With so much negative press this winter focusing on the economic downturn, job losses, lagging ticket sales and the flight of sponsorship dollars, it was refreshing to see a great race right off the bat during Saturday night's Bud Shootout.

Side-by-side racing, beating and banging throughout the pack, a bit of drama and an exciting finish showed that despite all the outside distractions and negative news racing is still racing and the stars of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series do it better than anyone.

"I think it was great," race winning team owner Richard Childress said of Saturday night's race. "This was a great spectator's race. It was just all around a great evening. I think the 500's about sold out I was told tonight. We have 75 million race fans out there. They're gonna watch racing, if they watch it at home. If they can't come to the race, they're gonna be watching it. The ones that can come, they got to see a great race tonight. I think they'll see a great 500 also."

Third-place finisher Tony Stewart admitted to thinking about the negative news this winter prior to the race and finding relief in a mishap during prerace ceremonies.

"I think one of the funniest things I've laughed about the whole day, as odd as it's going to sound," Stewart explained, "when the national anthem was going on, and the lady's microphone kept going in and out, and the crowd picked it up from there. The whole crowd was singing the national anthem. Didn't miss a beat. Like you didn't even care if her mic came back on or not. Bless her heart. It was one of those things, like this sport is going to be all right."

Looking at the grandstands during during the Shootout, it became clear the tough times were going to seriously take a hit on ticket sales. Although the Shootout is not always a sell-out event, it usually draws a decent sized crowd for an exhibition event. Daytona International Speedway estimated the attendance at 80,000, however runner-up Jamie McMurray couldn't help but notice the number of empty seats.

"When we did driver intros I looked up in the stands as we were driving around and it didn't look like a huge crowd," McMurray pointed out. "I thought, 'It is the Shootout and we typically don't have as many cars,' but you look up there and you take that for granted sometimes in our sport in relation to maybe IRL and Grand Am and some of the other series that they don't sellout the stands. Ever since I've been in this sport they've been selling out Bristol and all these race tracks, so I think with the economy the way it is and with the amount of layoffs it's almost depressing now to turn the news on. I get up at 6 a.m. and turn the news on and every morning it seems like the headline is how many people were laid off from major corporations, so I think it will be a tough year for us and for the tracks to sell tickets."

While the grandstands might not be full each weekend - or at times anywhere close to full - one thing will never change. There are Hardcore Race Fans all over this great nation who have not lost their love for racing because of tough economic times. When asked on a recent HardcoreRaceFans.com Poll whether fans planned on attending a NASCAR race in 2009, over half (52%) responded by saying, "Nothing can stop a Hardcore Race Fan!"

"The fans were here," Stewart added. "Fans were pumped up about the Shootout tonight. It just kind of made me smile, made me laugh, made me forget that I was going to get ready to get in my own racecar for the first time. If that's any sign of what's to come with the economy and the fans, we got some dedicated fans and we got fans that, no matter what the circumstances are, they're going to rise to the occasion obviously."

It is always easy to be pessimistic and look on the bad side of things, but in the end little has changed in the sport of NASCAR. Sure teams have merged, sponsors have left and layoffs have been abundant, but the product on the track is as competitive as ever

"We have seen the sport grow for so much for so long, that for a major contraction - or a good size contraction - that we're seeing right now, it's still not bad," veteran Mark Martin argued. "There's still ten time as many great sponsors out here than there were in the eighties. There's still nearly ten times as many great opportunities to drive for great times as  there was in the eighties. In the eighties, it happened all the time, if you look third place was five laps down, or three laps down or whatever.

"The racing is way better than it was in the eighties," Martin added. "I don't care what anybody says. It's way more competitive, it's way better. We have way more sponsors, we have a lot more jobs, there's a lot of things positive in this thing even if we have, you know, lost some sponsors and have lost some jobs. We're not experiencing anything different than the whole world. Everyone is feeling the pain, every person - I don't care what they do - is feeling the pain right now to some degree. To be honest with you I think NASCAR is feeling less of it than the average."

Martin brings up an excellent point in saying that despite the tough times, NASCAR is doing more than keeping its head above water.  ure, things will be tough for the next couple of months and possibly even longer. Regardless, fans are fans because they love racing, drivers are drivers because they love racing and as long as cars are going around the track fans will tune in to watch. As long as that happens, we at HardcoreRaceFans.com will be here to bring you the latest news and results and all the information you need to stay up-to-date with the sport you love.