Commentary: Enhancing the Bud Shootout
by MattWeaver on Jan 9, 2012 2:08 AM EST
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With Speedweeks just a few weeks around the corner, I felt it appropriate to take a look at one of the most anticipated and also scrutinized events of the year in the Budweiser Shootout.
There's very little to criticize about the event in it's current construction. It's the first race in nearly four months and it features stars and cars of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. What's not to like?
Despite this, the event has still managed to unnerve some fans with the inclusion of nearly 30 cars, the constant changing of the rules and obvious attempts to insure that Dale Earnhardt Jr. is able to make the race year-after-year.
The most important of these changes, to me, is the rulebook. A lot like the Sprint All Star Race, a consistent and exciting format can only help build anticipation to a race already the most-looked-forward-to on the schedule. So what can be done to enhance the Budweiser Shootout? Find out after the jump!
1. Find a qualifying format and stick with it.
Prior to 2008 when Budweiser was the official sponsor of the pole award, drivers were excited about winning the pole because it also merited inclusion into the annual Budweiser Shootout. The Shootout never persuaded a driver to push harder but having a driver mention the race on Fridays only added to the prestige and anticipation of the event. Likewise, having announcers plug the event during Friday telecasts amounted to the same thing. Whatever the format, stick to it and allow the anticipation to simmer before building to a fever pitch by February.
This brings me to the format itself.
I preferred the qualifying format for all the reasons I just outlined. If the Budweiser sponsorship is the impeding the format, look into having Coors acquire the naming rights to the event.
Additionally, I would make qualifying more important by giving the driver the most poles the lead spot for the shootout. This would eliminate the draw. All ties and consecutive spots will be determined by average starting position during the previous season.
Entry for non-pole winners will be the following.
-All previous Chase for the Championship qualifiers (from any season)
-Previous series champions
-Previous winners at Daytona International Speedway
2. Bring Back the Invert
For God's sake; the race is called a shootout. Nothing says shootout like a 20-lap run to the finish off an invert. Anyone associated with short track racing is bound to experience this on a weekly-basis at their home track. Daytona is a plate track, meaning a invert won't do much to damage a driver's chance at winning and serves only to add a new level of excitement and help break up drafting partners.
In conclusion, here's how the segments play out/
Segment 1: 45 Laps (One green flag pit stop)
Ten-minute break where teams can make unlimited adjustments while the inversion ceremony takes place. Invert will be decided upon by blind draw and will be a number anywhere from 1-10.
Segment 2: 20 Laps (Named the 20-lap Dash for the Cash)
3. Run the Race Backwards
Ultimately, this is my most absurd suggestion. I don't even know if the cars are mechanically capable of turning left for 75 laps in a restrictor plate environment, much less if the track's camera decks and sight lines can support it.
But here's my thinking.
A common complaint about the Budweiser Shootout is that it's just a 70-lap diet version of the Coke Zero 400. What if the Shootout became something else entirely; something unlike anything else in motorsports? I won't sit here and try to preach the logistics of how something like this would work because I have no idea if it can.
But at its deepest roots, NASCAR is a promotion and traveling circus. Start off the season by promoting your wackiest invention ever, a 65-lap inverted backwards dash for the cash.
So what do you say? Are you on board or are my ideas just too wacky even by NASCAR standards? Tell us in the comments section below.
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Here's my thoughts.
1) Almost exactly what I would like to see. Maybe not the previous Daytona winners, but otherwise spot on.
2) I never really liked the invert, especially at the All-Star Race. At Daytona it might not make that much of a difference and could add excitement, but I’m old school and think that if you earned the top spot, you should keep it.
3) That’s just….weird. You would have to change a lot of things television wise, such as the cameras on the backstretch looking out of the turns, since that would be going into the turns now. Also, I’m not sure the pit road would be very accommodating, plus you might confuse some fans (after all, we couldn’t handle the old point system, which really wasn’t that hard to comprehend). So this is a pretty definitive “no” from NASCAR’s part in my opinion.
It could be argued that the invert is old-school.
All of the drivers used it at their home tracks and NASCAR used it for the All-Star Race up until the 2000’s.
As for running the race backwards, I can promise you that I’m not the only person to have ran the track backwards on NASCAR The Game or GT5.
Right, right, right, Brett??
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Like the invert
But why not go one step further? Have each team prepare a car without a paint scheme or wrapper. Then have each driver draw for a car built by someone other than his own team. Give the team a few hours to paint or wrap it with the sponsors and install the driver seat and preferred steering wheel but otherwise make no other changes to the chassis or engine.
We’d get a chance to see if a field-filler can win if he’s got a Hendrick Motorsports Chevy..
