Rainout gives Shootout teams slight edge

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Rain may have washed away Sunday's first-round Daytona 500 qualifying, but it didn't alter any nerves.

	Tony Glover Credit: Autostock

Faced with a delay -- qualifying was rescheduled for 1 p.m. on Monday -- teams that participated in Saturday night's Budweiser Shootout were the least likely to fret.

Those 19 crews have something the other 32 on the entry list don't -- a baseline. What was discovered over the course of the 70-lap sprint varies, but data was gathered, notebook pages filled and crews are happy to bank any little edge.

"It'll give them definitely a better idea on what they're going to need when they go into race trim," said Tony Glover, Sterling Marlin's team manager. "On the flip side of it, it's double your work while you're here and a lot more time. But we're all racers, and it's a good race, and we want to be in it."

Especially when you can capitalize on something.

"It's good just for getting extra practice for the 500," said Tony Eury Jr., Dale Earnhardt's car chief. "Come Monday, I'll be a full day ahead of these guys so I can mess with stuff off the wall or whatever."

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Given Dale Earnhardt Inc.,'s restrictor-place dominance and Earnhardt Jr.'s Bud Shootout victory, experimentation is probably all the DEI teams require, including those of Michael Waltrip and Steve Park, who didn't participate in the Shootout.

Waltrip, who won the 2001 Daytona 500 and finished fifth last year, was second-quickest in both of Saturday's 500 practices. Park was seventh in the first session, 18th in the second session.

"After the inspection process they went through [Friday], I had a lot of confidence because we didn't lose any of our car," said Waltrip, who also won last July's Pepsi 400 at Daytona. "I would have been really disappointed if we weren't good, because I knew we would be."

There are, of course, different levels of qualifying concern. Saturday night only confirmed some teams' problems or showed how close or how far they are from an answer. Ricky Craven, who drove the field's only Pontiac, liked the fact it displayed early muscle. He didn't like its overall result.

	Tony Eury Jr. Credit: Autostock

"I was disappointed the way we lost the front [on] about lap 15," said Craven, who finished 10th. "All that means is that we have to adjust, and we've got to tune to the new Pontiac. It's going to be a sporty race car. I'm going to enjoy it. But it won't come for free. We're going to have to earn it and work on it."

Kevin Harvick, who finished ninth in the Shootout, offered a different verdict.

"I could suck up, push, pass and shove better than I have in a long time," he said of his new Chevrolet.

Having that Shootout baseline is doubly important with a large number of new, matching templates for all makes this season. Add the new Pontiac and Chevrolet styles, new noses for Dodge and new tails for Fords, and Saturday's race was more than just a contest for pride and a little extra money.

"If we stay out of trouble and bring the car home in one piece, then we got a good backup car for the 500 that's already raced 70 laps," said Brad Parrott, Dale Jarrett's crew chief. "It's a benefit to our race team."

VIDEO CLIPS Junior wins the Bud Shootout in only his second appearance. Play video Matt Kenseth finishes third Play video Gordon records his sixth top-five finish in the Budweiser Shootout. Play video Ward Burton earns fifth place after a late-race charge. Play video Jimmie Johnson finishes seventh in his first Bud Shootout. Play video

One that Jarrett apparently needed. He finished 18th on Saturday. But Parrott said the Shootout actually functions as an extra test -- with crowds, race conditions and a winner's purse.

"If it rains and we don't get to practice Monday for some reason, we've already got a race run under our belt," said Parrott, who's in his first season as a Cup crew chief. He was glad for the Shootout experience because it gave him a warm-up for Thursday's twin 125-mile qualifying races.

The Shootout allowed Parrott to see "if I got the guts to make the right call or not. I gotta make the right decision come Thursday."

"The motor rule, too," added Eury Jr., referring to NASCAR's one-engine requirement for qualifying, practicing and racing. "I got an extra motor, you know what I'm saying? I get another practice, and I'm not wearing out my race motor for the 125s. So I won't have to be on the track as much as the rest of these guys."

But speed is where you find it, and some teams are still searching, including that of Mark Martin, who finished as the runner-up to 2002 Cup champion Tony Stewart.

	Cal Wells (left) with Ricky Craven Credit: Autostock

"We're pretty comfortable with where we're at," said Ben Leslie, Martin's crew chief. "We're not the fastest car out there. He's pretty comfortable with how it handles. However, the car's slow. That's just how it is."

Martin finished 17th in his Shootout car. He was 21st in both of Saturday's Daytona 500 practices and posted his top speed of 182.912 mph in the second session.

Jarrett was the fastest Ford during 500 practice, sixth overall in the second session behind five Chevrolets -- Joe Nemechek, Waltrip, Earnhardt Jr., Stewart and Jimmie Johnson, respectively. Elliott Sadler was the second-fastest Ford, eighth, at 183.670 mph. Martin's Ford was third fastest.

"So we might have a little bit of work that the manufacturer has to do for us," Leslie said. "Obviously it doesn't seem like we're on quite as level a playing field as the other teams."

Greg Specht, Ford's operations manager, said no one from the manufacturer had asked NASCAR for rules relief, at least not in the Cup garage. Specht said Ford had requested some spoiler changes in the Craftsman Truck Series, but would wait until after the first round of Cup qualifying to plead its case there.