An unemployed Spotsylvania resident has won $75,600,000 on the MegaMillions lottery. Joe Dennette was one of three ticket holders to split a $227 million Mega Millions jackpot from the May 1 drawing of the multi-state game. The other winning tickets were sold in California and Ohio.

Joe, a huge NASCAR fan and unemployed since January when he was laid off from his construction job, accepted the cheque this morning at the Richmond International Raceway. "It couldn't have come at a better time, things were rough, the economy is hard and now I can say thanks to the Virginia Lottery, I'm set." As for Dennette's future, he says, "I'm happy living in Virginia. I'm from Virginia, I've lived here all my life and I like Virginia. Even more now." He bought the ticket at a convenience store and using the easy-pick function, he allowed a Virginia Lottery computer to randomly select the numbers on his ticket. The winning numbers were 9-16-24-40-43 and the Mega Ball number was 35. Lottery officials said on Tuesday that rather than take the full jackpot amount over 26 years, Dennette has opted to take $47.8 million in cash Now that he's won the the third largest prize in Virginia Lottery history, Joe doesn't have to worry about winning tickets to see the next NASCAR race. He can buy ANY seat he wants, a private suite or even one of the teams!