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by WestCoastKenny on Jan 9, 2012 10:12 PM EST up reply actions
Very true, but....
what about the guys at the shop who put their hearts and souls into these cars and then watch someone not associated with their organization drive (and possibly wreck) that car? I do like the idea, however. Being a fan of the old IROC series, why not have some kind of IROC-type shootout? Everyone is given (supposedly) equal cars, now go out and race. I think that would be well received, given also Matt’s #1, and (yes, I concede), #2. Not really #3, but that would also be a greater possibility if all the cars were built the same and also were built to intentionally turn right. I’m sure the cars right now are built so the weight, aero, and all those technical things help the car turn left, so the equal car built by someone else would even make that more plausible.
Darn it, I should really stop rambling on these posts. :)
by UnderdogFan89 on Jan 9, 2012 10:22 PM EST up reply actions
I like the invert
I remember they used to invert the last ten laps and I watched Dale Earnhardt drive from last to first to win that Busch Clash. The invert made it more sciting to watch than having Earnhardt start up front and lead it the whole 10 laps, he just ran all out and didn’t sand bag near the end of the field in order to start up front for the last segment. I think that was the ‘88 or ’89 clash – probably the best one I’ve ever watched for shear excitment.
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This sounds awfully familiar. I was chatting with WestCoastKenny on Facebook and said the following:
“The invert is just something that they’ve gotten away from in recent years. It was tremendous watching Gordon and Earnhardt grab the cash and battle their way back through the pack. Meanwhile, a Kevin Lepage type would inherit the lead and see if he could Regan Smith it during the final segment. It was so much fun.”
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Follow me on Twitter @MattWeaverSBN
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I agree that we need something done to make it conducive for drawing fans and drivers. Inverting does not hurt anything. However, driving the opposite direction will require a completely different car-added expense. TV coverage is a wash; they will figure it out. I think we need to go back to the Coors group and have them sponsor the shootout again. Then we can have pole-winners, last year’s weekly race winners and previous Champions for the last 5 years or so.
I think you mean right, not left. And yes, it's not impossible to do.
However, it would be impossible to do this year (not enough time before the Shootout), and would be fiscally unreasonable. First of all, teams would need to build a new car just for this race. They couldn’t use a road course car, because a road course car’s weight is evenly distributed throughout, whereas a right-turn only car would not be (and it would be distributed oppositely of a left-turning car). While most of the high-budget teams might have the resources, man-power, etc. to pull this off, they would still need a tire to run on. I doubt Goodyear’s current model, which has been built on decades of tests on cars turning left, would fair well on cars intending to turn right. Therefore, Goodyear would need to make a new tire just for this race, and, well, I just don’t see that happening.
by UnderdogFan89 on Jan 11, 2012 1:47 AM EST up reply actions
What years was it sponsored by Coors?
From 1979 to 1997 it was the BUSCH Clash, and since then has been referred to as the Bud/Budweiser Shootout…from what I remember it has always been a Anheuser-Busch sponsored event.
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OH! And my suggestion for making it different.
Run the road course. And MAX the field at 20. The idea of the Shootout is that everyone in there is there because they earned it. Otherwise, just make it a full 43 car field. As it stands right now there is only about 13 or 14 guys not in it anyway.
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by Kevin Weiker on Jan 11, 2012 4:05 AM EST up reply actions
Wouldn't it take too much time to convert the track from road to oval in time for qualifying on Sunday?
There was a similar debate going on at Indianapolis once they announced that GRANDAM and Nationwide were going to race on the same week. GRANDAM on Thursday and Cup and Nationwide Series hitting the track on Friday.
My Bad
Bud once sponsored the Pole Award. So the pole winners could be placed in the Shootout and we had no conflict. Now , we have what we have or get Coors to do the Shootout so we can have pole winners doing the Shootout. That would put all the fast cars in the Shootout. I meant to say that they should approach Coors again.
Good catch. You've got one over on me several times now.
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I always pictured it as the Coors Clash in my memory but that doesn’t go very far – I’m just 23. :) The Coors Clash still has a catch to it, right?
I won’t be near a computer til Friday so Fearless Leader should totally add a editor’s note to my Coors mistake.
You’re the man, KW.
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by MattWeaver on Jan 11, 2012 8:34 PM EST via mobile up reply actions
You can build the car to turn left
it wouldn’t be that hard, you would have to change the springs and camber settings. But I think that wouldn’t be that difficult
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Even the title of my old post fits haha :)
by UnderdogFan89 on Jan 12, 2012 7:06 PM EST up reply actions
We're a mess. "Turn left" and "Coors Clash"
Thank God we’re not credentialed professionals or anything…
Oh, shit.
Follow me on Twitter @MattWeaverSBN
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Correspondent for SBNation's IndyCar Pop Off Valve Blog (http://www.popoffvalve.com/)
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