NASCAR Season Opener

President's Day weekend is here, which mean NASCAR season comes along with it. Tonight is the Sprint Unlimited exhibition event for pole winners from the 2013 season and past winners of this event which was formerly known as the Busch Clash and Budweiser Shootout.

Eighteen drivers are scheduled to take part in this year's 75-lap race. The format and starting grid are still to be announced as this year's race allows the fans to select three components of the race.

Fans have three choices for length of each segment. Each option involves a 30-lap opening segment but with "option A" being a 35-lap second segment on 10-lap final; "option B" is 30-laps followed by 15 and "option C" is 25-laps with a 20-lap finale.

The three fan choices for starting grid are lining up by career poles totals, 2013 Drivers' championship standings and final practice speeds.

Fans will also choose how the starting order of the final segments will be determined. Their options are fastest race laps over the first two segments, most laps led in the first two segments or by the order of cars off pit road after a mandatory pit stop.

I'll be honest, I like the race formerly called the Shootout. It's suppose to be a fun exhibition. The fans choosing the format is a little over the top, especially when the results to the first two components are announced until two hours and one hour before the race respectively. I am all for fan involvement but this is a little over the top.

To really make this interesting, I always felt their should be eliminations after each segment. They did that in the All-Star Race for a few years and it was fun because you didn't have drivers dogging it, which has now become a staple in any restrictor plate race and the All-Star Race. Since this year's race features eighteen cars, I would eliminate four drivers after each segment, that way it's a ten car dash in the end.

Even though fans will be selected the the starting grid, we already know each starting grid.

If fans select "option A," the starting grid will look like this (Career pole totals and all-time rank in parenthesis).

1. Jeff Gordon (74 poles, 3rd all-time)
2. Ryan Newman (51, 9th)
3. Jimmie Johnson (32, tied for 21st)
4. Terry Labonte (27, 25th). Yes, Terry Labonte is competing in this event. There are even start-and-park drivers in an exhibition. Thanks NASCAR!
5. Denny Hamlin (17, 42nd)
6. Kurt Busch (16, 43rd).
7. Tony Stewart (14, T-46th)
8. Kyle Busch (13, T-51st)
9. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. (13, T-51st)
10. Carl Edwards (13, T-51st)
11. Matt Kenseth (11, T-58th)
12. Jamie McMurray (9, T-64th)
13. Joey Logano (7, T-71st)
14. Kevin Harvick (6, T-77th)
15.  Brad Keselowski (3, T-104th)
16. Marcos Ambrose (3, T-104th)
17. Danica Patrick (1, T-146th)
18 Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. (1, T-146th)

Should a fan for some reason see the grid lineup as if qualifying was rained out, here is "option B" (position in 2013 standings in parenthesis).

1. Jimmie Johnson (1st)
2. Matt Kenseth (2nd)
3. Kevin Harvick (3rd)
4. Kyle Busch (4th)
5. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. (5th)
6. Jeff Gordon (6th)
7. Joey Logano (8th)
8. Kurt Busch (10th)
9. Ryan Newman (11th)
10. Carl Edwards (13th)
11. Brad Keselowski (14th)
12. Jamie McMurray (15th)
13. Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. (19th)
14. Marcos Ambrose (22nd)
15. Denny Hamlin (23rd)
16. Danica Patrick (27th)
17. Tony Stewart (29th)
18. Terry Labonte (42nd)

If you'd like to see the starting grid set by final practice from yesterday, then "option C" is for you.

1. Denny Hamlin
2. Jamie McMurray
3. Ricky Stenhouse, Jr.
4. Kyle Busch
5. Brad Keselowski
6. Kevin Harvick
7. Carl Edwards
8. Marcos Ambrose
9. Tony Stewart
10. Kurt Busch
11. Joey Logano
12. Danica Patrick
13. Jeff Gordon
14. Dale Earnhardt, Jr.
15. Terry Labonte
16. Matt Kenseth*
17. Ryan Newman*
18. Jimmie Johnson*

*- Note: Kenseth, Newman and Johnson did not participate in final practice and are lined-up by their first practice speeds.

I kind of feel like this race should be worth a Chase position. What's the point of watching a NASCAR race if the winner isn't getting a Chase position? Same for the Duel races. Why should I watch those if the winner isn't making the Chase? Same with the All-Star Race and the last-chance qualifier for the All-Star Race, the Sprint Showdown. Why should I watch those if their winner don't make the Chase? I think Chase positions would make those races worth more.

Realize I am being sarcastic in that last paragraph but also realize that I am also getting into Brian France's brain. What if every race was worth a Chase spot? Tonight's race would become a bonus chance for these eighteen drivers. Oh boy if Brian France reads this the wheel in his head will be churning so fast that he might explode. Imagine if tonight's race was worth a Chase spot. The TV rating would probably spike upward. If I was Fox, I would be begging NASCAR to make every race, worth points or not, worth a Chase spot, especially since Fox has all the non-points races and that would makes those five races more valuable.

Some fun facts for tonight's race:

Three different manufactures have won the last three Shootouts/Unlimiteds. Kevin Harvick won for Chevrolet last year with Kyle Busch winning for Toyota in 2012 and Kurt Busch winning for Dodge in 2011. Ford has a chance to make it four different manufactures in four years but the brand hasn't won a Shootout/Unlimited since Dale Jarrett won a stunner in 2004. There will be five Fords in this year's race (Keselowski, Ambrose, Stenhouse, Jr., Logano, Edwards). Those drivers have combined for zero Cup wins at Daytona and only two Cup restrictor plate victories, both at the hands of Brad Keselowski.

There are nine former Clash/Shootout/Unlimited winners in the field. Terry Labonte and Jeff Gordon both won the even when it was the Busch Clash. Labonte in 1985 and Gordon in 1994 and 1997. The Busch brothers, Hamlin and Johnson are all looking to become the tenth different driver with multiple wins in this event. Stewart and Harvick look for their fourth win which would put them solely into second all-time in victories in this event, two behind Dale Earnhardt. Earnhardt, Jr. looks to join Stewart, Harvick and Jarrett as three-time winners of the event.

Amazingly, a Richard Petty-owned car has never won this event. A reason for that is Petty-owned cars never put alcohol-related sponsorship decals on their cars and since the cars didn't have the proper decals when Busch/Budweiser was the sponsor, Petty cars did not compete.  Richard Petty ran the event once in 1980 but another Petty-owned car would not competed again until 2009. Marcos Ambrose has a shot not only to get The King his first win in the event but become the first foreign-born driver to win the race.

The only Toyotas in the field are from Joe Gibbs Racing. Gibbs Racing has five victories in this event.

This is the first Clash/Shootout/Unlimited to ever take place on February 15th. This is the first Cup race on February 15th since the 2009 Daytona 500, which was won by Matt Kenseth after rained ended the race on lap 152.

Tomorrow will be Daytona 500 qualifying and we will know the front row for NASCAR's biggest race as well as the starting order for the Duel races. Stay tuned folks.