2009 The Shootout

The 2009 Shootout is a special non-points race that will officially open the 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season on Saturday night, February 7th of that year at the convert|2.5|mi|km Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. The race will be broadcast by Fox beginning at 8 PM US EST with radio broadcasting being done by Motor Racing Network (over-the-air) and Sirius XM Radio (satellite) at approximately 7:45 PM US EST.

Format Change

From Pole Winners to Manufacturers

In previous years, the Budweiser sponsorship of the pole position for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (in turn inherited from another Anheuser-Busch brand, Busch Beer), allowed previous winners of the pole position in time trials of all races not cancelled due to weather to compete in a race. When MillerCoors' Coors Light took over title sponsorship of these events, Anheuser-Busch, Budweiser's parent company, was forced to make a change for the 2009 event.

The new format, announced in August of 2008, will reward manufacturers of the automobiles in the top stock car series in the United States - Chevrolet, Dodge, Ford and Toyota - to place the top six teams for each of their brands based on the final 2008 Owners Points standings. After the final "regular season" race of 2008, the Chevy Rock & Roll 400, the twelve teams that made the Chase for the Sprint Cup were automatically qualified with their 2009 drivers as follows:

* Chevrolet
**Richard Childress Racing:
***(#07 Clint Bowyer)
***(#29 Kevin Harvick)
***(#31 Jeff Burton)
**Hendrick Motorsports:
***(#24 Jeff Gordon)
***(#48 Jimmie Johnson)
***(#88 Dale Earnhardt, Jr.)
* Ford
**Roush Fenway Racing:
***(#16 Greg Biffle)
***(#17 Matt Kenseth)
***(#99 Carl Edwards)
* Toyota
**Joe Gibbs Racing:
***(#11 Denny Hamlin)
***(#18 Kyle Busch)
***(#20 Joey Logano; 2008 driver was Tony Stewart.)

The remaining teams from Ford and Toyota and all six Dodge teams to qualify will be decided following the conclusion of the Ford 400 to be run on November 16th, 2008 at Homestead, Florida.

Race Format Change

Also altered for the 2009 race will be the number of laps. The first segment, previously 20 laps (convert|50|mi|km) will now be a 25-lap (convert|62.5|mi|km) segment. The second segment of 50 laps (convert|125|mi|km) and other elements (such as the blind draw for the pole position) will remain unchanged.