DALLAS, Tex. — Dale Brown of Phillips, Nebraska, yesterday won a $143,000 Volvo VN780 as the grand prizewinner of the "Get In & Win" sweepstakes from Volvo Trucks.

Brown won the truck when he chose the correct key to start up the VN780’s engine from a choice of keys offered to him and three other finalists in the sweepstakes.

"I’m not buying any more lottery tickets because I’ve just won," said Brown, whose winning turn came in front of hundreds of other truckers at the Great American Trucking Show at the Dallas Convention Center. Brown has been a professional driver for 27 years and has owned two Volvos previously. He is a leased driver with US Express, and is planning to drive his new VN780 to his million-mile award presentation in early October.

Tens of thousands of professional truck drivers participated in Volvo’s Get In & Win sweepstakes this past spring and summer, and many of them won other prizes, ranging from free food at Petro Stopping Centers to sets of truck tires and wheels, to laptop computers and satellite radios.

But it was the chance to win a Volvo VN780 that really motivated entrants. The Volvo VN was the truck preferred by more than 90 percent of the drivers who test drove it during Volvo’s recent Drive The Future test drive tour. The VN780 is the big-sleeper Volvo.

Volvo Trucks North America assembles its Volvo VN and VHD trucks in the United States, at the New River Valley Plant in Dublin, Virginia.

Volvo Trucks North America is a member of the Volvo Group, a publicly held company headquartered in Gothenburg, Sweden. With 2002 sales of approximately $20 billion, Volvo’s business areas include heavy trucks, buses, construction equipment, marine and industrial drive systems, aerospace, and financial services. In the United States, Volvo shares are listed on NASDAQ and are traded as ADRs (symbol: VOLVY).