The Sprint Unlimited, Daytona 500 Qualifying Signal Opening of 2013 Season

The Sprint Unlimited, Daytona 500 Qualifying Signal Opening of 2013 Season

 Speedweeks Features Racing Events For Competitors At All Levels

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Feb. 13, 2013) – A jam-packed Speedweeks featuring racing for everything NASCAR kicks off the 2013 season this weekend at Daytona International Speedway.

Ten days of high-speed activity begin Friday with practice for Saturday night’s Sprint Unlimited, a non-points race for 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Coors Light Pole winners in which the new Gen-6 car will debut. All competition leads up to the year’s signature event, the 55^th Annual Daytona 500 at 1 p.m. ET Sunday, Feb. 24.

The “Great American Race,” won in 2012 for a second time by Matt Kenseth, will be broadcast live by FOX with additional coverage by MRN Radio and SIRIUSXM NASCAR Radio.

This year’s Speedweeks marks the first time competitors from every NASCAR division – domestic and international – will have a place to race at the World Center of Racing. The inaugural UNOH Battle at the Beach – three races on a 0.4-mile oval for NASCAR’s grassroots and touring drivers – joins the festivities in 2013.

The Sprint Unlimited begins at 8:00 p.m. ET Saturday and will be broadcast live by FOX. FOX also will cover Daytona 500 qualifying at 1 p.m. ET Sunday, during which the Daytona 500’s front row starters will be determined. The UNOH Battle at the Beach takes place Monday and Tuesday, Feb. 18-19, with feature races beginning at 7:30 p.m. ET live on SPEED.

The Duel at Daytona – twin 60-lap, 150-mile qualifying races to set the Daytona 500 starting grid – takes place Thursday, Feb. 21. (2 p.m. ET live, SPEED). Championship points racing begins Friday, Feb. 22 with the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series NextEra Energy Resources 250 (7:30 p.m. ET on SPEED). The NASCAR Nationwide Series takes the spotlight Saturday, Feb. 23 in the DRIVE4COPD 300 (1:15 p.m. ET live, ESPN).

Thursday’s NASCAR Media Day officially opens Speedweeks as more than 50 drivers from NASCAR Sprint Cup, NASCAR Nationwide, NASCAR Camping World Truck and other series will lay out their 2013 plans for more than 300 print, broadcast and Internet media members. This year’s event is being held at the Daytona 500 Club in the speedway’s infield.

ESPN, SPEED, SIRIUS/XM NASCAR Radio and NASCAR.com will broadcast live throughout the day. Thursday’s two sessions are 8 a.m. until 11:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. until 4 p.m. ET.

Gen-6 Car Debuts in Sprint Unlimited … This year’s traditional opening event is more than just a preview of the Daytona 500. The Sprint Unlimited marks the racing debut of the much-anticipated Gen-6 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series car – Chevrolet SS, Ford Fusion and Toyota Camry.

The renamed The Sprint Unlimited returns to its original, 1979 concept – a non-points race for drivers who won a Coors Light Pole last season along with previous event winners who participated in at least one NASCAR Sprint Cup race in 2012.

The 187.5-mile/75-lap race will be run in three segments. How those segments break down will be determined by fans’ voting on three choices: 40 laps, 20 laps and 15 laps; 35 laps, 30 laps and 10 laps; and 30 laps, 25 laps and 20 laps. Balloting is open through 11:59 p.m. ET on Wednesday, Feb. 13.

There are two additional fan votes. The first vote continues through the drop of The Sprint Unlimited’s green flag and determines whether a pit stop will be required after the first segment and if so, whether teams will execute two or four tire changes. Finally, fans have through the drop of the green flag on the race’s second segment to vote on the number of cars to be eliminated after the race’s second segment: zero, two, four or six.

Fans may vote at www.nascar.com/Sprint or via the NASCAR Mobile ’13 app on any wireless device. Mobile ’13 votes will count twice.

