Shot at $1 million NASCAR prize comes up short

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Jeff Gordon finished second in Sunday’s Dickies 500 NASCAR race at Texas Motor Speedway, and it’s likely the only person more disappointed that Gordon didn’t win was an oil-rig worker named Hale Hughes.

As part of its race promotions, the Dickies work-wear clothing company selected Hughes as its “American Worker of the Year� and let him make a blind pick among the 43 cars in the Sprint Cup Series race.

The Woodville, Texas, resident chose Gordon, and if Gordon had won, Hughes would have won $1 million.

That would have been more than Carl Edwards received for actually winning the race ($496,300).

--Jim Peltz