It’s time to put the Budweiser Shootout Out of its Misery

In years past the Budweiser shootout represented a reward for drivers who earned a pole in the previous season.  Denny Hamlin took control of the #11 for Joe Gibbs at the end of the 2005 season and even managed to earn a pole at Phoenix.  Hamlin’s pole got him into the 06 Shootout which he proceeded to win.  That win launched an impressive rookie year that saw Hamlin contend for the title.  Sadly that was in 2006 when Budweiser sponsored both the shootout and the Pole award.  In 2009 NASCAR split the beer sponsors.  Coors took the Pole award but Budweiser got to keep it’s iconic shootout.  With that decision the Budweiser shootout didn’t just jump the shark, it flew over it Evel Knievel style.

This used to mean something...

Since 2009 the Shootout has used a variety of ever changing rules to award starting spots in the race.  Initially a somewhat interesting idea of making it a “manufacturer” race with each auto maker getting their top six drivers into the race along side four “wildcards”.  Unfortunetly this created a situation where top Chevrolet drivers couldn’t get into the race and with the fall of Dodge this system was scraped.  A new, new format was thought up that awarded starting spots to, among things, Rookie of the Year winners, Chase qualifiers, and past winners at Daytona.  For 2012 a new, new, new format was dreamed up.  This format allows the entire top 25 in points from the previous year as well as any driver who has won at Daytona.

What’s the point of even having the Bud Shootout?  In the past it meant something.  It was a way to reward pole winners with a big race and potentially big payout.  This could be especially helpful to struggling teams who had managed to get a pole and now got a stage to show themselves and their sponsors off without another 42 cars on track.  Now it’s just an excuse to put over half the NASCAR field on track.  Because a racing series with 36 points races, 2 “qualifying” races of questionable importance (at the same track), another questionable non points race, not to mention over 20 Truck races (that Cup drivers can race in) and over 30 Nationwide race (that Cup drivers race in).  In total that’s over 86 races per year between the three NASCAR series.  During Speedweeks alone there’s the Shootout, 2 qualifying races, Nationwide, ARCA, Truck, and then finally the Daytona 500.

There's over 80 NASCAR races a year between the top 3 series

There’s already a belief among many people (me included) that the NASCAR season is too long.  Non points races are in theory a good idea but it’s hard to get the point (bad pun) of having pointless races when there’s 86 regular, televised, NASCAR stock car races.  That doesn’t even include ARCA and the East/West series that occasionally are aired on SpeedTV!  The only defense for the pointless races is that without points there’s no points racing.  I would agree points racing is a major problem in NASCAR.  But I don’t think the pointless races are really that much more exciting or that the drivers try that much harder.  In fact being pointless there’s not much motivation to race hard if a driver is not running up front.  Although thankfully these races haven’t seen the type of pathetic playing that has been seen during other Stick and Ball “All Star” games.   Plus the Shootout is a plate race.  It’s a crapshoot whether there’s points or not.  And a few days after the Shootout is the qualifying race!  At this point there’s not much difference between the two.

If in any way the pointless races do feature better or harder racing than regular NASCAR races it’s due to the shorter format more than lack of points.  Shorter races are a good idea; there’s 36 races that could be considered opportunities to experiment with that.  If the 500 where to be moved up and both the All Star Race and Shootout died then NASCAR could end it’s season two weeks earlier.  That’s two less weeks competing with NFL.  Cut just two more races from the schedule and that’s a whole month!  A whole month without competing with the NFL!

Replacement

If NASCAR really does want to keep Speedweeks then the solution is really simple.  Daytona is host to another race in January.  The 24 Hours of Daytona would fit perfectly into the start of Speedweeks.  Moving the 24 Hours into Speedweeks would raise it, and the entire Grand Am series profile.  The 24 can have a similar effect to an All Star Race only it has the NASCAR drivers doing something completely different and going up against Indycar drivers and former F1 drivers.   It would make more sense than the Shootout…

The Bud Shootout jumped the shark in 2009.  I don’t even know what to call it this year.  Maybe “pulling a Bud Shootout” will be the new phrase that can replace jumping the shark?  The Shootout has become more pathetic than Two and a Half Men without Charlie Sheen.  It’s time to put it out of it’s misery.  There’s nothing unique or special about it.  Especially with the qualifying races coming up a few days later.  NASCAR already has too many races.  Cutting this pointless race is as good of place as any to start.