I read this article today, and thought that y'all would also find it interesting. I'll bet that there is a fact or two that you didn't know about the Bud Shootout. We already know that there will be 21 drivers eligible for the next Shootout come February, now we just have to wait for it!



A history of the Shootout, from Busch to Budweiser
Earnhardt holds record with six victories in the then Busch Clash
By Ryan Smithson, NASCAR.COM
February 9, 2006
01:25 PM EST (18:25 GMT)


A good way to make Ken Schrader look old is by pointing out that Kyle Busch was just 3 years old when he won the Busch Clash in 1989.

Both Schrader and Busch are in Saturday night's Budweiser Shootout, NASCAR's annual race for the previous year's Bud Pole winners.

The race was called the Busch Clash from 1979 to 1997 and the Bud Shootout from 1998 to 2000.

This year marks the 28th Budweiser Shootout, a race that was first run during Dale Earnhardt's rookie season. Earnhardt went on to win the event a record six times.

The race was the brainchild of Anheuser-Busch, who dubbed the inaugural 1979 event the Busch Clash. It was held on the afternoon of Feb. 11, 1979, right after Kyle Petty won the Daytona ARCA event.

The event has grown significantly as TV began to take a more active role in NASCAR. In 1991, the format was changed from a 20-lap event to two 10-lap segments. It was changed to a single 25-lap event in 1998, but the most significant change came in 2001, when it became 70 laps.

The race is still 70 laps but, in 2003, it was broken up into two segments, with a 50-lap sprint serving as the second segment.

That change coincided with the race moving from its traditional Sunday slot to Saturday night, where it remains today.

Some notable moments of the Budweiser Shootout:

•1979: Buddy Baker averaged 194.384 mph to win the first Busch Clash. Rookie Dale Earnhardt finished second as Oldsmobiles swept the first three positions.

•1980: Dale Earnhardt edged out best friend Neil Bonnett to win the first of his record six victories in the Clash. Earnhardt went on to win the title that year.

•1981: Darrell Waltrip gets his lone Busch Clash victory. It was the first Clash win for Buick. Waltrip was the first driver to win from the pole. Only seven cars started the race, a Clash low.

•1982: Bobby Allison gets his lone Busch Clash victory. It was the final Clash win for Buick.

•1983: Neil Bonnett gets the first of his two consecutive Busch Clash victories.

•1984: Ricky Rudd, driving for Bud Moore, survives a wild end-over-end accident coming off Turn 4 during the Clash. Rudd's eyes were so swollen from the crash that he practiced his Daytona 500 car by duct-taping his eyes open.

"I just kind of took all the extra skin and taped it to my eyelid and taped it up to my forehead and put my helmet on and went on," Rudd said.

•1985: Terry Labonte, fresh off his first NASCAR title, wins his only Clash.

•1986: Dale Earnhardt wins the Clash for the second time.

•1987: Bill Elliott wins the fastest Clash (197.802 mph) in history.

•1988: Dale Earnhardt wins his third Clash. Implementation of restrictor plates brings the average speed down to 191.489 mph.

•1989: Ken Schrader wins the first of his two consecutive Busch Clashes.

•1990: Ken Schrader wins again. Greg Sacks finishes second, by far his best showing in three tries.

•1991: Dale Earnhardt wins again and goes on to win the NASCAR title. Earnhardt won the race despite starting last in the second 10-lap segment.

•1992: Geoff Bodine wins the Clash, and Ernie Irvan is a career-best second.

•1993: Dale Earnhardt again. No. 5.

•1994: Jeff Gordon wins the Clash in his first try.

•1995: Sixth and final Clash victory for Dale Earnhardt.

•1996: Dale Jarrett wins his first Clash in Robert Yates' brand-new No. 88 Ford. Jarrett becomes just the third driver to win the Clash and the Daytona 500 in the same year.

•1997: Jeff Gordon becomes just the fourth driver to win the Clash and the Daytona 500 in the same year.

•1998: Rusty Wallace leads a 1-2-3-4 finish by Ford in a Taurus making its NASCAR debut. His brother Kenny finishes second.

•1999: Mark Martin, coming off his finest NASCAR season, wins his only Shootout.

•2000: Dale Jarrett wins the Clash and the Daytona 500 again. It is Ford's third consecutive victory.

•2001: Tony Stewart wins, scoring the first Shootout win for Joe Gibbs Racing. It is also the first for Pontiac.

•2002: A record 22 starters participated. Tony Stewart wins again.

•2003: First night race for the Shootout. Dale Earnhardt Jr. wins from the 19th spot, the lowest position by a winner in the event's history.

•2004: Dale Jarrett, coming off his worst season with Robert Yates Racing, scores a mild upset with his third Shootout victory.

•2005: Jimmie Johnson gets his first Shootout victory. It is Chevrolet's 14th Shootout victory -- double the number of any other manufacturer.

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Here is the complete listing of past winners of the Bud Shootout, for those of you who care about such things.


