Carl Edwards, who drew the pole position for tonight’s Bud Shootout by lottery, likens the race to "a battle for glory"–glory which he is looking to re-ignite in 2010. (Photo: John Clark/NASCAR This Week)

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - It’s "bonus coverage," as the talking heads of television are fond of saying.

The Budweiser Shootout, a race that becomes more of an exhibition and less of an all-star race every year, is the grand finale of one of the more crowded Saturdays in Daytona International Speedway. It follows front-row qualifying for the Feb. 14 Daytona 500 at 1:05 p.m. and an ARCA race, the Lucas Oil Slick Mist 200, at 4:30. The Shootout begins at 8:30 p.m., according to the track schedule.

Why the packed schedule? The Super Bowl is to be played in Miami on Sunday.

Carl Edwards, who starts out front in the Shootout (by virtue of a random draw), said, "The name says it all. The Shootout is a battle for glory. I’m excited about kicking off the season with a race like this."

Edwards, widely considered a favorite for the Sprint Cup championship a year ago, is on the comeback trail, having gone winless.

"Our them this year is be the best we can be, and the Shootout will be a good warm-up for the season," he said.

Kevin Harvick won the race a year ago.

Edwards won nine races in 2008, meaning that his outlook is entirely different after languishing in ‘09.

"Last year, we came in with the same expectation that a lot of you guys had of our performance," he said, referring to the media. "We thought we were going to win 10 races, win the championship, it’s going to be great … and then we didn’t.

Everyone on our team — myself, everyone — has to be able to look at ourselves and ask, ‘What can we do to be better?’ and my guys have been working very hard.

"Twenty-oh-nine is over; it’s done. Now we’ve got to go be champions in 2010."

The Shootout, which began in 1979 as the Busch Clash, will have 24 starters. The race will be run in a two-segment, 75-lap (187.5 miles) format, with the opening segment 50 laps and the latter 25.

The ARCA race has never been more anticipated. Danica Patrick, the only woman ever to win an Indy-car race, makes her stock car racing debut, and how she fares will supposedly determine whether or not her team, JR Motorsports, enters her in Daytona’s Nationwide Series race, the oddly named (early this week) DRIVE4COPD 300.

Patrick, in a Chevrolet, qualified 12th on Friday. Last year’s winner, James Buescher, won the pole.

The opening act, front-row qualifying, will almost surely be the least exciting. Every car will make a run, even though only two will earn a specific spot in the Daytona 500 (Feb. 14) lineup. A year ago, Martin Truex Jr. (now driving for another team) won the pole, and Mark Martin captured the outside slot on the front row.
 

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