Arena: Daytona International Speedway

Location: Daytona Beach, FL

Date: Feb 18, 2012

NASCAR Betting Online: The race is only getting ready to start, but NASCAR is already beating the drum for its 34th-annual Budweiser Shootout on Feb. 18, 2012, at Daytona International Speedway. The race will begin at 8:10 p.m. Eastern to open the stock-car portion of Speed Weeks 2012 at DIS. All told, six support races will lead into the season-opening Daytona 500 on Feb. 26.

In its infancy, the Shootout was an all-star race limited only to the previous season's pole winners. But NASCAR and its TV partners soon realized that many of its biggest stars were not good qualifiers, so they often missed the event. Several years ago, in an effort to boost interest, winning poles was removed as a criteria and the field was expanded to include almost any active driver who had any kind of ride at all.

Eligibility now includes the top 25 in this year's final points, plus all active drivers who have won a Daytona 500, Budweiser Shootout or Coke Zero 400. The race will be for 75 laps in 25- and 50-lap segments, with all laps counting and a 10-minute break between segments. The grid will be set by a blind draw on Friday night, Feb. 17, in a made-for-TV event at the speedway.

Top-25 drivers automatically eligible include 2011 Cup Series champion Tony Stewart, Carl Edwards, Kevin Harvick, Matt Kenseth, Brad Keselowski, Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon, Denny Hamlin, Ryan Newman, defending champion Kurt Busch, Kyle Busch, Clint Bowyer, Kasey Kahne, A. J. Allmendinger, Greg Biffle, Paul Menard, Martin Truex Jr., Marcos Ambrose, Jeff Burton, Juan Pablo Montoya, Mark Martin, David Ragan, Joey Logano and Brian Vickers.

Eight other drivers who have at least one DIS win also are eligible, bringing Bill Elliott, Geoffrey Bodine, Derrike Cope, Michael Waltrip, Jamie McMurray, Trevor Bayne, Terry Labonte and Ken Schrader into the field.

Join BookMaker Sportsbook and get the best NASCAR betting odds on the Web, along with sports betting lines, promotions and prop bets for all major sporting events around the world.

2012 Budweiser Shootout Winner - More Carnage Than Competition

Saturday's latest version of NASCAR's special event at Daytona International Speedway was just that - 'special' - as millions of dollars in prime racing equipment was turned into scrap metal.

In all, 18 of the 25 starters were mangled in a quartet of wrecks that literally had drivers 'upside down with their hair on fire.' We don't mean to make light of this stuff - there's nothing funny about seeing cars occupied by humans careening out of control, on fire and slamming into walls at nearly 200 miles an hour.

Half of the field in Saturday's race - 12 of the 25 cars entered - did not finish the event. While there is no official count, it's almost a certainty that none of those cars will ever race again. That means that several team owners had to swallow at least $150,000 worth of twisted metal Saturday night.

2011 Budweiser Shootout at Daytona Results

NASCAR’s dress rehearsal for the Daytona 500 was an interesting display of dancing in the dark.

Kurt Busch won the Budweiser Shootout at Daytona International Speedway compliments of his "teammate for the day" Jamie McMurray on Saturday night.

McMurray, the defending Daytona 500 winner, knew the race would come down to picking a dancing partner. With his teammate Juan Pablo Montoya eliminated from the race in an eight-car pile-up on Lap 28, McMurray opted to pair up with Busch — a friend off the track and someone he felt he could trust.

The final pass, though, was ruled illegal as Denny Hamlin was disqualified for going below the out-of-bounds line.

It made Busch, who actually crossed the finish line in second place, the first Dodge driver to win the non-points race that has opened Speedweeks for the last 33 years.