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Jimmie Johnson's wreck overshadows drama of Kurt Busch's victory at TMS
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Five questions with ZZ Top
ZZ Top is celebrating its 40th year of rockin’ the world. Before Sunday’s Dickies 500, the group that formed in Houston played an hourlong set alongside the frontstretch. Billy Gibbons, Dusty Hill and Frank Beard (oddly enough, the one without a long beard) are the band’s original members. They met with reporters before the race to talk about their career and Beard’s opportunity to drive the pace car to start the race.What were your expectations when you first came together, and are you surprised to be still going? Gibbons: I think our expectations are reflected in our appearance here today. It’s quite similar: fast and loud. That’s all we cared about. But we’re still doing it.Frank, you once raced in the 24 Hours of Daytona, correct? Beard: I did. We put together a little team out of Houston and raced in the GTU category, and we came in second. It’s a very expensive sport. All three of you are wearing sunglasses. Did you pay a lot for them? Gibbons: Well, as the song goes, they used to be cheap sunglasses.Hill: Not anymore.Beard: Prescription sunglasses is probably better.Frank, what was your time in the pace car before the race like? Beard: It’s a little more technical than I thought it would be. I thought I would just get out there and drive around in a circle. They want you to run a certain line. I didn’t realize that you ran at a certain speed so they could set the tachometer so they don’t get penalized on pit lane. It was eye-opening.You will play before about 170,000 today. Have you ever played in a front of a crowd that big? Beard: I think the biggest audience we ever played in front of was in Auckland, New Zealand. It was 600,000.Hill: Which is pretty much New Zealand.Million-dollar fanDickies’ American Worker of the Year won’t have to work so hard now.Michael McGee, an agricultural teacher and horse training business owner from Broken Bow, Okla., won $1 million when Kurt Busch took the checkered flag in the Dickies 500.On Saturday, McGee randomly selected one of the 12 Chase drivers to win the race. Busch was his pick, and McGee received his $1 million check from the race winner in Victory Lane."I think I’d like to pay off my house," McGee said, "and maybe start some kind of scholarship program for kids going to college pursuing some type of career in agriculture."Pre-race tributeAs part of pre-race festivities, 45 U.S. Army soldiers from Fort Hood were scheduled to carry the American flag unfurled for the national anthem. However, only 40 were on hand, as the other five were injured in Thursday’s shooting spree that killed 13 and injured 29. A moment of silence was held for all victims.First in lineFans at Sunday’s race received a "thank you" flier that entitles them to first chance at the best seats for April’s Samsung Mobile 500.Tickets for the April 19, 2010 race, plus the Nationwide O’Reilly 300 the day before, go on sale Wednesday. The fliers have a code that will let fans purchase tickets online Monday and Tuesday.
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