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Shootout field increased to 28

NASCAR has announced that it will expand the field for next month's Budweiser Shootout from 24 to 28 cars to allow each manufacturer to run an additional entry

The non-championship race at Daytona is the traditional curtain-raiser to the NASCAR Sprint Cup season, taking place a week before the famous 500-mile race at the Florida superspeedway.

It was originally intended to invite each manufacturer's top six cars (based on 2008 owners' points) to the Shootout, but now Toyota, Chevrolet, Ford and Dodge can all add a further driver.

Priority will be given to any former champion outside the top six cut-off who entered all 2008 races, or if the manufacturer does not have an eligible champion amongst its drivers, then last year's seventh-best team in its line-up will take the place.

The main consequence of the change is that double champion Tony Stewart can now take part in the race for his new Stewart Haas Chevrolet squad. He would previously have been ineligible due to his team's lack of success in their previous Haas CNC incarnation.

The Shootout is split into two segments of 25 and 50 laps each, with starting positions decided at random. It takes place on the evening of 7 February at Daytona. Dale Earnhardt Jr won last year's event on his debut for Hendrick Motorsports.

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