Budweiser Shootout
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The Budweiser Shootout is an annual NASCAR Nextel Cup Series event held at Daytona International Speedway in February, the week before the Daytona 500. It began as the Busch Clash and was a fifty-mile (twenty lap) "shootout". In its current format, it is made up of 2 segments: First a short 20-lap segment, followed by a 10 minute intermission. After the intermission, the race concludes with a 50-lap segment in which each car must make a green flag pit stop. The race, like the Nextel All-Star Challenge held at Lowe's Motor Speedway in May, carries no points for the winner but rather a large purse, circumstances which are supposed to encourage an all-out driving style not seen in regular-season races, where one serious mistake can largely ruin a season. However, due to the smaller fields, huge accidents normally seen in the Daytona 500 are uncommon. The smaller field consists of all of the pole winners from the previous season as well as past winners of this race. The starting lineup is determined by a random draw, not by qualifying as all other point races are determined.
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Related Trivia
- Only five times in the history of the Budweiser Shootout has the winner of the race gone on to win the Daytona 500 the following week. These five times occurred with Dale Jarrett in 2000 and 1996, Jeff Gordon in 1997, Bill Elliott in 1987, and Bobby Allison in 1982.
- If an eligible driver for the upcoming Shootout switches teams in the off-season, the driver, not the team, is eligible for the race and that driver competes in the race with the new team.
- Drivers who win the pole award at a race must have had an Anheuser-Busch (Busch, later Budweiser, or the corporate logo) decal affixed to their car at the time in order to receive the berth for the Budweiser Shootout. Twice in the late 1990's, cars from Petty Enterprises won pole positions (1997 Michigan - June, with Bobby Hamilton, and 1998 Atlanta - March, with John Andretti) but not have the decal affixed to his car (at the request of owner Richard Petty), and thus did not receive a berth for the 1999 Bud Shootout. A similar situation occurred with driver Jeff Green in 2004 after he had won the pole for the 203 Daytona 500. In 2005, Kyle Busch won the pole position for the spring race at California, but had to wear a special decal without the Budweiser name (but with the Anheuser-Busch corporate logo Pole Award sticker) because he was only 19. Drivers must be 21 to wear Budweiser decals, and those under 21 must wear the corporate logo decal without any Budweiser identification.
- Denny Hamlin, the winner of the 2006 Shootout, was the first ever rookie to drive to a victory in the prestigious race, winning a pole at Phoenix International Raceway in a part-time ride in 2005.
- From 1979-1990, the race consisted of a twenty green flag lap sprint with no segements and no pit stops required.
- From 1991-1997, the race was broken into two ten green flag lap segments with a cash award for the top three drivers after the first segment, and an inversion of the field for the final ten laps.
- From 1979 to 1997, and again in 2001, the drivers that were the fastest qualifiers for the previous year's races' during Busch Second Round Qualifying were eligible for one wild card slot in the Busch Clash. The eligible driver were chosen from the group by blind draw during Champion's Week at the NASCAR end-of-season banquet (since 1981 in New York).
- In 1995 and 1996, the winner of the most poles in the secondary Busch Series won an entry into the Busch Clash, in a Busch-sponsored car. David Green won the right both times.
- From 1998-2000, the name was changed to the Bud Shootout, and became a pair of 25-lap races. The first race started at 11 AM and was televised on ESPN, with the second race starting at 12 noon on CBS, which televised the event live since the early 1980's until 2000. In the first race, eligible drivers from Second Round Qualifying participated the Bud Shootout Qualifier, with the winner transferring to the Bud Shootout. The main Bud Shootout featured the previous year's pole winners, similar to previous years. Each race was identical, as they were 25 laps long with one two-tire pit stop required.
- The winners of the Bud Shootout Qualifier were: Jimmy Spencer (1998), Mike Skinner (1999), and Dale Jarrett (2000).
- In 1992, Daytona 500 pole qualifying and the Busch Clash swaped days. The Busch Clash was held Saturday, and qualifying was held Sunday. This move was made at the request of CBS, who wanted the additional time on Sunday for their coverage of the 1992 Winter Olympics.
- As NASCAR streamlined qualifying in 2001 to one round, a new Budweiser Shootout at Daytona (new name also) format was developed of 70 laps (the green flag only rule was eliminated) with one green flag pit stop (two tires) mandatory, and mandating the race finish under green, with Craftsman Truck Series green-white-checker rules applying. Because NASCAR had second-round qualifying in 2000, a random drawing, similar to the 1979-1997 format, was added second-round qualifiers. Furthermore, all former Budweiser Shootout at Daytona champions were given a lifetime exemption.
- In 2003, the race changed again. Daytona 500 qualifying and the Budweiser Shootout flipped slots, and the Shootout was now held on Saturday night, with 500 qualifying Sunday afternoon. The race adopted a two-segment format, with the first segment reverting to 20 laps, then a ten minute break, and the second segment 50 laps. The green flag pit stop was mandatory only in the final segment.
- In 2004, a crash at the final lap of the race resulted in controversy. A 2003 incident at New Hampshire International Speedway put Dale Jarrett in peril when Casey Mears nearly ran into the stalled Jarrett while attempting to regain a lost lap resulted in a rule change banning racing back to the start-finish line in case of a caution. Because of that, NASCAR did not wave the caution at the end of the 2004 Shootout when Ryan Newman and Jamie McMurray collided as to allow the race to run to the finish. If the caution takes place in the final lap, the race is over immediately.
- The 2006 Shootout was a myriad of firsts; it was the first postponed event, postponed 20 hours because of rain, the first where a segment ended under caution when a crash on Lap 15 took two cars out, and NASCAR decided to abort an attempted restart on Lap 20 as a one-lap sprint would endanger the field, and the first green-white-checker Shootout, at 72 laps.
- Dale Jarrett and Tony Stewart are the only drivers to win the Shootout without winning a pole the previous year. Jarrett, who won the Qualifier earlier in the morning, won the 2000 Shootout, and Stewart, in by the lifetime exemption from the 2001 win, won the 2002 Shootout.
See also: List of current NASCAR races
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Past winners
| Year | Winner |
|---|---|
| 2006 | Denny Hamlin |
| 2005 | Jimmie Johnson |
| 2004 | Dale Jarrett |
| 2003 | Dale Earnhardt Jr. |
| 2002 | Tony Stewart |
| 2001 | Tony Stewart |
| 2000 | Dale Jarrett |
| 1999 | Mark Martin |
| 1998 | Rusty Wallace |
| 1997 | Jeff Gordon |
| 1996 | Dale Jarrett |
| 1995 | Dale Earnhardt |
| 1994 | Jeff Gordon |
| 1993 | Dale Earnhardt |
| 1992 | Geoffrey Bodine |
| 1991 | Dale Earnhardt |
| 1990 | Ken Schrader |
| 1989 | Ken Schrader |
| 1988 | Dale Earnhardt |
| 1987 | Bill Elliott |
| 1986 | Dale Earnhardt |
| 1985 | Terry Labonte |
| 1984 | Neil Bonnett |
| 1983 | Neil Bonnett |
| 1982 | Bobby Allison |
| 1981 | Darrell Waltrip |
| 1980 | Dale Earnhardt |
| 1979 | Buddy Baker |
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