“This year is the largest Bud Shootout ever! Twenty-eight drivers will start the race this Saturday night. Broadcast is at 8pm EST on FOX. The number of drivers has ranged from a low of seven in 1981 to a high of 23 in 2008.
With that many cars racing in a pack around Daytona I am hoping for a super-hot-NASCAR-is-back adrenaline rush…and not the less-than-stellar reaction I had from the 2006 Bud Shootout.
Heck, I feel so rusty with the new sponsors and Silly Season it will probably take the first whole segment to sort out which driver is in what car.
The race distance has increased from 70 laps to 75. There are two segments, the first with 25 laps and the second with 50 laps
Starting positions are determined at the annual Budweiser Shootout Draw Party. The Draw Party will be broadcast by SPEED Thursday night at 8 p.m. EST.
Here is the Bud Shootout race line-up and some stats on each of the drivers.
| Rank | Driver | Starts | Avg Finish | Best Finish |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tony Stewart | 9 | 4.2 | 1st |
| 2 | Dale Earnhardt Jr | 8 | 4.4 | 1st |
| 3 | Matt Kenseth | 2 | 4.5 | 3rd |
| 4 | Jimmie Johnson | 6 | 4.8 | 1st |
| 5 | Reed Sorenson | 1 | 5.0 | 5th |
| 6 | Jeff Gordon | 15 | 7.6 | 1st |
| 7 | Denny Hamlin | 3 | 9.0 | 1st |
| 8 | Kevin Harvick | 4 | 9.3 | 3rd |
| 9 | Jeff Burton | 3 | 9.3 | 5th |
| 10 | Casey Mears | 2 | 9.5 | 6th |
| 11 | Michael Waltrip | 3 | 10.0 | 8th |
| 12 | Kurt Busch | 5 | 10.4 | 3rd |
| 13 | Bobby Labonte | 10 | 10.6 | 3rd |
| 14 | Kyle Busch | 2 | 11.0 | 7th |
| 15 | Greg Biffle | 3 | 12.7 | 5th |
| 16 | Kasey Kahne | 4 | 13.0 | 9th |
| 17 | Elliott Sadler | 3 | 13.7 | 12th |
| 18 | Carl Edwards | 2 | 14.0 | 12th |
| 19 | Jamie McMurray | 3 | 15.7 | 8th |
| 20 | Brain Vickers | 3 | 16.0 | 8th |
| 21 | AJ Allmendinger | 0 | n/a | n/a |
| 22 | Robby Gordon | 0 | n/a | n/a |
| 23 | Joey Logano | 0 | n/a | n/a |
| 24 | Paul Menard | 0 | n/a | n/a |
| 25 | David Ragan | 0 | n/a | n/a |
| 26 | David Reutimann | 0 | n/a | n/a |
| 27 | Scott Speed | 0 | n/a | n/a |
| 28 | David Stremme | 0 | n/a | n/a |