Irwin Ultimate Tradesman wins new truck, $20,000 (cont'd)

"There's a lot of pressure competing in front of everyone," McMurray said. "There's so much enthusiasm and excitement. ... I was thriving on the competition part of it. I was literally shaking when I competed against Jeff Hammond in front of that large crowd."

Quigley, who does this sort of thing for a living, would likely be nervous doing what McMurray does, in front of 100,000-plus spectators, so it all evened out.

"It's been amazing," Quigley said. "Not only do I make my living with my hands, I use the tools all the time. I'm a home builder and I do a lot of renovations, bathrooms, kitchens and decks. I use a lot of Irwin tools, the clamps, the drill bits, the saw blades, it goes on and on."

Bruce Quigley

After being the fifth driller in the regional at California Speedway in Fontana, Quigley was the first driller at Phoenix. "It was a little nervous because I had to wait through the other two."

Quigley terms himself a "newbie NASCAR fan."

"I'd never been to a race before I went to Fontana, so I guess I'm a newbie fan," he said.

That's what Irwin wanted: to bring its NASCAR marketing program to its end users.

"Irwin is really focused on the professional end user, so we are at traditional supply houses across the country as well as Home Depot and Lowe's," Rich said. "We have everything from Vice-Grips, which are one of our strongest brands, to more professional brands like Marathon, which is saw blades and cutting accessories. We have Speedbor, another professional brand that's known for wood boring and metal drilling accessories."

Rich said the success of the first Ultimate Tradesman Challenge means there will be another one in 2008.

"We're going to increase our events from 145 to 200, we'll have three regionals and the championship event," Rich said. "We want to have the same kind of energy, because there are people all over the country applying for this, and we can't believe how successful it has been."

Rich said that the event blew away the metrics he had in the beginning.

"We would have been happy to have 2,000 people come out and participate; to have 9,000 come out and more than 50,000 attend ... it was something we didn't expect."

Quigley said his new supercharged Ford F-150 would see a lot of time inside his garage.

"It's for marketing," he quipped. "That's too nice a truck to use for work. I haul a trailer, so I don't want to beat it up like that."

For further details on the Ultimate Tradesman Challenge, go to www.Irwinchallenge.com, and you, too, could drive away a millionaire!