The Sprint Unlimited will receive the green flag Saturday night to officially kick off Speed Weeks at the Daytona International Speedway. This special invitational event will be the first official sign that says NASCAR 2013 has arrived.

The Sprint Unlimited is open to drivers who won a pole position on qualifying day during the 2012 season. Invitations were also extended to past winners of the Sprint Unlimited who attempted to qualify for at least one race last year.

Making the 2013 edition of the Sprint Unlimited special is the decision to allow the fans to vote on the race’s format and procedures. It marks the very first time in NASCAR’s 65 year history that the fans have been offered this extraordinary level of input in the sport.

The first of these fan votes concluded at 11:59 pm eastern time on Wednesday night. With a majority vote of 55 percent, the fans decided that the Sprint Unlimited will be ran in three segments of 30, 25 and 20 laps.

There will be no traditional qualifying to determine the line up for Saturday night’s event. That also will be voted on by the fans. Those present at Daytona, from 930 am to 4 pm, can visit special fan centers to vote on the race line up. The fans will have three line up options to choose from:

1.) The line up will be determined by the number of most driver career wins, from the most to the least.
2.) The line up will be based on the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup driver points standings.
3.) The line up will be based on the order of when the drivers earned their pole positions in 2012. The pole winner at Daytona last February would start first, the pole winner from the Homestead-Miami Speedway last November would start last.

There are two additional competitive elements, on the official NASCAR ballot, that will also be decided by the fans from all over the country. The fans will have until the green flag drops to start the race to vote for the type of pit stop each team will be required to make following the completion of the 30 lap first segment. The fans will be asked to consider three different options:

1.) A required four tire pit stop.
2.) A required two tire pit stop.
3.) No stop at all.

Next, fans will have until the start of the race’s second segment to vote on the number of cars that will be eliminated following the completion of the 25 lap second segment. The choices are:

1.) Zero. 2.) Two 3.) Four 4.) Six.

Vote may be cast on these two competition categories on NASCAR’s new office mobile app: NASCAR Mobile ’13 or at NASCAR Dot Com/SprintUnlimited. All votes made through the NASCAR Mobile ’13 app will count twice.

The group of eligible drivers, who won poles last year for the Sprint Unlimited features nearly all of today’s popular stars including: Greg Biffle, Dale Earnhardt Jr, Carl Edwards, Denny Hamlin, Kasey Kahne, Mark Martin, Jeff Gordon, Martin Truex Jr,  Tony Stewart, A J Allmendinger, Aric Almirola, Joey Logano, Marcos Ambrose, Jimmie Johnson, Matt Kenseth, Kyle Busch and Juan Pablo Montoya. Past race champions eligible for this year’s race includes: Kurt Busch, Kevin Harvick, Bill Elliott, Terry Labonte and Ken Schrader.

So, who’s going to win the 2013 Sprint Unlimited Saturday night? “The Las Vegas Insider”, one of the premiere sports book agencies in the country, seems to have four possible winner’s in mind. Here’s their thoughts on how the drivers will fare in this race:

8 to 1 odds: Kyle Busch, Dale Earnhardt Jr, Matt Kenseth and Kevin Harvick.
10 to 1: Denny Hamlin, Tony Stewart, Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon.
12 to 1: Kasey Kahne, Carl Edwards and Greg Biffle.
15 to 1: Joey Logano and Martin Truex Jr.
20 to 1: Kurt Busch and Mark Martin.
25 to 1: Juan Pablo Montoya.
30 to 1: All other drivers in the field.
35 to 1: A J Allmendinger.

Yet another interesting aspect to this race is the fact that it will mark the official debut of NASCAR’s new Gen-6 race cars under official racing conditions. You can bet there’s going to a lot of crew chiefs, car chiefs, engineers and team owners who will be monitoring this race very carefully.

