Despite a rough economic climate, fans, drivers and sponsors are chomping at the bit for the start of the 2009 NASCAR season. The economic state has created an off-season that will leave many scratching their heads. Teams merged or formed alliances or ceased to exist. Drivers were released, rehired, jumped to new teams or formed their own racing corporations. Then there are the car changes; Stewart will be back in his beloved Chevrolet (where he always wanted to be), Montoya will be switching from Dodge to Chevrolet, a few will be driving different brands at different points in the season and several others shifting brands as they shift teams.

All of this team creation and shifting means POINTS swapping and dealing and shifting, which affects qualifying for the Budweiser Shoot-Out, this year scheduled for Saturday, February 7th. To accommodate the off-season wheeling and dealing, NASCAR announced a “tweak” to the rules of the 2009 Budweiser Shootout that will now allow each manufacturer a “wild card” entry, thus increasing the size of the racing field from 24 drivers to 28 drivers.

Without this new “wild card” amendment, Tony Stewart, two-time champion and three-time winner of the Budweiser Shootout, would be ineligible for this year’s race because of his switch from Toyota to Chevrolet as he moved from Joe Gibbs Racing to the new Stewart-Haas Racing, a team he co-owns. This new change allows Stewart to fill the “wild card” spot. Also benefitting from this change will be Bobby Labonte who is moving from a Dodge for Petty Enterprises to a Ford for Yates/Hall of Fame Racing. The Dodge wild card appears to be A.J. Allmendinger in the No. 10 for GEM/Petty, but this is subject to change. The No. 22 Toyota for Triad Racing Tech has not been confirmed at time of article.

New or less-familiar names on the driver roster this year are: Scott Speed, Kelly Bires, Dexter Bean, Marcos Ambrose, Brad Kaselowski, Robert Richardson Jr. and Joey Logano. Missing from the NASCAR roster of drivers is Dario Franchitti, the IRL Champion crossover driver who lost his sponsor before the end of the 2008 racing season. Not to fret; Dario is back with the IRL. Future articles from this writer will focus on both the newer drivers, the “under-praised but most worthy of coverage” drivers, scheduling and rules issues and whatever else crosses my desk.

Until next time, NO MORE DEBRIS CAUTIONS!! Nancy Graham