2009 Budweiser Shootout

The 2009 Budweiser Shootout was a special non-points race that officially opened the 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season on Saturday night, February 7 of that year at the 2.5 miles (4.0 km) Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. The race was btelecast by Fox, with radio broadcasting being done by Motor Racing Network (over-the-air) and Sirius XM Radio. Kevin Harvick won the race in a very similar finish to that of the 2007 Daytona 500, which was also won by Harvick.

Format change

Pole winners to manufacturers

In previous years, the InBev sponsorship of the pole position for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series allowed previous winners of the pole position in time trials of all races not cancelled due to weather to compete in a race. When Molson Coors took over title sponsorship of these events, the company was forced to make a change for the 2009 event.

The new format, announced in August of 2008 by the Belgium brewer and sponsor of the race, 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.

On January 16, 2009, it was announced that each manufacturer would receive a "wild card" entry to be awarded to the most recent Sprint Cup champion that had attempted to qualify for every race in the preceding year. If no driver qualifies for the wild card, it is awarded to the next car in owner's points for each manufacturer.

The results:

Race format change

Also altered for the 2009 race was the number of laps being run. The first segment, previously 20 laps (50 miles (80 km)) became a 25-lap (62.5 miles (100.6 km)) segment. The second segment of 50 laps (125 miles (201 km)) and other elements (such as the blind draw invert for the pole position) remained unchanged.