Previous Winners of the Budweiser Shootout:
Year Budweiser Shootout 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

Previously known as Busch Clash

1997 Jeff Gordon
1996 Dale Jarrett
1995 Dale Earnhardt
1994 Jeff Gordon
1993 Dale Earnhardt
1992 Geoff Bodine
1991 Dale Earnhardt
1990 Ken Schrader
1989 Ken Schrader
1988 Dale Earnhardt
1987 Bill Elliott
1986 Dale Earnhardt
1985 Terry Labonte
1984 Neil Bonnet
1983 Neil Bonnet
1982 Bobby Allison
1981 Darrell Waltrip
1980 Dale Earnhardt
1979 Buddy Baker

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2006 Bud Pole Winners:

1) #31-Jeff Burton (poles at Daytona, Chicago, Indy, Michigan)
2) #2-Kurt Busch (poles at California (both), Sonoma, Watkins Glen, Bristol, Martinsville)
3) #16-Greg Biffle (pole at Las Vegas, Richmond)
4) #9-Kasey Kahne (poles at Atlanta, Texas, Darlington, Michigan, Kansas, Homestead)
5) #48-Jimmie Johnson (pole at Martinsville; won in 2005)
6) #5-Kyle Busch (pole at Phoenix)
7) #19-Elliott Sadler (pole at Talladega in #38)
8) #10-Scott Riggs (pole at Lowe's-both)
9) #12-Ryan Newman (pole at Dover, NHIS)
10) #11-Denny Hamlin (won race in 2006; poles at both Pocono,Richmond)
11) #60-Boris Said (Daytona 2)
12) #29-Kevin Harvick (NHIS)
13) #24-Jeff Gordon (won in 1994, 1997, pole at Dover, Phoenix)
14) #38-David Gilliland (Talladega)
15) #83-Brian Vickers (Texas in the #25)

Past Budweiser Shootout Winners are automatically eligible:
(if they do not win a pole in 2006 - must run races the previous season to run)

16) #44-Dale Jarrett (won in 1996, 2000, 2004)
17) #8-Dale Earnhardt Jr.(won in 2003)
18) #20-Tony Stewart (won in 2001, 2002)
19) #01-Mark Martin (won in 1999)
20) #21-Ken Schrader (won in 1989,1990)
21) #?-Bill Elliott (won in 1987)

Terry Labonte (won in 1985)...will not run, retiring after 2006 season

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My question is, though...Will Boris have a car for the race? I mean, has anything been confirmed with that yet, or what?

Also, have we heard exactly how Bill Elliott plans to run the race? If Evernham decides to go with a 4th team (which has been rumored) he could use that car, I guess, but that remains to be seen. Possibly, we could see him drive for Red Bull in a "third car", or maybe the 37 for his longtime friend.

So, technically we could be at 19 cars...just depends on how people find rides, I guess.

Good question there Pack Rat, so I went in search of an answer for you and here is what I found about it:


Budweiser Shootout Information


2007 Qualifiers

The Budweiser Shootout is a 70 lap, 175 mile all star NASCAR Nextel Cup (formerly Winston Cup) non points race held at Daytona, one week before the Daytona 500. The event is held on Saturday night, under the lights. Also new this year is the race will be broken up into 2 segments. The first segment is 20 laps. The teams get a 10 minute break and line up in the same order as at the end of the segment. The second segment must end with a green, white, checkered finish. All caution laps count toward the total of each segment. All restarts are double file (like the start of the race). Drivers qualify, not teams. If a driver leaves a team, the new team will be in the race. To qualify:

Each driver/team must participate in Budweiser's promotion of pole qualifying (a decal).
The driver/team must qualify on the pole (or be the fastest program qualifier if the pole winner does not participate) of a Nextel Cup points event in the previous year.
Past winners from previous "Budweiser Shootout", "Bud Shootout", and "Busch Clash" events are eligible.
There is no more second round qualifying.
The field starting positions are chosen by random draw


So who ever puts Boris Said and Bill Elliot in cars next year will be who they will participate for. Right now I am not sure who Boris and Bill will be driving for, but I will find that out for you in the next couple of days, if the info is available yet. Even if they don't have confirmed rides as of now, I would imagine that someone will be more than happy to give them a deal for so many rides in 2007 just to get into the Shootout. Isn't Boris suppose to be hooked up some how with Rousch in the coming year? Have any of y'all heard who they are driving for???

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The last thing I heard about Boris was from the last time he ran in 2006. He said that they'd be back in 2007, but that was it. Never heard anything more. Actually, I should correct myself. That spinoff team was recently mentioned to be where Jack Villnuve would go, but then he opted out of that idea. So who knows...it's all weird and screwed up, lol. We'll just have to wait for Speedweeks in 80 something days...

I would be stunned if someone didnt put Elliot and Said into some kind of ride for the Shootout. There are always alot of spare/backup cars at Daytona and some Really good ones too. For the larger well funded teams a little extra on track in the draft testing is well worth it. For the lesser funded teams Anheuser-Busch puts some pretty good Money into this race mmmmm money good, race cars need money and we all know its on TV so you get that always important TV time for that always important SPONSOR

BTW Sure Terry says hes retired..........so did Bill Elliot, Mark Martin, Ricky Rudd ( Rickys back in Yates #28 ) I bet ya even Darrell would hop in a ride if his wife wouldnt find out hehehehehhee

It looks like we have a Warrel Daltrip out on the track...a late entry. He looks familiar, though...hmmm...

Well, we now know what Elliott is doing...

From Jayski:

Elliott & RJ Racing to attempt Daytona races: looks like the #37 R.J. Racing team and driver Bill Elliott will attempt the races at Daytona in February 2007, the Budweiser Shootout, Duel 150's and Daytona 500. The team is looking for sponsorship for the race and the 2007 season.(rjracing.us)(12-31-2006)

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