A new season: Hey, let's change the rules for the Daytona Shootout, why not?

  Daytona's SpeedWeeks' Shootout tends to get a little hairy at times, like here in the 2009 running, with Joey Logano (20), Jeff Gordon (24), Robby Gordon (7), and others showed. But then these guys are all antsy after a few weeks away from the track (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
  


   By Mike Mulhern
   mikemulhern.net

    A new season coming up...so why not some new rules?
   Okay, the NASCAR kickoff Shootout, Saturday night Feb. 6th -- right after Danica Patrick's anticipated stock car debut at Daytona, in the ARCA 200 in a Hendrick-powered/Earnhardt-owned Chevrolet.
   Now the Shootout, when it originated some 30 years ago, was designed as a rewards race for the previous season's pole winners...and maybe a wild card.
   However with Budweiser, still the Shootout sponsor, not sponsoring the Cup tour's 36 weekly race poles, that's created a bit of a conundrum. So the rules keep changing. Last season, for example, NASCAR waited until just before the race to add several key players, like Tony Stewart, who hadn't won any poles in 2008.
   The 2009 Sprint Cup tour pole winners were Mark Martin (7), Brian Vickers (6), Jimmie Johnson (4), Martin Truex Jr. (3), Juan Pablo Montoya (2), Ryan Newman (2), David Reutimann (2), Jeff Gordon (1), Denny Hamlin (1), Kyle Busch (1), and Matt Kenseth (1). That's 30; six qualifying sessions were rained out, with no pole winner.
   So, under the long-standing Shootout rules, that would be the field, 11 men. And the notables missing would have been Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kurt Busch, Tony Stewart, Greg Biffle, Kasey Kahne and Carl Edwards.
   Under the new Shootout rules, Truex and Reuttiman are the odd-men out.
   So now, the new rules for the 2010 Bud Shootout:

   1. The 12 men who qualified for the 2009 Sprint Cup playoffs: That's Jimmie Johnson, Mark Martin, Jeff Gordon, Kurt Busch, Denny Hamlin, Tony Stewart, Greg Biffle, Juan Pablo Montoya, Ryan Newman, Kasey Kahne, Carl Edwards, and Brian Vickers.

   2. All Cup champions who have raced on the tour in 2008 and 2009: Matt Kenseth, Bobby Labonte, Terry Labonte, and Bill Elliott.

   3. All Shootout winners who raced the tour the last two years: Dale Earnhardt Jr., Ken Schrader (though he didn't run the Cup series in 2008), Kevin Harvick, and Geoff Bodine

   4. All winners of the Daytona 500 and Daytona's July 400: John Andretti, Jeff Burton, Kyle Busch, Derrike Cope, Sterling Marlin, Jamie McMurray, and Michael Waltrip.

   5. The current rookie of the year: Joey Logano.
 
   Why these changes?
   "As NASCAR evolves, we tailor the Budweiser Shootout's qualifying criteria to provide fans with a lineup that showcases NASCAR's best drivers on the high banks of Daytona," Robin Braig, the track president, says. "The new criteria put a premium on race winners at NASCAR's most storied track – Daytona International Speedway."
   And Bud's Mark Wright, whose company is paying the purse: "Given the changes in the sport over the past year, we feel this new format gives fans a true race of champions."
   The Saturday night format will still be 75 laps, which is 188 miles; and the race will have 25-lap and 50-lap segments. All yellow flag laps will count.
   The starting grid will be by drawing Thursday Feb. 4th.
   That Saturday's schedule will open with Daytona 500 pole runs at 1 p.m. (moved from traditional Sunday, to avoid competing against the Super Bowl).
   Danica Patrick gets her time in the sun with the 4:30 p.m. ARCA race.
  
  

  The NASCAR kickoff Shootout isn't always a good indicator of what to expect as the season unfolds -- Jimmie Johnson (48) is certainly glad about that (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)