DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Records were in vogue this weekend at Daytona: first of an unusual kind, and then of a good kind. The 64th Rolex 24 At Daytona featured a record full-course caution length of more than six and a half hours overnight due to heavy fog, but then once the clouds lifted, the crowds followed as Daytona International Speedway officials confirmed a record attendance for the event just before the final hour.
And what a final hour it was, as per Rolex 24 tradition to annually kick off a new IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season, all four class battles were in doubt until the final laps.
Indeed, the largest margin of victory this year was in Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) at 5.590 seconds. Take all four combined margins of victory, and you’d get a total of 10.749 seconds (1.569 in Grand Touring Prototype, 5.590 in LMP2, 2.223 in Grand Touring Daytona Pro and 1.367 in Grand Touring Daytona) after 24 hours. The top nine in GTP, top two in LMP2, top six in GTD PRO and top six in GTD all finished on the class leader lap.
The ninth and final full-course caution flew with two and a half hours remaining, and the final two hours and 15 minutes went green, so those margins weren’t a fluke; they were representative of how close it was.
And in IMSA’s annual “global all-star race” featuring the best from all disciplines and worlds of motorsport, it was IMSA’s full-time stars who headlined the show at the finish.
Rolex 24 Royalty
Porsche Penske Motorsport and Felipe Nasr, the most experienced driver on the race-winning No. 7 Porsche 963, stamped their legacy on the Rolex 24 At Daytona. In taking their third straight win, PPM joined Wayne Taylor Racing and Chip Ganassi Racing as the only teams to have scored a “natural” Rolex 24 hat trick.
The team’s fourth overall Rolex 24 victory is its fifth class win in the event and comes 60 years after its first class win (its first as an organization in any series) in the 24-hour race back in 1966.
As for Nasr, the Brazilian put himself in illustrious company by securing his third Rolex Daytona in as many Januarys to match the feats of no-less than Peter Gregg and Helio Castroneves and, in the bargain, bring his number of winning Rolex timepieces to four with his GTD PRO class victory with Pfaff Motorsports in 2022.
Scott Pruett and Hurley Haywood are tied for the most overall Rolex 24 wins with five apiece, with Pruett the all-time wins leader at 10 with his five class wins added.
“I thought one was good but two was better and three is going to be hard to beat,” Nasr reflected. “There’s one in class, that’s right. So four Daytona wins, wow.”
The potential prospect of an unprecedented four in a row in 2027 was floated to Nasr only in the post-race press conference.
“You just gave me the idea now, so we’ve got to work on it, boys,” he laughed. “Yeah, I guess, like I said, I feel like I want to just settle in for now and celebrate what we just achieved. But yeah, four sounds like a good plan.”
Moving Forward
Despite setbacks post-qualifying on Thursday, both the No. 31 Cadillac Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R and No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO nearly completed a double last-to-first comeback. PMR did so in GTD PRO; Whelen came up the aforementioned 1.569 seconds short for the overall win.
Driving the No. 31 Cadillac, Jack Aitken, Earl Bamber, Frederik Vesti and Connor Zilisch wheeled the Whelen entry through the field not once but twice (the second time after serving a penalty for a pit lane infraction) to give the winning Porsche 963 all it could handle in the closing hour of the race.
The No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO did the Whelen entry one better after having forfeited second spot on the GTD PRO grid due to a technical infraction of its own when De Phillippi, Neil Verhagen, Max Hesse and Dan Harper motored through the 15-car GTD PRO field to win the category.
“I don’t think that we really felt that we were starting off on the wrong note or something like that by this,” Verhagen said. “I think we just knew that we needed to work like a team, and that’s what we did, and we pulled off a flawless race.”
CrowdStrike Racing by APR’s No. 04 ORECA LMP2 07 started eighth in the 13-car LMP2 field but needed its own near-last-to-first comeback too. George Kurtz was an innocent bystander in the Turn 1, Lap 1 multi-car LMP2 shemozzle but kept his head down and pushed forward with his trio of young sports car stars, Alex Quinn, Toby Sowery and Malthe Jakobsen.
“For us George is super good at bringing the car back every time,” Sowery said. “He’s one of the best on the grid at any time the best at doing that, and I think that’s what makes him such a key element of this team.”
Kurtz, who adds the Rolex 24 to an armada of major endurance race wins in his own career (he has class wins at IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup rounds at Sebring, Watkins Glen and Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, plus global class wins at Le Mans and Spa), added: “The Bronze role is bringing the car home and not have issues. You’re never going to win a race in Turn 1. Unfortunately, I just didn’t put it together in qualifying, and pace-wise it was probably top 3 or 4. We were not in the position that we wanted and got caught up in a bit of a mess. But we put it all back together. As Toby said, it’s all about giving the car back to these young gentlemen in one piece so they can do what they do.”
German Triple Play
With a dozen of IMSA’s 18 automotive manufacturer partners represented in the GTP, GTD PRO and GTD classes, nine or more marques are guaranteed to be disappointed by the outcome of the event. However, three auto makers – and one country – are certainly pleased with the results of the 64th edition of the event.
Porsche, BMW and Mercedes-AMG won the GTP, GTD PRO and GTD classes, respectively, it’s safe to say the German automotive industry is celebrating the 2026 Rolex 24 from Stuttgart, to Weissach, to Munich, to Affalterbach – and many places in-between.
Beyond Porsche Penske adding to its win record at the Rolex, Winward Racing and Paul Miller Racing did too. Winward adds a third win to its 2021 and 2024 triumphs – and quietly also delivered a debut podium for its new GTD PRO entry – while PMR adds its second win to its maiden 2020 victory. Coincidentally, Winward now runs the No. 48 for its GTD PRO car that had long been a PMR numerical staple… but PMR’s No. 1 was an appropriate number for both GT winning entries on Sunday.
