DAYTONA BEACH - Dale Earnhardt Jr. hopes the No.19 is as lucky tonight as it was last year. Earnhardt drew the 19th starting position for the Bud Shootout a year after he won from the same position. The field for the 70-lap, 175-mile race is made up of those who won poles during points races in the previous season and former winners.
Jeremy Mayfield, who won a pole at Talladega, drew the No. 1 spot, followed by Jeff Gordon, Jamie McMurray, Dave Blainey and Kevin Harvick.
Steve Park and Jeff Green were eligible for the Shootout but did not enter. Green had to decline because his car-owner, Richard Petty, does not accept money from companies that sell alcohol, and a Shootout participant has to place a Budweiser sticker on his car.
ALL ME: Pardon Ryan Newman for wanting the Bud Shootout all to himself. He did, after all, win 11 poles last season, the most since Bill Elliott in 1985.
"It would be nice (if the driver who won the most poles last season could win the Shootout), but we messed up and let some other drivers in there, too," he said, joking.
SILVER ON SCREEN: This year's Daytona 500 will be the 25th televised live since 1979, the year a 10-year-old Jeff Burton broke away from his family's ski trip and sneaked back to the condominium to watch Petty win the season-opening classic on CBS.
"I kept looking at the lifts and the clock and about noon I said I was going to go the condo," Burton said. "(My family) skied with me and I took my skis off and they watched me go in the condo. I shut the door and I watched the race while they all went skiing. It was cool. To watch the Daytona 500 live was pretty cool and remembering that is pretty cool, too."
TOUGH CRITIC: Kyle Petty is one of auto racing's most visible ambassadors, a philanthropist and spokesman for the type of charities that bolster the family image NASCAR tries to project.
Petty, therefore, was critical of NASCAR's decision not to penalize Scott Wimmer after he was charged last week with driving while intoxicated in North Carolina. Petty believes NASCAR is sending a mixed message considering the responsible-drinking campaigns sponsored by several teams.
"We tell these kids, if you drink, drink responsibly," he said. "Now we send (Wimmer) back out there. If there is a veil of suspicion, there is nothing wrong with saying you sit out until we have this cleared up."
Petty equated the situation with Shane Hmiel's suspension last season after failing a drug test and being suspended indefinitely. Hmiel was cleared Friday by NASCAR to return to competition.
"They told Shane, go through rehab, go do what you need to do and then be a player," Petty said. "I look at the drug test to be just like the Breathalyzer."
CLOSER: Tony Stewart has yet to win at the restrictor-plate tracks of Daytona and Talladega, at least in a points race. He has won two Bud Shootouts.
"Every year we learn more about it," he said. "I think everybody does. We've won two Shootouts but that's not a guarantee you're going to win a 500.
"So I think our restrictor-plate program is pretty good. I'm not going to say I've figured it out, but I think we figured out a lot of variables that are different from other races."
