We all need a cheat-sheet to understand the workings of the Budweiser Shootout on Saturday Feb. Shootout: Who can race The annual preseason Shootout at Daytona is open to 30 drivers that have raced in a Cup event within the past two seasons and meet the following criteria:. Both green-flag and yellow-flag laps will count;. Crews will be permitted to work on cars and will be allowed to perform functions they would do on a normal pit stop in a regular Cup event. All work must be performed on pit road or in the garage.
Changing of springs, shock absorbers or rear ends will not be permitted. Who races in the Daytona ? The starting field will be determined in qualifying Sunday Feb.
The two fastest will start on the front row for the and the order for the rest of the field will be determined by performances in the Feb. The special session in Carson City has a short but important agenda, and is likely to last into next week. First, a lap segment gets things started.
Then there is a minute intermission during which teams are allowed to do any work that would normally be done during a pit stop. The drivers then lineup for a final lap dash to the finish. The qualifying format was changed again in The qualifiers are top performers from last season.
Qualifiers for the Budweiser Shootout will be any driver who was active within the last two seasons and also meets any of the following criteria:. The Budweiser Shootout is always held the weekend before the Daytona This is the same weekend that qualifying for the Daytona happens. The race is held in prime-time under the lights on Saturday night. Since the Budweiser Shootout is not worth any championship points and doesn't pay much as compared to the million-dollar-plus All-Star race , drivers typically use this as an extra practice session for the Daytona They will feel out how well their cars work in the draft and see if they can move up in the pack.
More important than anything is just not getting hurt. However, towards the end of the event, the drivers' competitive juices get flowing and we often end up with a good finish.
This event was first held in when it was a simple lap sprint known as the Busch Clash. Buddy Baker won that inaugural event. The race has changed formats and names a few times over the years. In , the event became known as the Bud Shootout. The issue will be more noticeable during a mile race. The 10 minute break during the Bud Shootout allowed teams to open the trunks of the car and see how the fueling apparatus worked under race conditions.
Two car breakaways displayed good and bad results. The drivers had incredible speed in the two-car breakaways but the driver pushing the pack could not see. If anything occurred ahead of the second car in the two-car breakaway, they had no opportunity to make a quick decision to save their car.
Pushing in the Budweiser Shootout was the most vulnerable position any driver could put themselves in. Spotters were unneeded for the driver pushing, which led to some interesting solutions to the problem. Clint Bowyer and Kevin Harvick hooked up during the Bud Shootout and opened up their communications between each other.
NASCAR announced in the wake of mile per hour speeds during the Bud Shootout that they would be making several adjustments to the cooling system on the engines.
Pemberton stated the idea is to decrease the temperature the engine water will boil. Some cars could run water as hot as degrees. Pemberton is looking to get it down to degrees. This change will cause cars to bail on extended two car hook ups and will have drivers searching for clean air more often.
Will this work? Look for more motor issues late in the Daytona and if more than five engines are lost in the Gatorade Duels, look for another solution to emerge. Denny Hamlin went below the double yellow line to cross the finish line first in the Budweiser Shootout.
He made a dive below the double yellow line because he had a run on Ryan Newman and would have wrecked the top four cars if he remained in line. Regan Smith had a life-changing win taken away from him in at Talladega for the same infraction. Brad Keselowski made reference to Smith's disqualification in as the reason he kept his foot buried and his line true as he stayed above the double yellow line and sent Carl Edwards into the catch fence at Talladega in
0コメント