The Bud Pole awards are sponsored by Anheuser-Busch, Inc through it's Budweiser brand, the Official Beer of NASCAR. Throughout the Winston Cup season, this program will award $5,000 to the winner of each Bud Pole Award.

The driver who wins the most Bud Pole Awards also will win an additional bonus of $40,000. Another $10,000 will be awarded to that driver's crew chief. Mark Martin was the 1997 Bud Pole Award champion with three poles, winning the tiebreaker against Dale Jarrett and Bobby Labonte, by virtue of his three outside pole positions.

Each Bud Pole Award winner also automatically receives an invitation to compete in the Bud Shootout at Daytona, a rich, 25-lap race held exclusively for the previous year's Bud Pole Award winners and one other selected driver.

The driver who records the fastest speed during Bud second-round qualifying for each NWCS race will win $500 from Budweiser. Eligible Budweiser second-round fastest qualifers are entered in a 25-lap preliminary event race to the Bud Shootout. The driver who wins the preliminary event is awarded a starting position in that year's Bud Shootout at Daytona.