Bud Shootout adds four 'wild card' spots to lineup 

NASCAR announced Friday a revision to the 2009 Budweiser Shootout format that provides each manufacturer with a "wild card" entry, increasing the size of the field from 24 to 28 cars, highlighting the manufacturers' involvement in NASCAR, and featuring more drivers for fans to support.

The 31st annual season-opening event at Daytona International Speedway will be held on Saturday night, Feb. 7. As was announced last August, the lineup will consist of the top six teams from each manufacturer, based on the final 2008 car owner points. Eligibility is based on owners competing in this event with the same manufacturer as 2008. The new wrinkle calls for each manufacturer to be able to enter a seventh car, or "wild card" entry, based on the following criteria:

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• Any owner outside of the top six in year end 2008 owner points whose driver is a past Cup Series champion that attempted to qualify for all 36 of the 2008 events (only one position will be filled per manufacturer and will be based on the most recent past champion per manufacturer).

• If an owner/manufacturer does not have a past champion driver, the next highest eligible owner outside the top six in year end 2008 owner points from each manufacturer will be eligible to compete in the event.

As previously announced, the race distance will be increased from 70 laps to 75 (187.5 miles) on the 2.5-mile tri-oval. The race will have two segments of 25 and 50 laps. Both green- and yellow-flag laps will count.

Between segments, there will be a 10-minute pit stop at which time teams will pit and may elect to change tires, add fuel and make normal chassis adjustments. Crews will be permitted to work on cars and will be allowed to perform functions they would do on a normal pit stop in a regular Cup event. All work must be performed on pit road or in the garage. Changing of springs, shock absorbers or rear-ends will not be permitted.

Starting positions will again be determined by a blind draw, at the annual Budweiser Shootout Draw Party on Thursday night, Feb. 5, on the SPEED stage outside Turn 4.

The Budweiser Shootout -- a non-points event for Cup Series competitors -- was first held in 1979, and originally known as the Busch Clash. Dale Earnhardt Jr. won last year's event.

The lineup
The following is a list of cars eligible for the 2009 Budweiser Shootout. The list is based on 2008 owner points and specifies 2008 team affiliations. Since some of these car numbers may be inactive in 2009, the actual starting field may include cars ranked lower than those in this list. NASCAR also may allow the transfer of owner points from inactive cars on this list to cars not otherwise eligible for the Shootout.

Sporting News Wire Service contributed to this report.