LOUDON — Denny Hamlin wasn't the only winner at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Sunday.

Long before Hamlin won the Sylvania 300, Amanda Tetlow of Lincoln won the New Hampshire Lottery Set For Life game drawing, walking away with the $500,000 grand prize.

As the winner, she could have competed for a higher prize of $100,000 a year for life, but she chose instead to take the $500,000 lump-sum prize.

“I feel great,” Tetlow said after she won.

“I'll probably get an apartment, definitely a new car, after that I don't know. I feel absolutely great, I can't believe it.”

The race was a success for the speedway and brought millions of dollars to area businesses, as about 100,000 racing fans came from all over the country in cars and RVs.

It was a good weekend for the police, too, who only had to deal with “a few fender-benders and a few lost people,” said Loudon Police Chief Robert Fiske, who said police were planning to return Route 106 south of the speedway from three southbound lanes to normal traffic shortly after 9 p.m., earlier than usual.

“I was very pleased with how well it went, very few problems,” Fiske said.

Others had smaller successes. About 200 paid volunteers from schools, colleges, scouting groups and other organizations raised money for their causes while working three shifts to help direct traffic in and around the track and its various lots, which held 3,600 RVs through this weekend.

At 3 p.m., for instance, 19 members of the Plymouth State University softball team and 11 members of the New England College basketball squad gathered for traffic duties, as an estimated 80,000 cars were about to leave the speedway.

The volunteer crews, who were paid minimum wage, are a necessary part of the track's traffic control system at the track's major races, said Deb Carder, assistant manager of the NHMS parking department.

The race is the biggest fundraising event for the New England College hoopsters each year, said Joe Faragher, the team's assistant manager.

“It's also helpful because it shows and builds character among our players. Ushering traffic around is a big responsibility,” he said.

It was also a great victory for Barb and Al Laskey of Barrington, who brought their new business, a food vending trailer called “Barb and Al's Little Red Kitchen,” to the track for the first time.

Business was booming for most vendors, helped by the nice weather, many said. For the Laskeys, it was a great cap to a successful first summer of business.

“I've been an excavator all of my life, but we thought we'd try selling food as a family business,” Al Laskey said. “We were a big hit; people said it was the best food they'd ever had here.”

dseufert@newstote.com