For NASCAR fans, Feb. 12 marks the official end of the offseason, even if it isn’t the official start of the season. That’s when the 33rd running of the Budweiser Shootout at Daytona jump-starts a new year for NASCAR’s elite Sprint Cup Series.
The Shootout, a 75-lap, non-points race, will be more closely watched this year because it will be the first true test of the new pavement at Daytona International Speedway, as well as the first race using the new nose on the Cup cars, a nose that is much more like the ones on the Nationwide Series cars. Gone are the protruding splitter and the braces that supported it.
Drivers eligible for the Shootout this year include the 12 drivers who qualified for the 2010 Chase for the Sprint Cup, past Cup champions, past Shootout winners and past Daytona 500 and Coke Zero 400 winners and Cup rookies of the year from 2001-10.
To participate, a driver must have competed in the Cup series within the past two seasons. Kevin Harvick has won the past two Shootouts.
The race gets the green flag at 8:10 p.m. with TV coverage on Fox.
Petty group finds stability
Richard Petty Motorsports appears to be back on stable ground after some shaky times at the end of the 2010 season. The new outlook is in large part because of an influx of funding from new co-owner Andy Murstein and his company, Medallion Financial.
The team will drop from four Cup teams to two, with A.J. Allmendinger driving the flagship No. 43 Ford and Marcos Ambrose aboard the No. 9 Ford.
During the recent media tour visit with the team, Ambrose said he’s upbeat about his new employer.
“I’ve got to be honest with you, I’m very optimistic and very enthusiastic about our chances in 2011,” he said. “I signed on with RPM before the turmoil at the end of 2010, and I must say that the way the company came out of the ashes so strong with such commitment to win is quite outstanding ...
“I’m still not too sure how it all came back together again because I wasn’t privy to the inside meetings, but it’s the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen. The loyalty, the support behind Richard and this team has really spurred me on to really refocus my energies in NASCAR, to get out there on the race track in 2011 and deliver for Richard, for RPM, for Stanley and for DeWalt and for every employee at RPM.”
Plans made for new arrivals
NASCAR's latest baby boom -- Roush Fenway Racing drivers Carl Edwards, Matt Kenseth and Greg Biffle all are expectant fathers -- has teams thinking about back-up drivers in case the primary driver needs to be away from the track for the birth of his child.
Kenseth is up first, as his wife, Katie, is expecting this month, so his team has lined up Kenny Wallace and Brian Ickler to take the wheel of the No. 17 Ford if needed.
Wallace will be on standby during Speedweeks at Daytona, and Ickler will be at the track for both Phoenix and Las Vegas race weekends.
Kenseth plans to be behind the wheel on race day, but Wallace and Ickler will be ready to practice the car.
Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon had backup drivers in place last year when their wives were expecting, but did not rely on the fill-in drivers.
Crew chief starts team
Veteran crew chief Frank Stoddard, a 14-time winner on the Cup circuit as a crew chief for Jeff Burton, announced last week that he has formed his own Cup team and plans to compete full time this year. He'll enter a No. 32 Ford, but has not revealed his driver roster.
“I’m really eager to get this off the ground,” Stoddard said in a news release. “It’s a great time to enter the sport. We’ll just have to wait and see where we can go from here.
“My hope is to take this team to a competitive level and put together some respectable runs with the limited resources we have in place. One never knows, with our determination and just a little bit of funding we could definitely improve our chances on the track.”
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