{"id":6079,"date":"2013-02-15T20:12:38","date_gmt":"2013-02-16T01:12:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nascar\/?p=6079"},"modified":"2013-02-15T20:12:38","modified_gmt":"2013-02-16T01:12:38","slug":"terry-labonte-is-in-the-sprint-unlimited-while-keselowski-and-bowyer-are-not","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nascar\/2013\/02\/15\/terry-labonte-is-in-the-sprint-unlimited-while-keselowski-and-bowyer-are-not\/","title":{"rendered":"Terry Labonte is in the Sprint Unlimited while Keselowski and Bowyer are not"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_6080\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-6080\" style=\"width: 594px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-6080\" alt=\"Chris Graythen\/Getty Images\" src=\"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nascar\/files\/2013\/02\/terrylabonte.jpg\" width=\"594\" height=\"396\" srcset=\"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nascar\/files\/2013\/02\/terrylabonte.jpg 594w, http:\/\/tireball.com\/nascar\/files\/2013\/02\/terrylabonte-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 594px) 100vw, 594px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-6080\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Chris Graythen\/Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Terry Labonte is in the Sprint Unlimited but last years NASCAR Sprint Cup Champion Brad Keselowski is not. Labonte, a two-time champion himself, has run just a handful of races in recent years while Keselowski has won eight races over the last two seasons.<\/p>\n<p><strong>So exactly why is Terry Labonte in the Sprint Unlimited?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It is because of the ever changing rules for running the non-points race which serves as a precursor to the Daytona 500.<\/p>\n<p>Once known as the Budweiser Shootout the race has undergone a few different facelifts in recent years. Last season Budweiser wanted nothing to do with a race which awarded drivers for winning a Coors Light pole award. The result was a rule change which allowed 33 drivers to be eligible for the race.<\/p>\n<p>This year the Sprint Unlimited returns to its original, 1979 concept &#8212; 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.<\/p>\n<p>Hence why Labonte (1985 winner of the shootout) is in the race while last years champion Keselowski and second place points finisher Clint Bowyer will be absent from the event.<\/p>\n<p>Labonte will drive the No. 32 C&amp;J Energy Ford Fusion for FAS Lane Racing. He will also drive the car in the Daytona 500 as well as the other three\u00a0 restrictor plate races in 2013.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Terry Labonte is in the Sprint Unlimited but last years NASCAR Sprint Cup Champion Brad Keselowski is not. Labonte, a two-time champion himself, has run just a handful of races in recent years while Keselowski has won eight races over the last two seasons. So exactly why is Terry Labonte in the Sprint Unlimited? It [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6080,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[788],"tags":[615],"coauthors":[675],"class_list":{"0":"post-6079","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-terry-labonte"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nascar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nascar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nascar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nascar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nascar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nascar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6079\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nascar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nascar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nascar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nascar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6079"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nascar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=6079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}