DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Many of the storylines in sports car racing revolve around cars, manufacturers, and the team-oriented aspects of the sport. There’s not always room in the spotlight for individual performances.
But there is one driver who stands out, not only as the star performer for Porsche Penske Motorsport, but for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship as a whole.
Since the introduction of IMSA’s Grand Touring Prototype regulation set at the start of 2023, Felipe Nasr has won seven races (including the last three Rolex 24 At Daytona races and the 2025 Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring), added eight more podium finishes, and shared the 2024 IMSA GTP championship with Dane Cameron while anchoring PPM’s No. 7 Porsche 963.
It’s perhaps the most impressive GTP stat line in that three-and-a-bit year span, where Nasr – an ex-Formula 1 driver – has not only mastered the art of driving but also understood and operated the complex hybrid-powered GTP prototypes that rival Formula 1 cars in their sophistication and software technology. The physical and mental demands placed on modern sports car drivers are greater than ever, and Nasr has risen to the top of his profession in every respect.
With three consecutive overall Rolex 24 wins, an additional Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) class triumph in that marquee race in 2022, and a total of three season championships (Nasr also won IMSA’s top prototype class called Prototype in 2018 and Daytona Prototype international, or DPi, in 2021), the 33-year-old Brazilian has established himself as one of the top sports car racers in America and the world.
It’s a testament to what he’s achieved that in a field of global all-stars from across Formula 1, IndyCar, NASCAR and Supercars, Nasr beat them all. Three different times. And it seems he’s just getting better and better. Take it from Roger Penske himself.
“The driving he’s done for us…that drive at the end there was one of the best I’ve seen,” said Penske, who is celebrating his 60th anniversary as a team owner. Team Penske’s official debut came in the 1966 Daytona 24 Hours.
Nasr won his first two IMSA top-class prototype championships driving the No. 31 Cadillac Whelen Cadillac DPi-V.R. Cadillac’s latest car, the Cadillac V-Series.R GTP, was the car he battled down the stretch representing Porsche at Daytona in 2024 and again this year – though he fought different drivers (two years ago it was Tom Blomqvist, now with Acura Meyer Shank Racing, while most recently it was Jack Aitken).
The final hour of this year’s race was extremely intense, with Aitken’s Cadillac V-Series.R frequently nipping at the heels of the leading No. 7 Porsche before Nasr pulled away to win by 1.569 seconds.
Nasr was overcome by emotion in Victory Lane, breaking into tears as the magnitude of three consecutive Rolex 24 overall victories sunk in.
“I thought one was good, but two was better, and three is going to be hard to beat,” he said. “Plus, one in class, so four Daytona wins. Wow! It’s just an incredible moment to be present today and be feeling it.
“I cannot go without mentioning these two guys next to me,” Nasr added, motioning to Julien Andlauer and Laurin Heinrich. “They’ve done an incredible job. It’s our first time together in the car, and starting the year with a victory like here at Daytona is just a dream come true.”
Since his first cloak and dagger meetings with Penske in late 2021 (“He showed up in a blue suit, and I thought, this is my kind of guy,” Penske noted), Nasr has developed into the team leader of Team Penske’s most recent foray into sports car racing. Porsche’s decision to withdraw the 963 from the FIA World Endurance Championship put 100 percent of Porsche Penske Motorsport’s focus on the IMSA GTP class this year and necessitated adjustments to the driver lineup.
Nasr has achieved success with everyone he has been teamed with at PPM, including full-season co-drivers Matt Campbell (2023), Cameron (’24) and Nick Tandy (’25). Now he, Andlauer, and Heinrich (a 23-year-old newly named Porsche factory driver who is the third driver in the No. 7 Porsche for IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup events) have already tasted the champagne.
Like Heinrich, 26-year-old Frenchman Andlauer climbed the Porsche ladder from regional Carrera Cup competition to top-level prototypes. He gained experience driving a private Porsche 963 for Proton Competition in both WEC and the WeatherTech Championship in 2023 and ’24 before joining the factory PPM effort in WEC in 2025 and now attacking IMSA full time.
Andlauer appreciates Nasr’s guiding influence.
“He’s one of the masters of the series.,” Andlauer said. “Together with Laurin, we have great potential.
“We are on the same page on what we need to do to be successful. We share the same goal and values, so we just get down to work, head down, and we put the ego on the side. We just want to move and work all together forward.
“I think we are all really down to earth, and now we got the job done.”
Heinrich took five race wins and the WeatherTech Championship’s 2024 GTD PRO class title in AO Racing’s ‘Rexy’ Porsche 911 GT3 R, then made his first appearance for PPM at the 8 Hours of Bahrain in a 963 to close out the 2025 WEC campaign.
When Mathieu Jaminet, who won the ’25 IMSA GTP championship in the No. 6 Porsche with Matt Campbell elected to leave to join Genesis’ fledgling program, it created an opportunity for Heinrich to advance his career in prototypes.
The young German praised Nasr for helping him keep calm and focused during the long 24-hour race.
“Felipe is proven in this race; he’s one of the greatest drivers I’ve ever seen,” Heinrich said. “I couldn’t sleep in the morning, so I turned on the onboard to just watch and see how it’s going, listen to the radio, and what I witnessed there – what he was doing in the car – this is incredible. This is not something you see every day.
“I’m extremely proud to share the car with him and to profit from his knowledge,” he added. “In the end, the feeling it gives me to share the car with him, I’m much more relaxed because I know who’s going to be at the end in the car and do the job, and he’s proven it today once again.”
