Racin' With Russ
By Russell Schmidt

Testing out West and Bud Shootout
Monday, February 4, 2008

After a week of pre-season testing, this time out West, the NASCAR Cup and Nationwide teams return to this end of the country in preparation of a very busy and what could be a very competitive season.

With numerous driver, sponsor and manufacturer changes, there are many unanswered questions at this time, but the next few weeks should set the tone for 2008.

The recent testing at Daytona, Las Vegas and California Speedways have given us a glimpse into possible results.

So, who's been fast? Denny Hamlin, Carl Edwards, Juan Montoya, Kyle Busch, Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon among the Cuppers with Johnny Benson, David Reutimann and Kyle Busch topping the charts in Nationwide testing.

One theme I see here already are the Toyotas have been fast out of the box. As predicted, the Gibbs Racing drivers, those being Tony Stewart, Kyle Busch and Hamlin have shown to be among the fastest every time they've hit the pavement. No surprise here and a far cry from results a year ago. It's a safe bet to see a Toyota in a Cup victory lane more than once this year.

This year's Bud Shootout is also bigger and better than ever with a larger purse and a host of talented Bud Pole winners as eligible entrants.

The driver lineup includes David Gilliland, Jeff Gordon, Kasey Kahne, Ryan Newman, Denny Hamlin, Clint Bowyer, J.J. Yeley, Jamie McMurray, Dave Blaney, Casey Mears, Reed Sorenson, Dale Earnhardt, Jr, Kurt Busch, Jimmie Johnson, Michael Waltrip, Greg Biffle, Martin Truex Jr., Carl Edwards, Tony Stewart, Dale Jarrett, Mark Martin, Ken Schrader and Bill Elliott (won in 1987).

All of these drivers have either won a pole last year or were a previous winner of this prestigious event.

The event is set for Saturday night starting with the first of two segments, that being a 20-lap run with mandatory pitstops for all. Then, there's a 50-lap dash for cash with a side-by-side restart. If there was ever a 'gloves off' event, this one is it. The engines, cars and general mind set is to bring back the steering wheel or trophy, meaning be fast or crash…do whatever it takes to win this big bucks event.

The history of this show has produced many memorable finishes, none the least of comes to mind involving Rusty Wallace and Darrell Waltrip, where Wallace bumped Waltrip out of the way late in the go. Wallace went on to win and the crews erupted into confrontation as the cars entered the pits.

Last year, Tony Stewart won his third Bud Shootout and the $200,000 plus that goes along with it. This is a non-points race, but one NOT to miss. We'll compare notes next week.

From Rumorville
Yates driver David Gilliland finally has a sponsor on his car for at least the first six races, that being freecreditreport.com. The team is also working hard on teammate Travis Kvapil in the No. 28 with hopes of announcing something soon in the form of sponsorship.

Sweet idea... Those Dale Earnhardt fans should be excited to hear about four special edition candy bars to be distributed by Hershey. The chocolate bars will commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Daytona 500 and the 10th anniversary of the Dale Sr.'s 1998 Daytona 500 win. Fans can find out more information about these and a chance to donate money to the Dale Earnhardt Foundation at www.hersheys.com/dale.

Robby Gordon has made a late change (from Ford) to Dodge by combining forces with Gillett-Evernham Motorsports. These one car teams need to do whatever it takes to be competitive.

Did you know?
This year's Daytona 500 will have a very healthy $18 million purse. That equates to $1.4 million awarded to the winner with $1 million to second and $750,000 to third. Why, just taking the green flag in this one and the check will be in excess of $233,000!!

This is certainly a far cry from the first 500 where Lee Petty won a paltry $16,000 and the last place driver walked away with a hundred bucks for his trouble.

That's it for this week. Next week's RWR will discuss the results of the Bud Shootout and more racing news from around the globe.

Questions? Comments? Contact Russ