Saturday night’s Bud Shootout will be “more of an adventure” than in the past, says Dale Earnhardt Jr., the defending champion of the bonus race, and the consensus favorite to repeat.
But leave it to Michael Waltrip, who is a sort of savant in restrictor-plate racing, to ask a rhetorical question and then answer in the superlative.
“I’m sure this question is obvious: Is the Shootout maybe the most anticipated race ever? And I’d say yes.”
Never before have drivers gone into this inherently wild…Â More info
Richard Petty spent the last three months thinking the No. 44 Dodge would have a guaranteed spot in the Daytona 500.
He found out last week the car would have to race its way in.
Now, the seven-time NASCAR champion is questioning rules that allow owners to transfers points from one car to another — moves that essentially knocked Petty driver AJ Allmendinger out of the top 35 in the points standings.
“It doesn’t make any difference what kind of rules you throw out there…Â More info
[ad#cor1]
Cars haven’t even hit the track yet, but I have a beef with both NASCAR and several teams.
I’m all for doing anything possible in the garage area, pits, and on track to get my favorite driver into the race. But when team owners start whipping out checkbooks to get them in, I have a major issue.
The whole “let’s buy points since we can’t get into the races…Â More infoÂ
Denny Hamlin was the new kid at Joe Gibbs Racing – an unknown in the shadow of defending NASCAR champion and teammate Tony Stewart – when he rolled into Daytona International Speedway for his 2006 rookie season.
He needed just two days to change that. With a push from good buddy Dale Earnhardt Jr., Hamlin stole the victory in the non-points Budweiser Shootout to rocket into NASCAR stardom.
He now considers that victory one of the greatest accomplishments of his short career.
Only problem? In Hamlin’s mind, he’s done very little to back up that breakthrough win.
“That’s the thing – when you have so much early success, it can be hard to fall off that mountain,” Hamlin said. “If we would have come in during my rookie year …Â More info
[ad#cor1]