Wild Shootout
By Bob Margolis, Yahoo! Sports
February 10, 2007
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – They don't call this the Shootout for nothing.
The recipe for excitement in Saturday night's Bud Shootout here at Daytona International Speedway contains just a few simple ingredients: Twenty-one of NASCAR's best drivers on the race track in cars specially built and prepared for a 70-lap race, and no points – just dollars and a ton of bragging rights. Then let them loose.
Drivers earn Budweiser Shootout berths one of two ways: winning a pole during the previous season or being a past winner of the Shootout. This year's edition is made up of 15 pole winners from 2006 and six past race winners. Former winners must have finished in the top 50 of the final 2006 series standings to be eligible for Shootout competition.
The fun begins at 8:30 p.m. ET.
The first segment is a 20-lap run, which allows drivers and crew chiefs to evaluate the performance of their race cars. They'll be allowed to make normal pit stop adjustments during a 10-minute break that follows.
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The second and final segment is a 50-lap dash for the dollars – the real Shootout. It may not be the Daytona 500, but Elliott Sadler thinks it’s the next best thing.
"I think it's a great warmup race for all of the drivers that are in it as far as drafting is concerned," Sadler said. "It lets you get back into the car, get yourself adjusted to your spotter, the race track and the guys around you."
The veterans might have their own strategies on how to find victory lane, but a first-timer won this race last year. So how is it done?
"Being able to go from the back to the front [is key]," said last year's surprise winner Denny Hamlin, who went on to make the Chase and nearly win the Cup championship as a rookie.
Drivers pulled their starting positions out of a hat during a draw Thursday night, and Hamlin drew the tail-end spot. In order to score a repeat win, he will need to break the record set by Dale Earnhardt Jr. in 2003, who won that Shootout after starting 19th.
Starting from the pole doesn't guarantee victory either, as that has only happened three times in this race's 29-year history – Darrell Waltrip in 1981, Bill Elliott in 1987 and Ken Schrader in 1989.
But that doesn't faze Dale Jarrett, who starts from the pole Saturday night. Despite having a brand new (and unproven) Toyota Camry underneath him, Jarrett likes his chances.
Jarrett is regarded by many of his fellow drivers as the current master of the restrictor plate race. It's something he says he learned early in his career.
"I learned a lot from the guys that I knew who knew a lot and I watched what it was that they were doing," said Jarrett, who added that drivers develop a feel for these plate races. "If you can feel when you're getting that push without having to look at your tachometer – that extra push of RPM – and you don't have to look back and you can just get that feel, it's what makes the difference."
Jarrett doesn't claim to be able to see the air like Dale Earnhardt did when asked why he was so good on restrictor plate tracks. But Jarrett does admit to spending long hours "on the third shift" at the wind tunnel, where he learned invaluable information on how these cars move and react under different wind conditions on the track.
Jarrett adds that drafting at Daytona has completed changed, and that's part of the challenge.
"For 10 or 12 years, we would never, ever drive into the middle of a two-wide situation," he said. "And now, that's the first thing you do.
"It's kind of crazy, but it's fun."
Former teammate Sadler admits that much of what he's learned about restrictor plate racing came from spending time with Jarrett.
"Even when I drove the 21 car for Eddie [Wood]. I've been a student of [Jarrett's] pretty much a long time here at these superspeedway tracks and I try and bring some of that along to my guys here to help us make our program better," Sadler said.
Sadler, Jarrett and Hamlin will have to deal with a few other restrictor plate aces on Saturday night, like Tony Stewart, Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Mark Martin and the Busch brothers – the best-of-the-best in NASCAR.
And then there are a few surprises in the field, drivers like Boris Said, Brian Vickers and David Gilliland.
Said, who sat on the pole at last July's Pepsi 400 at Daytona, has his hopes set on doing well so that he can raise awareness of his sponsor No Fear and sell more product to help pay for more races in 2007. He's currently funded for only seven races this season.
Vickers, who won the pole for the fall Texas race, has a lot on the line as he starts his first race for a new team and a new manufacturer – Team Red Bull and Toyota.
Gilliland won the pole for the fall Talladega race as a rookie. He's excited about being part of this field, but he expects it may not be much more than a learning experience for him as he gets the opportunity to race against the superspeedway masters.
"It's a great opportunity for me to prepare for the 500," Gilliland said. "But this is one of those races where you never know what can happen."
Goodyear has brought a new tire to the track this season, forcing teams to make some changes to their front suspensions setups. That puts a sharp focus on handling, which can easily be overlooked when it comes to restrictor plate racing, where the emphasis during qualifying is all on motor and body.
During the race, however, it's a completely different story.
"Handling is very important here," Sadler said. "If you're not handling, you're not going to have a great day here at Daytona."
Seeing as how these cars are built just for this one event, will teams pull out all the stops to win?
"Absolutely," Sadler said. "I think Ray [team owner Ray Evernham] wants to go for wins and he has pretty much set the bar high for us. So if we've got to take some chances to try and get our car up to the front, then I'm willing to do that."
Veteran motorsports writer Bob Margolis is Yahoo! Sports' NASCAR reporter. Send Bob a question or comment for potential use in a future column or webcast.
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