A total of 19 drivers are entered in The Sprint Unlimited: Aric Almirola, Marcos Ambrose, Greg Biffle, Kurt Busch, Kyle Busch, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Carl Edwards, Jeff Gordon, Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick, Jimmie Johnson, Kasey Kahne, Matt Kenseth, Joey Logano, Mark Martin, Juan Pablo Montoya, Ken Schrader, Tony Stewart and Martin Truex Jr.

Starting positions will be determined by a vote of fans in attendance on race day. They’ll have three choices: Number of career wins (most to least); 2012 final NASCAR Sprint Cup driver point standings and order in which drivers won their first Coors Light Pole last season, beginning with last year’s Daytona 500.

Kyle Busch is the defending winner of the Sprint Unlimited. Other former winners in this year’s field are Kurt Busch, Harvick, Earnhardt, Stewart, Hamlin, Johnson, Martin, Gordon, Schrader, Elliott and Labonte.

Almirola is the only driver making his Sprint Unlimited debut. He drives the Richard Petty Motorsports Ford. Montoya already has one 2013 Speedweeks victory in last month’s GRAND-AM Sports Car Series Rolex 24 at Daytona.

Qualifying sets only Daytona 500 front row … Sunday’s Daytona 500 Coors Light Pole qualifying is unique in that only the top two positions will be guaranteed. Remaining qualifiers are seeded by qualifying speed into Thursday’s Budweiser Duel, two 150-mile races from which the majority of the final starting grid for the Daytona 500 is set.

The front-row qualifiers and the highest 15 finishers in each Duel – excluding the front row from qualifying – will earn a spot in the Daytona 500. The next four fastest Coors Light Pole qualifiers will make up positions 33-36. Six provisional starting positions (37 through 42) will be awarded to the highest eligible car owners in final 2012 standings not otherwise qualified for the race. The 43^rd position will be filled by the most recent past champion participating in a 2012 event. Should no past champion be eligible, the final position goes to the next highest owner in 2012 points.

The most recent Daytona 500 pole winner to win the race was Dale Jarrett in 2000, one of two drivers (Bill Elliott is the other) to sweep The Sprint Unlimited, pole and race in the same season.

UNOH Battle At The Beach opens new Speedweeks chapter … In recent seasons, Speedweeks went dark on the Monday and Tuesday following Coors Light Pole qualifying. No longer.

This year’s Speedweeks’ welcomes the inaugural UNOH Battle at the Beach, staged on a 0.4-mile oval fronting the track’s Superstretch grandstand. The event’s three races offer competition opportunities for drivers from all of NASCAR’s weekly and touring series.

The 150-lap, 60-mile race for NASCAR Whelen All-American drivers will be held at 7 p.m. ET Monday following qualifying races. Two races of similar length for the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tours and NASCAR K&N Pro Series begin at 7 p.m. ET Tuesday with lineups also set via qualifying races. SPEED, MRN Radio and SiriusXM Satellite Radio will broadcast all three feature events live with supplemental coverage provided at www.nascarhometracks.com.

Winners and champions from the 2012 season in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East and West and NASCAR Whelen Modified Tours have earned locked-in spots in their respective features. NASCAR Whelen All-American Series top 10 finishers in the 2012 national standings also own guaranteed starting spots in the Late Model race; and the champions of NASCAR’s three international series: NASCAR Toyota, NASCAR Canadian Tire presented by Mobil 1 and Euro-Racecar Series, have secured spots in whichever race they choose to enter.

Fast Facts

What: 35th Annual Sprint Unlimited

Where: Daytona International Speedway

Track Layout: 2.5-mile tri-oval

When: Saturday, Feb. 16

Time: 8:10 p.m. (ET)

TV: FOX, 8 p.m. (ET)

Radio: MRN; SIRIUS/XM NASCAR Radio, Channel 90

Distance: 75 laps/187.5 miles (run in three segments, lengths to be determined by fan vote)

2012 Winner: Kyle Busch