Brian and Ericka’s luck ran out in Las Vegas when troubles at a poker chip challenge prevented them from taking home the grand prize.

The married couple from Nashville, Tenn., finished “The Amazing Race” in third place after being the last team to correctly count out a million dollars in chips and race to the finish line.

But Brian hints that their difficulties at the challenge may have had nothing to do with them.

“I know what went wrong. I’m not allowed to talk in detail about it but basically we had some bad luck in Vegas and our counter was not the best at math,” says Brian.

“Let’s just say she wasn’t the brightest bulb in the lamp,” interjects Ericka.

A disappointed Brian says it’s a shame that a race around the world ended with a challenge like that.  

“Just think of all the mistakes that could go wrong with her counting the chips – I mean, she’s got a camera in her face, the pressure’s on, her hands are shaking, and if she miscounts her chips, you’re screwed and that’s what happened to us. I can’t go into detail but if things would’ve went right, we would have been out with the lead pack and maybe won this thing,” says Brian.

Once they got to the mat, where winners Megan and Cheyne and runners-up Sam and Dan were waiting, Ericka says there’s nothing they could do but accept their fate.

“I was very disappointed and very frustrated, knowing what I know so that part of it did not settle well as I was running up to the mat,” she says. “I did try really hard to be a good sport as I always believed people should just put on a happy face.”

But there are no hard feelings to the other four competitors – even towards Sam and Dan, who had stolen their cab in an earlier leg. Brian, who works for a sports and entertainment marketing company, and Ericka, who is pursuing a country music career, say they may even be starting up a business venture with Megan and Cheyne in the future.

As well as the poker challenge, Brian and Ericka also struggled earlier in the leg during a Cirque du soleil challenge that had Ericka swinging from a bungee cord trying to catch a bouquet of flowers.

Unable to reach them after numerous attempts, Ericka became frustrated, especially when the other teams completed the task and were on their way to the next clue.

This wasn’t the first time in the race Ericka had become frustrated at not being able to complete a challenge, but she says it just speaks to her competitive nature.

“It was hard to watch it because that’s not naturally me. I’m very competitive but I’m not mean-spirited and everybody had their moments out there on the race so it was really saddening to see that the editing, they chose to show my more explosive moments, as opposed to my more good-natured and decent moments,” says Ericka. 

At the same time, she’s happy she was able to show a different side of her personality and that just because she won the title of Miss America in 1994, it doesn’t mean she’s meek.

“It was definitely my way to be free and show that yeah, I’m a little spicy, a little saucy, I’m not perfect and sweet and naïve and an imbecile like I think a lot of people categorize us as total good girls who don’t have a hard bone in their body, so I think I definitely proved that and I’m proud of it.”

The race also had another really important purpose for Brian and Ericka and that was to prove to Ericka’s mom that Brian is worthy of being her husband. The couple frequently mentioned on the race how her mom wouldn’t accept Brian because he was of a different ethnic background.

Brian says since the Race ended, Ericka’s mom has made a complete 180.

“We were just home for Thanksgiving last week and (Ericka’s mom) referred to me as her son-in-law and she actually mentioned my first name and she’s never done that. We’ve had conversations on the phone that were 10 – 15 minutes long and that’s longer than I’ve talked to her for the last three years combined. If that’s what we were meant to get out of the race then we got what we were supposed to get,” says Brian.

“She was never a fan of the race but now she’s the biggest fan. She had viewing parties, and she was excited to see us working as a team and I think we made the difference that we were looking to make.”

The Race also had a positive effect on their three-year long marriage, says Brian.

“We definitely learned a lot about each other and saw some things in each other that we’re going to need to continue to work on to make us stronger but we expected that and I’m glad this stuff came out now, rather than coming out 10 years from now.”