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For years and years and years, winning a pole in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series meant a whole lot more than getting to start out front for that specific race, or getting first selection of a pit stall.Now, because of NASCAR's fumbling of sponsorship contracts, it means a whole lot less.
Winning a pole in the Sprint Cup Series in the previous season meant a driver was guaranteed a spot in the next season's opening event, the Budwieser Shootout at Daytona. The race is an exhibition of sorts that serves as a great tune-up to the coming NASCAR season a week in advance of the Daytona 500.
The race will still exist in 2009, but the format has changed the qualifying procedures have turned the event more into a showcase for sponsors instead of an underdog team that might have snuck into the race with a pole win in the previous season.
NASCAR announced the format change on Tuesday, and the specifics of the race include lengthening it by 5 laps to 75 laps and giving teams a 10-minute break after lap 25. The qualfying procedure, though, is what ticks me off.
Now, instead of drivers getting locked in at any point in the previous season by winning one of the 36 available pole position awards, the top six teams from each manufacturer based on the final owner points of the previous season will get the start in 2009 Budwieser Shootout.
The changes comes as the result of Budwieser departing its position as the pole award presenter prior to 2008, but maintaining its sponsorship of the season-opening event. Coors Light picked up the pole award, leading to an obvious sponsorship conflict.
I understand the reasoning for wanting to change things up, but the Shootout has been a pole-winners event for such a long time and to change it because the NASCAR marketing folks couldn't package the two together to Coors is disappointing.
If a change was needed because the format was altering the competition level of the race, I'd be fine with it, but I just don't like the way the new procedure brings teams into the field that might not have really done anything in previous year. Case in point? Michael Waltrip and David Reutimann would currently make next season's event, while Mark Martin and Martin Truex Jr. wouldn't.
The only positive I see from the format change is that the manufacturers are going to get more exposure in return, and if that keeps all four makes around the sport for that much longer, then this wasn't as bad of move as it could have been.
Regardless of 2009's format, I'll still be excited to see racing back on-track at Daytona come February.
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