Dale Earnhardt Jr made a winning start to his career with Hendrick Motorsports by winning a thrilling Budweiser Shootout at the
Daytona International Speedway on Saturday night.
Earnhardt Jr led nearly 50 of the 70 laps that made up NASCAR's traditional season-opening non-championship event and survived a frantic final lap onslaught by Tony Stewart and Jimmie Johnson to seal his first Cup win of any kind since May 2006.
Not only did Earnhardt Jr's performance aboard the #88 National Guard Chevrolet leave the Daytona fans roaring their approval the race as a whole proved to be a very pleasant surprise for all those who doubted whether or not the new generation cars could provide exciting restrictor plate racing.
Lots of overtaking, including the return of the slingshot pass that had become something of a lost art in recent years highlighted an event where it seemed as though the drivers had a lot more control over their mounts than in Daytona races of yore. The large rear spoiler on the new cars also gave the drivers a bit more forgiveness when it came to getting sideways in the turns and even though the cars moved around the racetrack a lot more than the old generation of vehicles there were none of the regular restrictor plate gripes about how the drivers were merely passengers in a 190mph freight train.
Thanks to Friday's banging match with Tony Stewart, Kurt Busch had to forego his pole position following a switch to his back-up #2 Penske Racing Dodge leaving Toyota's Michael Waltrip on point as the first green flag of 2008 fell. Waltrip bravely clung to the race lead for the opening tour of the 2.5-mile Daytona International Speedway before getting swamped first by the Yates Racing Ford of David Gilliland, the DEI Chevrolet of Mark Martin and then, on lap six by Earnhardt Jr.
![Tony Stewart - Home Depot Chevrolet [pic credit: image.net]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/300248.jpg)
