JUSTIN — If no other person at Texas Motor Speedway pulled for Jeff Gordon during this past week's Dickies 500, at least he had Hale and Danyell Hughes standing in Victory Lane cheering him on as he tried to catch Carl Edwards.
In the end, Gordon would come up a few hundred feet short of beating the 2008 Sprint Cup Championship contender and leave Hale and Danyell wishing he had been just a little bit faster.
The reason: Hughes was selected as the Williamson-Dickies Co. Dickies 2008 American Worker of the Year from a pool of thousands of entries nationwide. 
As part of the grand prize package the Woodville, Texas, resident chose Gordon's number randomly a la "Let's Make a Deal" style and stood to win $1 million if Gordon took the checkered flag ahead of everyone else in the Dickies 500.
Hughes learned about the contest in a NASCAR weekly magazine that he and his wife subscribe to and knew he had to enter — it brought together many of the things that he enjoys; work, bull riding and NASCAR.
Hughes was selected the winner of the contest during last Friday's Professional Bull Riders World Finals in Las Vegas and then whisked off to Texas Motor Speedway in the Dickies corporate jet for a whirlwind weekend of NASCAR fun.
"It was like they knew my spirit and they don't even know me yet," Hughes said of the contest. "I could not, not enter this contest. So, I put my name in the hat. I typed up a 100-word paragraph, sent my picture in and here we are three months later."
Hughes said he was first named a weekly winner (Week 6) of the 12-week contest that began in June. And, then he was notified that he was chosen by the Dickies Co. as one of six regional winners and would be headed to Las Vegas and the PBR World Finals on Halloween night.
For Hughes and his wife, just being chosen as the weekly winner was exciting enough but possibility of being named the Dickies 2008 American Worker of the Year was indescribable.
"We were dancing around the living room, dancing a jig, it was very exciting," Hughes said when first interviewed at TMS on Saturday. "I'm sorry. I'm as country as corn. I can't imagine it getting any better than this. I am so hillbilly, I never would have imagined you could do this kind of stuff."
The past five years had been hard for Hughes and his wife, Danyell, with him suffering a near-crippling injury in an oilfield accident, the result of an oilrig that collapsed on top of him, breaking his back in five places, rupturing his spleen and shattering several ribs. And, just a few months before, Danyell was forced to prematurely give birth to their son, Hawk, so that she could receive life-saving chemotherapy treatments to combat breast cancer. And that doesn't even include the financial hardships from medical bills and more recently, having to endure the wrath of Hurricane Ike. Despite all of the struggles Hughes and Danyell have endured, they said they have been made stronger, are closer now than ever before to themselves and their children Hawk, 5, and Holly, 7.
On Sunday, Hughes shook hands with Gordon during driver introductions, then gave the command for the drivers to start their engines (and did it with gusto — perhaps the best I have ever seen) before being taken up to the Dickies Luxury Suites to watch the race in style.
The race had to be an emotional roller coaster for Hughes and his lovely wife, Danyell, as Gordon, who started on the pole, went a lap down midway through the race. Then, as luck would have it, Gordon's crew chief Steve Letart made a call to take four tires and fuel on the final caution and Gordon rallied back to finish second.
Gordon pushed his Chevrolet Impala as hard as he could but he couldn't catch Edwards.
The emotions of the day finally came full circle as a couple of tears could be seen in Hale and Danyell's eyes as they watched the start/finish line. But these weren't tears of bitterness or despair. They were happy tears, and the couple was humbled by this once-in-a-lifetime experience.
"This thing is still going," Hughes told The Examiner on Wednesday. "The people at Clear Channel want me on to do an interview. Captain Thunder Racing.com and someone else, who has an office at the track, want to do a phone interview.
"People still want to holler at me and I am just an ordinary dude that has to mow my lawn."
Hughes said he, Danyell, Hawk and Holly were also invited to attend Dickies national corporate sales meeting on Dec. 2 in San Diego. Hughes said he is honored that the company is has done so much.
"Man, right now, I am trying to find a map from Cloud 9 back to Woodville, Texas," Hughes said. "I think Danyell could give ol' Criss Angel a run for his money. Her feet still haven't touched the ground. This has been so wonderful and I am so appreciative for Dickies. One thing about me, I don't have to pretend. This is who I am. They got a NASCAR fan that loves bull riding and goes to work every day. I can't imagine ever not working. When I was hurt I wanted to get back to work."
Hughes may not have won the $1 million but he didn't go away empty-handed. Dickies will present him with a 2009 Ford F-150, a Yamaha Rhino 700 FI 4x4 and $5,000, plus some cool Dickies work wear.
Danyell said the couple needed a new truck but have put off buying one until their financial situation was better. She said this weekend's experience is beyond her wildest dreams.
"I am speechless. I really am," Danyell said. "We both had to give up so many of our dreams because of the cancer and then when he broke his back. We kept talking about a new truck and I was like, we can't afford the payments. And this happened, I am so happy for him because he has been trying real hard to make our dreams come true so I am glad that his dreams can come true too."
Looking back on Sunday's closing moments, Hughes said Edwards was "a class act." He said he spoke with Edwards in Victory Lane and it was the first time the driver had been told that Gordon's win would have garnered a fan $1 million. Hughes said Edwards told him that he dedicated the win to a little boy that was battling cancer — something Hughes and Danyell were all too familiar with.
"If Carl Edwards winning that race makes that little boy's life a little better, then it is all worth it," Hughes said.
1 comment:
This guy and his wife seem like they are the most down to earth people on the planet. And she's cute too. You must have had a blast covering them. I wish them all the best.
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