Easy does it best

Nascar fired up its engines and kicked off the season in style with the Budweiser Shootout on Saturday night.

Kevin Harvick came from the back to steal the victory away right at the depth as carnage ensued behind him. Harvick ran at the rear for the most of the race, dodging early accidents and losing the draft twice.

The Shootout saw a record number of competitors, 28, with the rule changes in place for the event. This year saw each manufacturer supply their best six cars of 2009, plus an additional wildcard for each. The new format saw new faces in the race for the first time, but saw a number of Shootout stalwarts left watching from the sideline.

Given the testing ban, the drivers are taking every opportunity to get track time before the opening race next Sunday. That didn’t kill the competitive spirit of many, who duelled throughout the 75 laps. Cautions were a plenty, with plenty of torn up cars and yellow flags, including a last lap smash that took out many of the contenders for the race.

This coming week will see the unique qualifying for the 500 take place, before the big on Sunday night. I’ll be doing a review during the week. I’m doing a slight change of format than the one previously mentioned. I’ll be doing it via numbers rather than a team-by-team basis, since it is hard to know for sure how many will be full-time or not.