Daytona 500 2000 - Shootout sets stage for Daytona's main event

Shootout sets stage for Daytona's main event
by Phil Furr, Special to ESPN.com

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- This isn't like waiting for that knife-whipping Teppanyaki chef to put the finishing touches on the sesame chicken as you scarf down a pound of fried rice. That takes five minutes.

For NASCAR fans, the time spanning mid-November to mid-February is like time spent in the big house waiting for a pardon -- a lot of twiddling thumbs and anxious glances at the calendar.

It's been four score and four days since the NASCAR Winston Cup Series dished out any trophies.


	Mark Martin was the first Winston Cup driver to taste victory in 1999 when he won the Bud Shootout.

The 22nd annual Bud Shootout at Daytona International Speedway is Sunday, kicking off the NASCAR portion of Speedweeks 2000. Fifteen drivers -- slightly more than one-third of a full field -- will take the green flag and officially signal the beginning of another season of Winston Cup racing Sunday at high noon. The all-star event pits 1999's pole-winners against each other in a 20 lap, 200 mph, dash to the season's first checkered flag with the winner pocketing more than $100,000.

Those locked into the Bud Shootout include former winners Jeff Gordon, Mark Martin, Ken Schrader and Rusty Wallace. Ricky Rudd, Kenny Irwin, Tony Stewart, Sterling Marlin, Joe Nemechek, Mike Skinner, Kevin Lepage, David Green, Bobby Labonte and Ward Burton will also take the green.

The 15th and final entrant will come from a preliminary challenge race between the 19 fastest second-round qualifiers of '99. The defending Winston Cup and two-time Daytona 500 champion, Dale Jarrett, is in that bunch. So are Jeff Burton and former 500 winner Geoffrey Bodine.

The grandest restrictor-plate driver of them all won't be there. Don't blame Dale Earnhardt, a six-time winner of this event, for missing the Bud Shootout. He's never been one to smash the throttle on qualifying day.

SHARP SHOOTERS
1999	Mark Martin	Ford
1998	Rusty Wallace	Ford
1997	Jeff Gordon	Chevrolet
1996	Dale Jarrett	Ford
1995	Dale Earnhardt	Chevrolet
1994	Jeff Gordon	Chevrolet
1993	Dale Earnhardt	Chevrolet
1992	Geoff Bodine	Ford
1991	Dale Earnhardt	Chevrolet
1990	Ken Schrader	Chevrolet
1989	Ken Schrader	Chevrolet
1988	Dale Earnhardt	Chevrolet
1987	Bill Elliott	Ford
1986	Dale Earnhardt	Chevrolet
1985	Terry Labonte	Chevrolet
1984	Neil Bonnett	Chevrolet
1983	Neil Bonnett	Chevrolet
1982	Bobby Allison	Buick
1981	Darrell Waltrip	Buick
1980	Dale Earnhardt	Chevrolet
1979	Buddy Baker	Chevrolet

With or without Earnhardt to see the air and guide the weak-hearted around the famed 2.5-mile tri-oval, the Bud Shootout serves its purpose. One driver will win, 14 will have a practice under race conditions for next week's Twin 125-mile qualifying races.

The Bud Shootout -- nee Busch Clash -- is the first Winston Cup race of the season, though it doesn't count for squat in the big picture -- no points; no contingency awards; and no car hijacked and impounded in Daytona USA.

It's just the first chance of the new decade for a driver to put his colors in Victory Lane.

It's NASCAR's defibrillator, the jolt that gets the television sets turned on and the office pools fired up again. Then, when everybody is coming to and NASCAR has gotten the fans out of hibernation, they spring their biggie on you, the Daytona 500.

Even the "Great American Race" needs an opening act. That's the Bud Shootout, NASCAR's dress rehearsal. It's not pretty, and it's not designed to make legends of its winners.

The Bud Shootout is made for television. It's the perfect stage for cool paint schemes, cool commercials, and cool heads. No great rivalries will emerge in the Bud Shootout. There will be no water-bottle fights, no harsh words, no helmet slinging, and no fisticuffs. The Bud Shootout is clean and quick entertainment, rated G.

The all new Chevy Monte Carlo and the all new Ford Taurus will make their Winston Cup debut Sunday, and a NASCAR mandated shock and spring combination gets its first workout under race conditions.

Preseason test speeds were down significantly from a year ago. Drivers blamed the new cars for their newness and praised the new shock package, designed to make the ride around tracks like Daytona smoother for car and driver.

Pontiac is the only manufacturer reissuing last year's model, and Bobby Labonte finished second in the points standings to Jarrett behind the wheel of his Grand Prix. Labonte's Joe Gibbs-owned team had a melodramatic silly season.

They were in the minority.

Gordon, an early 7-2 favorite to win his third Daytona 500, checks out a new crew chief in Robbie Loomis. Five drivers -- Rudd, Irwin, Nemechek, Schrader and Green -- get their first shots in new cars thanks to musical chairs in the offseason.

Martin gets to field-test a reconstructed back; Stewart gets to run for the first time without that useless yellow "follow-me" stripe on his bumper; and, Ward Burton gets a new paint scheme on his No. 22 Pontiac in an effort to disguise himself from brother Jeff.

The Bud Shootout is a poor predictor for the Daytona 500. Earnhardt is a six-time Shootout champ, yet has taken home to series' most prized possession once. Only Bobby Allison in 1982, Bill Elliott in 1987 and Gordon in 1997 have claimed both races in the same year.

Phil Furr, a freelance writer from Concord, N.C., is a regular contributor to ESPN.com.

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