The complete Andretti World IndyCar Sequence roster is competing on the Rolex 24 At Daytona. The identical is true for Chip Ganassi Racing’s three IndyCar drivers, and there are many different all stars from different racing collection and disciplines who’re ready to descend on Daytona Worldwide Raceway for IMSA’s grand season-opener later this month.
WeatherTech SportsCar Championship followers have come to count on a enjoyable number of full-time groups and drivers in attendance to launch the 12 months, together with an fascinating mixture of one-off and part-time visitor drivers to chase for photographs and autographs. Unfold all through the Roar Earlier than the 24 take a look at (January 16-18) and the principle week of actions (Jan. 22-25), the choices spanning IMSA’s 4 lessons shouldn’t disappoint.
Andretti World’s presence on the Rolex 24 is a case of expertise distribution as Kyle Kirkwood (Vasser Sullivan Lexus GTD Professional), Will Energy (75 Specific Mercedes-AMG GTD), and Marcus Ericsson (Wayne Taylor Racing Lamborghini GTD) are discovered throughout three completely different groups.
It’s an admittedly unusual scenario the place the trio aren’t in IMSA GTP — the collection’ high class the place IndyCar’s main drivers are usually positioned — however reasonably, in its entry-level pro-am GT class with Energy, who’s making his Rolex 24 debut, and Ericsson, who made DPi/GTP appearances in 2022 and 2024.
For Kirkwood within the all-pro GT class, the connection with 1996 IndyCar champion Jimmy Vasser and businessman James Sullivan predates his IndyCar profession, and whereas he’s drawn curiosity from IMSA’s prototype groups, his return to the manufacturing facility Lexus program in 2026 for a seventh season of enduro motion is by alternative.
There’s a fourth member of the Andretti World group within the area with Colton Herta (Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing GTP), who’s not a fixture in its IndyCar program — though he’s tipped to make a return for the Indianapolis 500 — as his upcoming season will probably be spent racing in Components 2 and take a look at driving for the TWG Motorsports-led Cadillac F1 group, which owns Andretti World and the Cadillac WTR GTP effort. Throughout the prolonged Andretti/TWG quartet, Herta is probably the most achieved on the Rolex 24 with wins in 2019 (BMW M8 GTE GTLM) and in 2022 (DragonSpeed LMP2).
With Herta factored in for his eighth begin, he and his stablemates have GTD, GTD Professional, and GTP coated, leaving solely LMP2 with out illustration. However the pro-am prototype class has plenty of acquainted names on the entry listing.
Ed Carpenter Racing’s first-time IndyCar race winner Christian Rasmussen is again in LMP2 (AO Racing) with the defending collection champions and is wanting so as to add one other Rolex 24 class win to the victory he claimed in 2024 (Period Motorsport). Arrow McLaren’s Nolan Siegel has two IMSA enduro wins to his credit score at Watkins Glen and Street Atlanta’s Petit Le Mans, and a Rolex 24 podium from 2023, however lacks a Rolex 24 class win and can strive as soon as extra in LMP2 (Inter Europol Competitors).
Rasmussen will make his fifth Rolex 24 begin within the LMP2 class, and his second with AO Racing. Brandon Badraoui/IMSA
Chip Ganassi Racing additionally has a presence in LMP2 with Kyffin Simpson (Tower Motorsport) and its new Indy NXT signing James Roe (Period Motorsport). Add in four-time Champ Automobile champion Sebastien Bourdais (Tower Motorsport), latest Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing IndyCar driver Pietro Fittipaldi (Pratt Miller Motorsports) and his youthful brother Enzo (Pratt Miller Motorsports) who signed with the HMD Motorsports Indy NXT group, plus former Williams F1 driver Logan Sargeant (Period Motorsport) and LMP2 has no scarcity of veterans and rising skills to trace throughout 24 hours of racing.
Returning to GTP, Ganassi’s deep ties to Honda are evident via the location of its defending IndyCar champion and Indy 500 winner Alex Palou and its six-time IndyCar champion Scott Dixon (principal picture) with its affiliate IndyCar program (Acura Meyer Shank Racing).
Palou, a four-time IndyCar title winner, has made three Rolex 24 begins with a finest end of seventh, whereas Dixon is by far probably the most skilled with 22 begins up to now. He’s additionally probably the most profitable amongst all stars with victories in 2006 (Riley-Lexus Daytona Prototype), 2015 (Riley-Ford DP Prototype), 2018 (Ford GT GTLM), and 2020 (Cadillac DPi).
They’ll be joined by open-wheel and inventory automobile ace AJ Allmendinger from the Kaulig Racing NASCAR Cup Sequence group, who received the Rolex 24 in 2012 with MSR and can share the No. 60 Acura with Dixon.
There was hope for brand new NASCAR Xfinity Sequence champion Jesse Like to contest his first Rolex 24, and whereas these plans fell via, his principal 2025 rival, Trackhouse Racing’s Connor Zilisch, will make his IMSA GTP debut (Motion Specific Racing Cadillac) after rising up the IMSA ladder within the Mazda MX-5 Cup collection and profitable the Rolex 24’s LMP2 class in 2024 (Period Motorsport). Zilisch can have Mercedes F1 reserve driver Frederik Vesti as a teammate within the AXR Cadillac; Vesti received two enduros after Daytona with the GTP group in 2025.
Final 12 months, Zilisch shared a Corvette Z06 GT3 at Daytona with Robert Wickens and Trackhouse teammate Shane van Gisbergen (DXDT Racing), and whereas he’s stepped as much as GTP and van Gisbergen is taking a 12 months off from the Rolex 24, Wickens is again and has Crew Penske IndyCar frontrunner Scott McLaughlin amongst his co-drivers.
F1 veteran Kevin Magnussen has pivoted to manufacturing facility prototype racing with BMW and heads again to the Rolex 24 as a part of the German marque’s revised GTP effort (BMW M Crew WRT). Magnussen’s former Haas F1 teammate Romain Grosjean, who final competed at Daytona with the Lamborghini GTP program which shut down throughout the offseason, made sufficient of an impression on Invoice Riley, whose Riley Motorsports campaigned the automobile for Lamborghini, to convey Grosjean in to finish its new effort (Myers Riley Motorsports Ford Mustang GTD).
Though extra all stars could possibly be confirmed, the final to face out is PREMA Racing IndyCar driver Callum Ilott (Wright Motorsports Porsche GTD), who took half in his first Rolex 24 final 12 months in LMP2 (Pratt Miller Motorsports) and is supposed to do the vast majority of the WeatherTech Championship season with Wright.
