2012 NASCAR Budweiser Shootout Preview

Published: 16^th Feb 12 8:02 pm

by Brian Berg Jr.
brianbergjr

RANT It!

Douglas Jones-US PRESSWIRE

Ending last season with the closest NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship ever has seemingly made this offseason longer than it has ever been. It actually is one week longer but still seams longer than that. Well that all ends on Saturday night. Saturday night is the preseason Budweiser Shootout at Daytona International Speedway. This race is not for points it is for pride. It is for practice. It is for momentum. It is for money. A win here doesn’t guarantee success in the Daytona 500 but it sure helps build team and driver confidence.

Only the driver can qualify to enter this race, there is no such thing as owner points. This is the explanation why some cars are in the race that wouldn’t ordinarily be considered and why some others are not in the race that you would expect to be. The highest-ranked 25 drivers in 2011 standings plus previous winners of the Daytona 500, Coke Zero 400 and Shootout events are eligible to compete in this year’s race

The race is a 75 lap race consisting of 187.5 miles. There will be 25 laps in the first segment, then a 10 minute time out if you will where teams can work on their cars on pit road. The last segment will be 50 laps. In both segments green and yellow flag laps count. Since the last 50 laps will be more than one fuel run expect at least one pit stop for at least fuel.

This is an exhibition race and some teams use it for practice for the Daytona 500. Considering that and all the changes that NASCAR has made in order to reduce and perhaps eliminate two car tandem drafting this race will be where those changes will be stretched to the limits. Expect to see two car tandem drafting and if that becomes successful it might set the bar for the rest of the week in all of the series.

Past winners to watch in this race are Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon, and Kevin Harvick who have won two each. Jimmie Johnson, Kurt Busch, and Denny Hamlin have won one each. This year’s favorite will be the current Sprint Cup Champion Tony Stewart who happens to be a three time winner of this race.

Kurt Busch is the defending champion of the race, although he will be starting this race with his new team Phoenix Racing. This illustrates that this is a driver’s race. A drivers eligibility for this race transfers with him to future teams.

This race used to only include drivers who have won a pole during qualifying the previous year plus drivers who had previously won the shootout. Because of this the race was a much more prestigious event. This was changed a few years ago when Budweiser stopped sponsoring the Pole Award. Including the top 25 in points arguably reduces this race to just another exhibition race. Including all Daytona race winners’ not just Shootout winners also decreases the value. This race should be changed back to an exclusive prestigious event by only including the top 15 in points from the previous year, past shootout winners and past Cup Champions. The race might only have 15 to as much as 20 cars. Using this formula there would only be 19 cars eligible for the race this year instead of 33, only 15 of which would have entered. Only 25 of those eligible using this years requirements entered instead of 33.

The Table below shows who is entered in the race and how they are eligible for the race. Only two drivers are eligible via points and are not entered, they are Mark Martin and Brian Vickers. Last year’s Daytona 500 winner Trevor Bayne will not be in the race.

The Budweiser Shootout at Daytona is Saturday, Feb. 18 (FOX, 8 p.m. ET).

If you are on twitter during the race, follow me @brian_jr1.

Driver	2011	Bud SO	500	July
Tony Stewart #14	1	SW		JW
Carl Edwards #99	2
Kevin Harvick #29	3	SW	D5W	JW
Matt Kenseth #17	4		D5W
Brad Keselowski #2	5
Jimmie Johnson #48	6	SW	D5W
Dale Earnhardt Jr. #88	7	SW	D5W	JW
Jeff Gordon #24	8	SW	D5W	JW
Denny Hamlin #11	9	SW
Ryan Newman #39	10		D5W
Kurt Busch #51	11	SW
Kyle Busch #18	12			JW
Clint Bowyer #15	13
Kasey Kahne #5	14
A.J. Allmendinger #22	15
Greg Biffle #16	16			JW
Paul Menard #27	17
Martin Truex Jr. #56	18
Marcos Ambrose #9	19
Jeff Burton #31	20			JW
Juan Montoya #42	21
David Ragan #34	23			JW
Joey Logano #20	24
Jamie McMurray #1	27		D5W	JW
Michael Waltrip #55	56		D5W	JW

Eligible Drivers Not Entered
Trevor Bayne #21	53		D5W
Bill Elliott	40	SW	D5W	JW
Terry Labonte #32	39	SW
Ken Schrader #32	38	SW
Derike Cope	82		D5W
Geoffrey Bodine	44		D5W
Brian Vickers	25
Mark Martin #55	22	SW