In past years, the NASCAR Budweiser Shootout had specific requirements to get into the race. Only pole-winners from the previous season, then former Shootout winners and Cup champs were later added to the requirements to get some more drivers in the race. I mean come on, there was one year that Ryan Newman might have been the only car in the race, the way he was qaulifying!!! (LOL)
The old rules meant a few things: Not everyone’s favorite driver could be in the race or some of the more popular “name” drivers wouldn’t be in the race, period.
As far as the marketing of a sport goes, that’s not the healthiest business practice. But it was a practice adhered to via stead-fast focus to tradition.
Now under the new format of rules for the Budweiser Shootout that will take place on February 6th, 2010, the race will have:
- The 12 Chase drivers from the previous year (drivers 1-12)
- It will have former Cup Champions (drivers 13-16)
- Previous Bud Shootout Champions (17-19)
- Former Daytona 500 and Coke Zero 400 winners (20-26)
- Reigning Rookie of the Year now gets an invite too. (Driver #27)
The above new requirement now will create the following field of drivers for the Shootout:
- Jimmie Johnson,
- Mark Martin,
- Jeff Gordon,
- Kurt Busch,
- Tony Stewart,
- Juan Pablo Montoya,
- Greg Biffle,
- Denny Hamlin,
- Ryan Newman,
- Kasey Kahne,
- Carl Edwards,
- Brian Vickers,
- Matt Kenseth,
- Bill Elliott,
- Bobby Labonte
- Terry Labonte,
- Dale Earnhardt Jr.,
- Kevin Harvick,
- Ken Schrader,
- Kyle Busch
- Derrike Cope,
- Sterling Marlin,
- John Andretti,
- Jamie McMurray,
- Jeff Burton
- Michael Waltrip &
- Joey Logano.
And there ya have it.
I don’t mean to be critical, but they’ve managed to manipulate the rules so that the race is evolving from the special reward for just a few achievements, to now include quite the hefty collection of drivers. There are a few in the field that I don’t think belong in the field… one of them can’t even seem to hack it in the Nationwide series and yet here he is… and the other one I’m focused on with this perspective, I’m a massive fan of one of them.
So who does win? Sure, NASCAR has dug deep, looked hard and found some rules to add or stretch to create a bigger field. In the long run, the fans win this one because now we get a preview taste of racing on February 6th, with a much larger field of drivers.
Cool beans gang.
