RALEIGH – A routine of buying lottery tickets every Saturday morning paid off for Duane and Carol Burton of Clinton when they became the first to win $100,000 playing the officially licensed NASCAR® scratch-off game, Ultimate Fan.

Just as they do each Saturday, the Burtons did their weekly errands, a visit to the drug store, a recycling center, and the SLZ on East Boulevard in Clinton where they usually buy their gas and lottery tickets. The two then went back home and sat down at the kitchen table to play the lottery.

“She said, ‘You had better look at this,’ and slid it across the table,” said Duane Burton on Tuesday at lottery headquarters. “No squealing. She just slid it across the table.”

Carol Burton said her husband picked up the ticket and gave it a long look. “Then he gets this big old smile on his face,” she recalled.

Duane Burton, a purchasing agent for a building supply store, said they would use their winnings to help support the education of their seven grandchildren and to do some home improvements. After taxes were withheld, they received $68,001.

Four other top prizes of $100,000 remain to be claimed in the $5 game. Non-winning Ultimate Fan tickets can be entered into three second chance drawings. Two winners for each of the drawings will choose from three $20,000 fan experiences, all of which include an ultimate driving school experience:

• The first option begins with a five day, four night trip to the winner’s choice of a NASCAR® sanctioned race. Once there, the winner will get VIP track access, and see all the action from Club level seating and stay in a luxury hotel suite.

• The second option will also revolve around a trip to the winner’s choice of a NASCAR® sanctioned race. At the raceway, the winner will enjoy VIP track access and infield luxury motor coach accommodations for four days and three nights.

• The third option will feature a six day, five night trip to Las Vegas for an once-in-a-lifetime VIP experience at the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Awards Ceremony™.

Through June 30 of last year, Sampson County education programs received more than $16.8 million in lottery funds. By law, those funds pay for teachers’ salaries in grades K-3, school construction, need-based college scholarships and prekindergarten programs for at-risk four-year-olds. To date, the N.C. Education Lottery has raised more than $2.2 billion for these initiatives statewide.