Martin frustrated to miss Shootout

Martin is the driver with most consecutive appearances in the annual non-championship Shootout race, competing for 20 straight years between 1989 and 2008, and winning it in 1999 while driving for Jack Roush.

This year he is ineligible to compete, as the new rules do not give automatic entry for past event winners, as was previously the case.

From 2009, only the top six cars from each manufacturer in last year's owners' standings, plus one wild-card per manufacturer, get into the field for the Shootout, and Martin's No.5 Chevrolet did not make the cut-off in Casey Mears's hands last season.

Martin says the reduced testing time for this year's Daytona 500 makes it more painful to be left out of the field.

"I feel really left out you know," Martin said at Daytona today. "Because there's twenty-eight cars, more than ever, and this is the first time in my knowledge in 20 years that I haven't been in that race and we won't even hit the racetrack on race trim until Thursday."

Teams competing in the Shootout will not only enjoy the chance to race before the season-opener, but also gain some additional practice time. Martin says it would have been a greater advantage for him to be in the event this year than ever before as he is still in the early days of his relationship with Hendrick Motorsports.

"It's always been an advantage and I recognise it in the Shootout but not nearly as much when you have three days of testing and you're with an existing team," Martin added.

"This is a new team for me to work with and they are incredible, but we do have to figure each other out and an hour and forty-five minutes is not a lot of time to do that."

Defending Daytona 500 champion Ryan Newman has also been left out of the Shootout field due to the new regulations. He says he dislikes the new selection criteria and doesn't see how it will make for a better race for the fans.

"I'm not happy with the way they organised the Shootout," Newman told autosport.com. "Last year we made the statement that we were going back to racing old-school and I don't see that in the formation of the new Shootout.

"To me it's just a thank you pat on the back to the manufacturers, which to me doesn't make for the ideal race in my opinion."

Under the previous rules, all the previous year's pole-winners, plus past champions and previous Shootout winners, were eligible for the race.