Thursday, February 15, 2007

The Budweiser Shootout

Sunday February 4th I, like many other people, watched the Super Bowl. I, like many others, pined for football to return again in August. Unlike many people though the end of the Super Bowl does not mean that I have no reason to tune into television. To me the end of the Super Bowl only marks the agonizing two weeks till the Daytona 500.

In 1979 Anhuseir – Busch started what was then call the Busch Clash. It was designed for drivers who had won a pole the previous year. They decided to hold this 20-lap event a week before the Daytona 500. Over the years the race has changed a bit. Most notably it is now held at night under the lights and is now called the Budweiser Shootout.

I’ve watched many of these races over the last couple of years and have seen some spectacular races and surprising finishes. I have to admit thought that this past running of the shootout was a little boring and except for the final thousand yards pretty unspectacular.

That being said the first 20-lap segment I think had more action per lap than the last 50 laps did. I know that this is actually a product of placing the restrictor plates on the engines, but this is what we’ll probably see for the two Daytona races this year and the first Taladega race. I have purposefully left the fall race at Taladega from this list because of the COT.

We saw some aggressive racing and several lead changes during the first segment. Notably Kevin Harvick, sporting new sponsor Shell / Pennzoil this year, won the first segment. Not that he earned anything for finished the first segment first but it was just nice to see. The big issue was would anyone have the mileage to make the last 50 laps on a single tank of fuel.

The next 49 and 2/3 laps were pretty mundane. Again, as often happens when you put a restrictor plate on the engine, there is always action on the last lap. Not that there wasn’t some points of interest to note in the last couple of laps. Jeff Gordon would have to wait another year to win another Shootout title as his car lost power in the early part of the second segment.

I never knew what the sound of 21 calculators hitting pavement sounded like until a debris caution fell on lap 34. All the fuel mileage calculations went right out the window as everyone came down pit road for fuel. The real gamble came down to how many tired would a team decide to put on. Kyle Bush led the parade onto pit road and off with a two tire stop. This was directly related to Tony Stewart on four fresh Goodyears. Stewart was able to loosen up Kyle Bush’s car to take the lead on lap 42.

That is how the Budweiser Shootout pretty much ended. While there were some close calls as cars got loose coming out of the tri-oval or one of the corners, and some people tired to make a run only to see the leader get farther away from them, the race pretty much was a 180 mile an hour follow the leader. Of course that was until we finally saw someone get loose and not save the car.

As they came off turn four headed for the start finish line Dale Jr. came behind Elliot Sadler. This caused Sadler to become loose bounced off the wall and collect a total of four cars and send them spinning into the infield and across the start finish line.

"It's self-explanatory if you watch the tape," Junior said. "I got into the back of Elliott trying to bump draft and he wasn't up on the straightaway yet. I got into him too early and wrecked him and wrecked both racecars. I'm sorry about that "We were back there, trying to do what we could do and I was trying to help a friend of mine and just got over-zealous and overdid it."

Stewart showed us why he is one of the favorites to win this years Great American Race. When asked if he learned anything for the 500 he said of course he did.