The NASCAR season kicked off on Sunday with the Budweiser Shootout. There were a total of 18 cars in the field, and Kenny Schrader lead them down to the green flag from the pole position. The race was pretty much uneventful, other than the usual shuffling around on the leaderboard that results from restrictor plate racing.

Five laps in Gordon had made his way to the front, with Dale Earnhart pushing him down the straightaway closely followed by Little E. The Chevy's took the high line and the Joe Gibb's Pontiac's of Labonte & Stewart held their own on the bottom until lap 10 when Dale got a run on Gordon and caught him in the middle. The 24 car went to the back, and Earnhart in the number 3 took over the lead.

Kenny Schrader was black flagged around lap 15 after several of the drivers running around him complained about oil on their windshields.He pit on lap 17 and took right sides, gas, and was allowed to rejoin the field down a lap. He eventually worked his way back up to sixth, and actually looked like he might have something for them, but it finally broke (or ran outta gas), or both, with 3 to go. Kenny saw the first checkered flag of the year from behind the wall. Let's hope that it's not an omen of what we can expect from the M&M's team this year.

Little E and Tony Stewart hooked up together and gave Gordon and Dale senior a run for their money until the 24 & 3 pit on lap 24. The took right sides only and came out drafting together about 3/4 of a lap behind the leaders. Bill Elliot in the only Dodge came in on the next lap, and the entire field hung him out to dry. Not one other car came in and Bill spent much of the race without a drafting partner.

Tony Stewart took the lead and Little E continued to work with him. Jeremy Mayfield broke on the backstretch and pointed her to the garage on lap 30, the first casuality of the race. At the half way mark, Gordon & Earnhart finally go down a lap to Stewart, but everyone else has got to come in for their one mandatory pitstop.With 30 to go it was Stewart leading the way, with Martin, Little E, B Labonte, Jarrett, and J Burton tucked closely behind.

Ted Mustgrave head to the garage with 27 laps to go then the leaders pit at lap 45. The 20 & 88 car's took 4 tires while Mark Martin took 2 and came out in the lead. There was a scary moment in Jeff Burton's pits when 2 pit crew were down, but it turned out that they just stumbled over each other when Jeff's 99 fired up as they pushing him out. Martin eventually gave up the lead when he couldn't keep up the pace of those who took 4 tires.

Stewart & Labonte hooked up for a while until the roof flap got stuck up on the 18. With 20 to go Gordon & Earnhart started sniffing up near the leaders again. There were 8 cars in the lead draft with 14 to go. The 20 & the 88 touched, and shortly after Tony got loose and wiggled up against Little E but neither contact resulted in anything worth talking about. With 10 to go there's 13 cars in the lead draft, with Tony & Little E at the front.

With 7 to go Gordon took it all the way up to the wall but kept it off. The 8 nose to tail with the 20 while fighting off Dale senior, who had the lead with 3 to go. At the white flag it's the 20, 3, 2, 99, and Gordon back up to 5th.

In the end it was Tony Stewart in the 20 Home Depot Pontiac who visited victory lane, and in his post race interview he thanked Little E for working with him all day. I'm sure that Dale senior was not too pleased with his son's choice of dance partner, but he and Jeff Gordon did a little dancing of their own. The top 5 were (1) Tony Stewart (2) Dale Earnhart (3) Rusty Wallace (4) Dale Jarrett (5) Jeff Burton. NASCAR announced after the race that they were taking the 20 Pontiac, 3 Chevy, 2 Ford & the 9 Dodge to the wind tunnel for testing.

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