new year's eve 2010 ... 46 days til the daytona 500 opens the 2010 nascar sprint cup season on sunday, february 14th ... in the meantime, eligibility rules for this year's bud shootout, the pre-season exhibition the saturday night before season-opening race weekend, have been announced ... qualifiers will include (estimated 23 drivers)

• participants in the 2009 chase for a championship <> johnson, martin, gordon, ku busch, hamlin, stewart, biffle, montoya, newman, kahne, edwards & vickers
• past nascar champions <> gordon, johnson, stewart, ku busch, kenseth, b labonte & t labonte
• past bud shootout winners <> harvick, earnhardt jr, stewart, hamlin & johnson
• past daytona points race (february & july) winners <> kenseth, stewart, newman, ky busch, harvick, mcmurray, johnson, gordon, earnhardt jr, waltrip, biffle & j burton
• reigning rookie of the year <> logano

wasn't the original qualifier for this pre-season event winning a "bud pole" the previous season ... and now it's not a qualifier at all ... i'm thinkin martin truax, jr (3 poles) and david reutimann (2 poles) get screwed by these changes