Top drivers come together for the weekend’s Rolex 24 at Daytona

The No. sixty Meyer Shank Racing w/ Curb-Agajanian Acura DPi of Juan Pablo Montoya, Dane Cameron, Olivier Pla, and AJ Allmendinger through a practice session for the Rolex 24 at Daytona. (Getty Photographs)

 

The Rolex 24 at Daytona is the moment once more stacked with superstars — Kevin Magnussen contemporary out of Formulation Just one, reigning IndyCar champion Scott Dixon and Chase Elliott, two months taken off from his 1st NASCAR title — all section of a strong industry of fifty entries just a calendar year taken off from a history-lower car or truck rely.

Even in a pandemic, the Rolex 24 is the spot to be for racers.

The prestigious global sports car or truck race began in 1962 as the three-hour Daytona Continental just before Invoice France Sr. expanded it 4 several years later into a 2 times-around-the-clock stamina occasion. France wanted the best road racers in the earth at his Florida facility and created the phase for them to arrive.

“He had the eyesight of most effective motorists, most effective automobiles, most effective teams and this calendar year in unique genuinely shines,” said John Doonan, president of IMSA, the sports car or truck series owned by the France household. “This occasion is a spot wherever motorists can compete towards the most effective of the most effective. It truly is the greatest accumulating of champions around the earth from each self-control under the sunlight.”

Jimmie Johnson, the seven-time NASCAR champion headed to IndyCar this calendar year as a rookie, will be driving the wheel of an Motion Express Cadillac when the race commences Saturday. It will be Johnson’s eighth Rolex, 1st in a 10 years, and he’s section of an all-star lineup trying to find history.

The No. forty eight — managing in partnership with Hendrick Motorsports of NASCAR — involves Indianapolis five hundred winner Simon Pagenaud, former Rolex and Le Mans winner Mike Rockenfeller and Kamui Kobayashi, who is seeking to grow to be the 1st driver to get three straight Rolex watches in race history.

Kobayashi should contend with Renger van der Zande, his teammate on the winning Wayne Taylor Racing entry the last two season. WTR split by transferring from Cadillac to an Acura manufacturing facility plan this season and Kobayashi and van der Zande went their independent approaches.

Each return to Daytona in Cadillacs, van der Zande as the comprehensive-time driver together with Magnussen in Chip Ganassi Racing’s return to the IMSA series soon after a 1-calendar year hiatus.

WTR is nonetheless stacked, though, with a lineup showcasing reigning IMSA champions Ricky Taylor and Helio Castroneves, as perfectly as Indy five hundred winner Alexander Rossi. Michael Shank Racing fields the next Acura entry with two-time Indy five hundred winner Juan Pablo Montoya, AJ Allmendinger and 2019 IMSA champion Dane Cameron.

Elliott helps make his debut in the Motion Express entry that commences from the pole Saturday. His Cadillac team involves comprehensive-time IMSA motorists Felipe Nasr and Pipo Derani, as perfectly as veteran Mike Conway, and the trio has been individual in training Elliott about sports automobiles.

Elliott has won 4 consecutive NASCAR road program races in excess of the last two seasons but insisted it offers him no leverage at the Rolex.

“It’s just a new ball recreation, a thing contemporary and distinctive and I understand the issues are great and there is a whole lot for me to discover,” Elliott said. “When you demonstrate up to somebody else’s playground it is going to be rough — some of the most effective road program racers in the earth are in this article.”

The best DPi class has seven entries — 4 Cadillacs, two Acuras and a Mazda — among the industry of fifty automobiles. Very last year’s race was a Rolex-lower 38 entries. Of notice:

— Katherine Legge will compete for the 1st time considering that breaking both equally her legs in a crash last summer months. She said she’s 99% healed soon after six months of rehabilitation and is teamed for the 3rd consecutive calendar year with Christina Nielsen. They are section of a Porsche 911 GT3R lineup in the loaded 20-car or truck GT Daytona class.

— Zach Veach helps make his sports car or truck debut soon after seven seasons racing Indy automobiles. He shed his seat at Andretti Autosport late last calendar year and has manufactured the vocation change to IMSA, wherever he’s landed a comprehensive-time trip with VasserSullivan Racing. Veach will operate for the GTD championship in a Lexus RC F GT3 with sturdy opposition from a next VasserSullivan entry piloted by Jack Hawksworth and Aaron Tellitz.

— Wayne Taylor Racing is the two-time defending race winning team and has three total victories in the last 4 Rolex races. The team will adjust to its new Acura DPi with Ricky Taylor, Cameron and Rossi, who all drove the car or truck the last three seasons for Workforce Penske.

— Magnussen has strike a reset on his vocation soon after seven winless seasons in F1. He shed his seat with Haas at the stop of last season and manufactured the change to sports automobiles. Magnussen and van der Zande are the comprehensive-time motorists for Ganassi, who has eight Rolex victories — six total wins and two class wins.

“I feel it’s great to be with an group that is all about winning,” Magnussen said. “The small business model of Chip Ganassi Racing is winning — which is what drives this team and keeps it going and its what keeps this team in existence.”

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