The 2013 Sprint Cup Series season kicks off with the Sprint Unlimited at Daytona on Saturday. The exhibition race will consist of 19 drivers who qualified for the race by winning pole position in 2012, and/or won the race previously. Notably absent from this year’s field will be last year’s winner and second-place finisher, Brad Keselowski and Clint Bowyer, respectively.
NASCAR Sprint Unlimited 2013: Sprint Cup Series season begins in Daytona
The 2013 Sprint Unlimited will kick off the 2013 Sprint Cup Series season in Daytona. The 75-lap format was chosen by fan vote this year.
Todd Warshaw
Tony Stewart enters the race with the most wins in the event with three. Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kevin Harvick and Ken Schrader have all won the race twice and will be racing this year. Harvick and Schrader join Kurt Busch as the only drivers racing who did not win pole position in 2012.
Kaey Kahne, Jimmie Johnson and Mark Martin lead the field with four pole position wins from the past season. Martin will be participating in his 24th Sprint Unlimited (previously known as the Budwesier Shootout), the most of any driver this year, though he has just one career win in the race.
The format for the race was determined by fan vote this year. Fans have already decided that the 75-lap race be split into segments of 30, 35 and 20 laps. Voting will continue up until the green flag is waved to start the first segment to determine if there will be pit stops allowed during the race, and if so, what can be done to the cars. Fans will also determine whether up to six cars will be eliminated after the first segment.
2013 Sprint Unlimited
Where: Daytona International Speedway
When: Green flag at 8:10 p.m. ET on Saturday
Network: Fox
Check out NASCAR.com for more information. SB Nation Nascar has more news and analysis.
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