Reformat of 2009 Budweiser Shootout

NASCAR announced Friday a revision to the 2009 Budweiser Shootout on February 7th at Daytona format that provides each manufacturer with a wild card entry, increasing the size of the field from 24 to 28 cars, highlighting the manufacturers� involvement in NASCAR, and featuring more drivers for fans to support.

As was announced last August, the lineup will consist of the top six teams from each manufacturer, based on the final 2008 car owner points. Eligibility is based on owners competing in this event with the same manufacturer as 2008.

The new wrinkle calls for each manufacturer to be able to enter a seventh car, or wild card entry, based on the following criteria:

• Any owner outside of the top six in year end 2008 owners points whose driver is a past NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion that attempted to qualify for all of the 2008 events (only one position will be filled per manufacturer and will be based on the most recent past champion per manufacturer).
• If an owner/manufacturer does not have a past champion driver, the next highest eligible owner outside the top six in year end 2008 owners points from each manufacturer will be eligible to compete in the event.

At least NASCAR fixed the anti-Tony rule they messed up putting out there last year.

Source: NASCAR Press Release

The New Budweiser Shootout

Cruisin' the internet, I came across a great little perspective on the "New" format of the Budweiser Shootout, and how's it's not focused on cars, not drivers, and how this came about.

The change to the number of laps and how some drivers feel about it, and how

Basically, it's about Coors sponsoring the pole award and needing to make a distinction.
It also touches on the obvious inequities in qualifying top cars within the brands.

It's a great read. Go check it out at SportingNews.com.

Reid Spencer also touches on an interesting tidbit about A.J. Allmendinger that I missed through all this noise about his leaving the Red Bull Team, but I won't blow that... I'll let you go see for yourself.

It's 2008 and Time for That new Look

I don't know if you remember, but I did a survey asking if you liked the format or if a new format was something you'd like.

The results were split down the middle and I came across some templates that weren't the usual blogger templates, so I went for it.

I hope you like it. -Bruce