Most of all, this race is going to be about hard charging, restrictor plate racing, competition for the major bragging rights. Traditionally, this event has a tendency to create some very exciting finishes. At the conclusion of last year’s event, Kurt Busch led Tony Stewart to the checkers by a mere margin of victory of .013 seconds. It remains as the closest finish in the event’s history.

The 2013 Sprint Unlimited will be broadcast live Saturday night by the Fox Network beginning at 8 pm eastern time. A race re-air will be presented on Sunday, 5 pm eastern, on the SPEED Channel.

In January, Michael Waltrip addressed the media and, with a big smile on his face, said “this is breaking news: we don’t have any news. There’s really nothing new or different from 2012. Man, are we happy about that.”

He has ever right to be happy about “no news to report.” Michael Waltrip Racing, (MWR), had a stellar season in 2012 and everyone who had anything to do with it is lined up and set to return in 2013.

CLINT BOWYER
#15 TOYOTA
CREW CHIEF: BRIAN PATTIE

During the 2011 season, it was announced that Clint Bowyer was leaving Richard Childress Racing to drive for MWR. The ink was barely dry on the press release when NASCAR observers began to question the move and openly wondered if Bowyer had made a mistake.

Bowyer, of course, proved the naysayers wrong in 2012. If there ever was such a thing as a Cinderella season, this team clearly had one. Bowyer made quick work of getting on the same page with crew chief Brian Pattie and that chemistry helped the team turn into major championship players last year. They finished second in the championship standings based on three wins, ten top five finishes, 23 top tens and a very healthy average finish ratio of 11. All of last year’s familiar faces are returning for 2013 and there’s every reason to expect that Bowyer and company could once again be title contenders.

However, there is one gray area connected to this team and that’s involves the fact that it’s not fully sponsored for 2013. Primary sponsor 5 Hour Energy Drink is set to return but it’s not exactly clear regarding how many races they will sponsor. The last report indicated that it was at least 20. New sponsor Peak Motor Oil has signed with the team for three races and Aarons will be the sponsor at Talladega. You can bet that the MWR marketing staff is working overtime to correct this situation.

MARK MARTIN-MICHAEL WALTRIP-BRIAN VICKERS
#55 TOYOTA
CREW CHIEF: RODNEY CHILDERS

Mark Martin will be driving MWR’s #55 for 24 races plus the Shootout and All Star races. Martin will be a driver to monitor this year. He recently said that he does not expect to be in this ride in 2014 but would not say he’s retiring. He did, however, make it clear that it’s way too early in the season to be discussing his future. Martin also said he plans to do everything he can to help place his crew chief, Rodney Childers, and his team in position to win the 2014 championship after he’s departed.

Team owner Michael Waltrip will be driving the #55 in the July race at Daytona and both events at Talladega. That makes a lot of sense. Waltrip excels in restrictor plate racing.

Brian Vickers will be driving this car for the remaining nine races on the schedule. Vickers is going to have a very busy year in 2013. He will also be driving a Toyota full time in the NASCAR Nationwide Series for Joe Gibbs Racing. It’s widely believed that Vickers will be the driver to take over MWR’s #55 in 2014 if Mark Martin does indeed vacate the ride.

Once again, sponsorship might be an area of concern here. Aarons will be back as the primary sponsor for a reported 26 races. That leaves approximately ten races that will have to be covered as early as possible.

MARTIN TRUEX Jr.
#56 TOYOTA
CREW CHIEF: CHAD JOHNSON

Truex finished the 2012 season as part of the Chase for the Championship line up where he finished 11th in the final standings. Along the way he recorded seven top five finishes, 19 top tens with an average finish ratio of 12. The one thing missing here is the lack of wins. There were pivotal  moments last year when Truex was in position for the win, but somewhere on track circumstances prevented him from closing the deal. Wins will be the high priority for Truex and crew chief Chad Johnson. That want that win less streak gone.

On the positive the sponsorship program appears to be strong for the #56 team. NAPA with their auto parts, filters and brakes divisions will be returning to cover the sponsor needs this year.