"And we're still having fun."
White was able to bring GunBroker.com sponsorship to the deal, so Denette doesn't have to pay for everything. Part-time racer Hermie Sadler worked with Denette to make sure nobody takes advantage of his money and good nature.
"We want to win races and a championship, for sure," White said. "If we have a bad day, Joe tells us to smile and shake it off. He doesn't put any pressure on us. He wants to win. He's a very low-keyed guy, but he wants to win. He gives us the tools to succeed, and I really believe we can win a championship. This is a great race team."
White's best finish was 10th at Phoenix in February.
Denette still buys lottery tickets each week, but instead of 23 he now buys 123.
"I haven't cashed another ticket since I won," he said.
He also hasn't worked, which, he said, is priceless.
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There's one thing I hate worse than football, basketball, and baseball. Watching cars go around in circles has to be the dumbest thing in sports. It's bad enough wasting time, like some of my friends do, yelling, screaming at the T.V., and arguing over which team or player is doing what in sports, but cars going in circles is plain stupid. Sorry....!
Sports nerds just piss me off...!...They keep saying..."MY TEAM' is better or whatever, as If they own the team. The football players don't even know they exist, and they act as If they're a representative of the team. Get a life !
OK, there...I got it off my chest...lol
Congrats to the winner!!!
I can understand how you feel about "cars going in circles" all day like NASCAR. But if you went to a Le Mans race your tune would change. Its a whole different beast and the track includes several types of turns unlike NASCAR. I just got back from a Le Mans race in Sebring FL and I go every year. Its the most fun sporting event I have ever been to. It's completely different than NASCAR.
Anyways your post made me LOL
As a huge sports fan this made me lol as well. Everybody has their own opinions..
Congrats to the winner!
The appreciation of the sport goes all the way back to the beginning of the auto
industry. The rules and regulations the engine builders and everything that goes
into building a car that can compete in a race with other cars in the same
class. It's beyond awesome what these people have to do to get ready for one
race let alone one season.
but I lived in the wrong part of the country to get in on the ground floor. When
I left the Army i almost moved to Atlanta. Oh well that dream died along with
many others.
And to think I was gonna invite you up to the compound on race day for a few beers and screamin at the tv with me and some of the good old boys.
Stop beating around the bush and tell us how you really feel.
Sounds to me like you must be a hockey fan....OH YEAH !
I like women's curling and wrestling (college).
glad to see a winner do what he Loves, i don't like what he does, but ever human diff :D
i like "Fake" Pro wrestling LOL, great smack talking , and asskicking, cheating, chair shots to the back, cage match's etc , great Entertainment
going in circles is plain stupid i agree with that thro
i do however like girls Roller derby from time to time , its nice to watch them elebowl and nock each other down LOL
i do Love demolition derby thro, let the epic Battle begin of a massive free for all smackdown via crashing begin!
and i watch some of diff X games when its on ever year
, i guest i just like xtreme Entertainment ,if someone lifes does not appear in danger, f it
only Nascar i watch are sport highlights of epic crash's , i can't help my self not to look at that stuff go down
<---- buys a mud wrestling team
" we aint won much , but its been a lot of fun. "
Congrats to the winner! Sounds like he is doing great. Maybe we'll see him on Lottery Changed My Life.
I love the last 10 - 15 laps of NASCAR. Lots of action. Kind of like the last 5 minutes of college basketball. Those are my fave to watch. Forget the rest tho. I'm off to watch my nephew play college baseball today. Even tho it's the first time I'll get to see him play, I'll probably have to work to keep from falling off the bleachers....
Not that I know much of anything about NASCAR - one thing that you can't say about this guy "MY TEAM" IS HIS TEAM! He owns it! I say follow your own dreams and if you can make it happen go for it. Sports, Lottery, luck, what ever a person may call it. He won big and he living his life - good for him.
I suspect it will end in tears! If Joe starts spending his jackpot willy-nilly and doesn't invest it wisely, I'm afraid he will have to work again.
Good Luck Joe!
Please don't screw it up!
Just show me the parts where they beat the heck out of each other....lol
I like to bowl....
