CUP: Budweiser Moving Dollars At Daytona

Sprint Cup

CUP: Budweiser Moving Dollars At Daytona

Anheuser-Busch will sponsor Duel races and Speedweeks in 2013, dropping the Shootout…

Mike Hembree | Posted February 24, 2012 Daytona Beach, FL

Budweiser is moving its sponsorship from the Shootout at Daytona to the Daytona 500 qualifying races in 2013. (Photo: Getty Images)

The Budweiser Shootout no longer is beer-soaked, but Anheuser-Busch isn’t departing Daytona.

The brewing company and Daytona International Speedway announced Friday that Budweiser will be the new sponsor for the track’s Daytona 500 qualifying races – renamed the Budweiser Duel for 2013 – and also will be the title sponsor for the newly named Budweiser Speedweeks.

Gone is Gatorade, the long-time sponsor of the Thursday qualifiers.

The 2013 Shootout, the first race of each season, is currently not sponsored, but track president Joie Chitwood said the speedway is in discussions with potential sponsors.

Anheuser-Busch officials were involved with the creation of the Shootout – initially named the Busch Clash – in 1979.

“The intensity and fun atmosphere that Budweiser brought to the Shootout for so many years will be taken up several notches as they assume a much broader role during Speedweeks and the Great American Race,” Chitwood said.

Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEED.com and has been covering motorsports for 30 years. He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.

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