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Changes are a-comin’ for the Bud Shootout

NASCAR and Budweiser recently announced that the Budweiser Shootout, an exhibition race held during Speedweeks prior to the Daytona 500, will undergo a major format change starting with the 2009 race.  For the past 30 years, the race sponsor extended invitations to those drivers who won a pole the previous season, or previous winners of the race.  Now, the race will only be open to the top 6 teams from each manufacturer.  The top 6 teams will be determined by the previous year’s points position.

It is quite obvious the underlying reason for this shift in how the race is run: Coors is now the sponsor of the Pole Award every week, whereas Bud held that sponsorship in the past.  The folks at Anheuser-Busch did not deny this, in fact, they cited it as the fundamental reason for the change.

“We’re always looking to freshen things up, to create new excitement,” Ponturo said. “With Coors having the pole-winner, that obviously created a faster dialogue about how to address it. This was, we think, a very exciting solution and gives us the continuation of a 30-plus-year heritage with the Budweiser Shootout.”

For what it is worth, my personal opinion is that this race has been begging for some kind of change for quite some time now.  Since the one-engine rule and post-qualifying impound rule went into effect a few years ago, qualifying is something that most teams just don’t seem to really pay all that much attention to anymore when getting ready for a race.  From unloading the car on Thursday/Friday, until the qualifying is over, most teams concentrate on race setup.  After perfecting their race setup, they will then try and trim out the car with air pressure and nose tape changes and hope for the best qualifying run that will give them.  Only those teams that are on the verge of not making the race because of their points position really concentrate on putting their best foot forward for qualifying.  That is borne out of necessity - you cannot race if you cannot qualify.  This scenario sometimes ends up with sub-par teams putting their car on the pole for Sunday, but immediately falling to the back when the race starts, due to poor race setups.  It also then puts non-competitive teams into a race in February that probably don’t belong there (Joe Nemecheck, Paul Menard, Partick Carpentier, for instance).  That turns a race of so-called “all stars” into a race of “all stars” and “also-rans”.

I somewhat applaud these changes, but I have to wonder a few things:

1. Is this change just NASCAR pandering to the manufacturers who they have shunned with the introduction of the COT?  It is no secret that the sanctioning body has been taking major heat from Detroit (and whereever that Toyota brand is claiming its North Amercian headquarters is) regarding the COT.  When all cars look the same and nothing like the model the car is supposed to be, it makes it infinitely harder to “win on Sunday, sell on Monday”.  Equal representation for one exhibition race might be a good idea in NASCAR’s mind, but I am willing to bet it doesn’t do much in the minds of the struggling Big Three.
2. Considering my long-winded explanation above, does this format really lend itself to better teams being in the race?  My answer is yes, kind of, and no, probably not.  Most likely we will see the Hendrick and RCR cars represented, hands-down the most competitive Chevys out there.  We will see Roush (all 5 teams possibly) representing Ford, obviously all competitive week in and week out.  The questions start to come when we think of the Toyota and Dodge teams.  Yes, all 3 JGR teams will be there, they are shoo-ins.  Yes, EGM will be there, albeit with questionable 2008 results so far.  Who will fill the other 5 slots for those two combined manufacturers?  MWR?  Pfft.  Penske?  Meh.  Robby Gordon?  Puh-lease.  I am not sure what we fixed, from a competitive standpoint.
3. How do the drivers feel who will be looking in from the outside?  What about those ones who sold their sponsor for next year on the fact that they will be getting them invaluable TV time at one of the most-watched times of the NASCAR season?  I can’t help but feel for the latter group.  Getting ahead when you are down in NASCAR is like trying to leave the ghetto when you are dirt poor.  It’s a nearly impossible task that only a few succeed at.  The former group, like Tony Stewart and Ryan Newman, will fare just fine without that race.  Personally, I’d love to see Smoke in the booth during the telecast…that is if he doesn’t just decide to go commandeer a car at New Smyrna for the night instead.

All the snarkiness aside, I will admit that I hate change in my sport, and I have been wrong in the past about a lot of things.  One of them being this whole Chase thing.  I don’t know how we ever lived without it.  I hope that I am just as wrong about this.

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