Earnhardt Takes Nascar Bud Shootout, First Win With New Team
By Gene Laverty
Feb. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Dale Earnhardt Jr. got off to a winning start with new team Hendrick Motorsports, claiming a victory in the Budweiser Shootout, the exhibition race that kicks off the season in Nascar's top Sprint Cup Series.
Earnhardt got an aerodynamic push from teammate Jimmie Johnson to edge Tony Stewart by 0.136 second and win the 70-lap race at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. It was Earnhardt's second win in the Budweiser Shootout, a race for drivers who have won pole positions in the previous season or who are past winners of the event.
``I had a blast,'' Earnhardt, driver of the No. 88 Chevrolet Impala, told Fox television after the race. ``I didn't win that race without Jimmie pushing me.''
Earnhardt led 47 of 70 laps, the most ever in the event, which this year featured a record 23 cars. The 33-year-old from Mooresville, North Carolina, quit the race team started by his late father last season and signed with Hendrick, which has won the last two championships in what is now the Sprint Cup Series.
Stewart's second-place finish in the No. 20 Camry was Toyota's top finish since it started fielding cars in Nascar's top series last season. Johnson, the defending Nascar champion who drives the No.48 Impala, finished third and was followed by teammate Jeff Gordon in the No. 24, giving car owner Rick Hendrick three of the top four spots.
Reed Sorenson had the fastest Dodge, coming in fifth in the No. 41 Charger. Carl Edwards had the top-finishing Ford Fusion at 12th in the No. 99.
The 30th running of the Budweiser Shootout may have been the last, after Anheuser-Busch Cos. relinquished its spot as sponsor of Nascar's pole-position award to Molson Coors Brewing Co.'s Coors Light brand starting this season.
Drivers will qualify tomorrow for the top two positions in the Feb. 17 Daytona 500, the first official race of the Nascar season.
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