NASCAR changes eligibility for Budweiser shootout…Again

Sometimes when your sports has to live on corporate money, corporate rules force you to piss off a large portion of your fan base. That is the situation NASCAR finds itself in with its annual Budweiser Shootout All Star Race. Traditionally the Budweiser is the first races of Daytona Speedways, the 10 or so days that are the buildup to the start of each NASCAR season. In years past drivers qualified for the Shootout by winning a pole position during the previous year, wining this specific race within their careers, or being a NASCAR Sprint Cup Champion. All of that changed last year because Budweiser cut back on its NASCAR sponsorships.

It uses to be a driver would win the Bud Pole and qualify himself for the Budweiser shootout, a nice little piece of marketing right? However, when Bud decided to stop sponsoring the weekly pole winners, Coors Light stepped. Budweiser could not have a bunch of guys win a Coors Light pole and qualify for the Budweiser shootout. So last year NASCAR decided to change the eligibility for the opening non point’s race. Their idea was to give the car manufacturers, who had been pumping big money into the sport, more bang for their buck. So it was determined that the top six cars for each car company would get the chance to run in the special race.

When NASCAR figured out that this would leave Tony Stewart and several other big name drivers out of the 2009 event, they changed the eligibility again to include former Sprint Cup Champions, and gave each car company two “wild card” selections. Now that there are not six teams for every car manufacturer involved in the sport (Dodge currently fields only three full time teams in the Cup series), NASCAR had to change the rules again.

Now the reining Cup rookie of the year, the 12 drivers who qualified for the chase the year before, past Sprint Cup champions, former winners Daytona point’s races, and former winners of this event are eligible. One may ask why does this matter. Well this is a prime time race, which many teams use to attract either new sponsor or additional sponsors to their race teams. For racing junkies this event is one the first NASCAR race in over two months, since the previous season ended the November before.

More NASCAR News and Notes