SCREW IT UP JOE SCREW IT THE FUBAR UP !!!!!
You like to bowl?
Now there's a sport that keeps everybody on the edge of their seat!
And women swoon at the thought of it! That's why professional bowlers are all married to Super Models!
Ha ha..
If I had millions I would have a harem....no weddings....
Now frog jumping contest is where the action is...
in regards to him eating all his money away, this is how i reason it:
let's say you've played the lottery reasonably for 15 years [$4 per week] so far and would for another 40yrs = $3,120 x 40yrs = $124,800
you make $52,000 yearly [just stating national medium= $52,000 - now let's say you would have to continue to work for the next 40 years = $2,080,000
let's consider debts [$100,000] and car payments [$500 monthly] and mortgages [$3,000 monthly], car and insurance [$2,000 monthly] that you'll probably have to pay in that lifetime = $2,740,000
let's throw in vacations, clothing allowance, food, personal beautification, toys, fun stuff that you would spend in those 40 years = $500,000
let's dream about that fortune a long lost great uncle is sure to leave you if he can find your address= $1,000,000
----------
the total will reflect what you've been and would have likely used up for the next 40 yrs = $ 6,444,800 <-- this is the LEAST total net [after taxes and everything] the lottery will have to be for me to consider playing - this is what the lottery sugar daddy has to provide to you and i in order to allow us to live the life we have been so accustomed to and to come out even
SO YOU ALL KNOW WHAT THIS MEANS, RIGHT? THAT WHEN THE LOTTERY IS AT $12 MILLION [STARTING POINT ANYWAY] YOU SHOULD START PLAYING!!!
anything else is A BONUS AND YOU PRETTY MUCH CAN BURN IT IN THE FURNACE IF YOU WANT
What an idiot!!!
Theres nothing more pathetic than dumb Rednecks making left hand turns:(
The guy won the lottery and he's living his dream.
How does that make him an idiot?
well, in his own words...he said, "I don't want to be in business. I don't want to have to work at anything. I want to have fun."
I hate to rain on his picnic, but racing is big business. I have a friend that was once on a pit crew
back in the old days as he puts it, anyone could get into it and be competitive. with the amount of money it takes to run a crew these days, unless your making a whole lot of money, you'll go in the hole quick.
I personally think its a bad business decision.
you brought up a great point though; maybe your right; refering to him as an idiot; may have been a bit harsh. He is after all living his dream. and he will get to do so for about 5 years until he's bankrupt
nobody can ever take those moments from him.
even if he does end up living in a cardboard box under a bridge
Wow, you should be a motivational speaker.
You're so upbeat and effervescent.
Ridge, for a hillbilly, you sure have a way with words. LOL.
The guy is living his dream. Why on earth would anyone criticize him for that. Maybe jealousy.
I'm happy for him, and hope I'm next.
Much obliged buckeye.
There are always people who want to throw a wet blanket on the party.
I've even married a few of 'em (they got that way after I married 'em, natcherly).
Rdgrnr, you're alway right on Q
Can I be your Agent.
Anybody who says making left hand turns is a waste of time or dumb probably think their bong is a work of art.
Ask Juan Pablo Montoya or Danica Patrick if going around a Nascar track is easy, you have to be in great shape and have very fast reaction times.
Well certainly, Louise.
You'll have to be armed though to fend off the ex-wives.
They'll probably try to blend in with the groupies for the tour of the tour bus.
Quote: Originally posted by rdgrnr on April 10, 2011
"Wow, you should be a motivational speaker.
You're so upbeat and effervescent."
Well, I don't know what to say...uummm..let me think....Thanks.
but, I was actually going for something like sarcastically satiristic
for the record, I'm no more jealous of this guy; than I am of the West Virginia superstar that managed
to squander his 110 million cash payout in less than 7 years!
why does it seem that the more of a moron you are, the more you win?
Maybe, I should have hit the bong a time or two more.
"...you have to be in great shape and have very fast reaction times."
I'll bet you do!
First he's an idiot and now he's a moron?
I like sarcasm and satire but that sounds more like sour grapes.
Start getting your affairs at home in order, cause Californ-I -A is the place for you , hills that is Beverly Hill this guy who won the 30 million won't have nothing on you, have as many groupies and ex-wives you like it's SHOW TIME!!!!!
Sour grapes....me??....naaahh..
my grapes aren't sour, there rotten!...hehehe
but, they make a nice wine!!
I bet it is hard, but the losers who sit there at the track or even worse, at home for 5 hours watching it need to get a life.
Yeah, they should all go bowling. It's a thrill a minute!
I got thrown out of a bowling alley one time during a tournament.
I think I was snoring too loud and distracting the bowlers.
The whole crowd of 25 people almost turned on me!
I went to a Bingo game once with a GF of mine and her mom.
didn't realize how serious some of the older women take that game.
apparently I was distracting them too much with useless chatter. so, I took one of their markers
to write down what I wanted to say.
lo and behold the old cotter (GF Moms friend) had some kind of a screwed up system
using different color markers. when she went to reach for it...of course I had it...in the
confusion I dropped it on the floor, and the missed her chance to mark a few numbers
that would have given her bingo before the other old coot called it out.
They formed a lynch mob....
won't go there again!!
So, almost 2 years ago Joe Denette received approximately net $29.15 million dollars via the MegaMillions Lottery. Yea, exciting!!! Soon thereafter he gave a few million to his family members and friends, and bought a team in the Camping World Truck Series.
I'm curious, how much do you (in the know) think he's been paying each year for the automotive team? [If it's approximately $1 million dollars per year, perhaps Joe can continue to do this, if it's still giving him a blast, for a couple more years, yet still ALWAYS retain at least $1 million of dollars cash in a financial FDIC insured 5% APY earning account until his death at approximate age of 100 (always wisest to figure, for budgeting purposes, that one may live to the highest age, approximately 100, and also be able to pay for, possibly, mega daily medications and assisted living care).]
That happened to me at a paint drying contest....
Well first of all anyone that wins the lottery can suck my sack and drop straight to hell, they really can. I really don't want to read about these sots that have taken my money, I really don't. If these sack suckers had any cooth at all they wouldn't let articles be written about them, they really wouldn't. Nobody wants to read about some sack sucker that won 3o million dollars, we really don't. I would like to see all of em just fade away, I really would. Go have fun do what you want just get the hell out of the spotlight you didn't earn it so blank off and fade away, like they really should.
thanks
Al Reltey
Oh and whoever that boobless gal with big huge hips is in these posts has no business in a bikini, she really doesn't.
Al Reltney
Yeah, I agree. I hope he's invested a lot of it but NOT in his trucking thing/competition. I'm really glad he's enjoying himself - that's what lottery winners should be doing! But he needs to be careful with the money.
I visualized me winning the lottery about 3 years ago and what I would do with it. There were some prime pieces of land that I wanted to buy, then convert for housing or schools. Thank goodness I didn't win, because I probably would have lost all the money during the recession (and paying taxes on those empty lots of land!).
So now I know that I need to invest in several different avenues and not just one or two, in order to keep the money rolling in.
I like learning my lessons BEFORE winning the lottery. :-D
I think Base Ball is terrible now ,though I did like it along time ago.NASCAR was like any thing else,way better before it got to be too popular, which it has lost some of that also..NASCAR has brought about changes in engine desiens for better economics and durability,like other racing venues have.There is more to it than running in circles..At least the lottery winner is having fun unlike the Canadian guy who was said to be unhappy with his winnings,but we do not really know how he was..
"I think Base Ball is terrible now..."
I agree, baseball needs to be changed.
They should do away with third base and just have base runners run straight from second base over the pitchers mound to home plate.
And instead of tagging the base runner, the pitcher would have to tackle him to get him out.
And they'd all be on roller skates.
racing cars isn't any worse than sitting on your duff pretending to shoot other people in a virtual reality. And then screaming into a headset "WHAT? WHAT? I TOTALLY HIT THAT GUY!! WHAT A N00B!!" I get to hear this on a daily basis from both of my sons.
Now sitting all alone in the dark shooting MONSTERS and other creepy crawlies, scaring yourself into almost peeing your pants...that's where it's at.