Daytona International Speedway’s longest race is preceded by the longest wait, and it’s been particularly agonizing and interminable for one of the most successful car owners in Rolex 24 history.
Before missing last year’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season opener, Mike Shank had been a fixture for 20 consecutive years in the Rolex 24 paddock. His prototype teams scored overall victories in 2012, ’22 and ’23. The most recent kicked off the dawn of the hybrid prototype era but also marked the beginning of a tailspin for Meyer Shank Racing, which was slapped with a massive penalty for manipulating Rolex 24 tire data and subsequently was sidelined from IMSA in 2024.
Now as the most notable of several big changes in the Grand Touring Prototype category this season, MSR has returned to World Center of Racing with a new second Acura ARX-06 and a renewed vigor to reclaim the Daytona crown when the 63rd Rolex 24 begins Saturday (1:30 p.m. ET, NBC and Peacock).
Key information on the 2025 Rolex 24 at Daytona, which will be held Jan. 25-26 at Daytona International Speedway.
“We’ve won this thing three times overall, so this race is our whole core backbone to who we are,” Shank told NBC Sports. “It is literally why we wake up in the morning. It’s, ‘How many days until the Rolex?’ How can we figure out how to win it again and what did we do wrong the last time? We have a Bible about this thick of things we’ve learned over 20 years at this track and this race in particular.
“It’s the top level of sports car racing.”
This weekend, the prestigious 24-hour endurance race reclaims its mantle as the early season global hub of motorsports. It’s still weeks until all of the major racing series have returned from hibernation, and the Rolex 24 has become “the watering hole for motorsports worldwide in the winter,” according to Felix Rosenqvist, who is moonlighting from MSR’s IndyCar program to race the No. 60 ARX-06 at Daytona.
The 33-year-old Swede has raced throughout the world for half his life and is struck by how many familiar faces he sees in Central Florida.
“It’s kind of like the only thing going on right now, which I think that’s why it’s become increasingly popular because all these drivers and teams around the world are like, ‘Hey, we want to race,’ so you kind of have to be here to be competitive,” Rosenqvist told NBC Sports. “Most of the IndyCar drivers want to be here just to get going and do laps because we have such a long offseason, and yeah, it’s such a cool historical race as well. It means a lot to win this.
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“It seems like every time I’m in Daytona, I see a lot of people from everywhere that I used to race or met at some point in my career, like drivers, mechanics, engineers. So it’s pretty cool to catch up with everyone again.”
The 61 cars across four categories this year will include more than 230 drivers from 31 countries and virtually every major racing series – Formula One, NASCAR, IndyCar and Formula E.
“This is the Super Bowl meets The Amazing Race because it’s the biggest race of the calendar for IMSA,” James Hinchcliffe told NBC Sports. “It’s the one everybody wants to win, certainly, but the challenge of it. Everything that goes into it from a logistic standpoint and operationally. Everything that you have to do before you can even start to consider running a 24 -hour race is so monumental. So many pieces are involved. So many people have to do their job perfectly just to even get here. And then, of course, to pull off running around this track for 24 hours, regardless of condition, through the night, all of that, it’s an unbelievably difficult thing to do.
“What’s amazing about this race is it’s a melting pot for not just different countries but for different types of motorsport. So you’ve got drivers whose main gig is something completely different to this. They’re coming from all over. You have drivers that had a career in something else and now they only do this. And whether it’s drivers or manufacturers, the entire globe almost is represented here at this track and at this race, and it’s pretty cool.
Said MSR star Tom Blomqvist, who can claim Sweden, New Zealand and England as his origin countries: “Everyone wants to come and do this race, and I think that’s what makes this event so unique. It’s almost like an Olympics event for racing in a way.”
The analogies abound across sports when trying to frame the magnitude of the Rolex 24, generally regarded as just behind the 24 Hours of Le Mans in ranking the world’s biggest sports car events.
“If you look football or soccer, there is the Champions League in Europe with the big teams and this big final every year,” said Porsche Penske Motorsport’s Mathieu Jaminet, who won in GTLM at Daytona in 2022. “Everybody wants to win the Champions League, and this feels a little bit the same. Coming up to the Rolex 24, everybody shows up with the best team, the addition of really good drivers for the endurance, and a lot of effort from the manufacturers and everybody wants to win this one. It’s always exciting because it’s also the first race of the season, so it puts a challenge on top of having such a big race.”
The premier GTP category will have no shortage of challenges as virtually every championship contender enters 2025 with a major new wrinkle:
–In expanding to the second car in its return, MSR also will have a more collaborative arrangement with Honda Racing Corp., which will handle at-track engineering and strategy on the No. 93 Acura. The new entry’s lineup also will include three-time IndyCar champion Alex Palou.
On MSR’s No. 60, Blomqvist, Rosenqvist and Colin Braun (part of the 2023 win) will be paired with six-time IndyCar champion Scott Dixon, who is making his 22nd Rolex 24 start but only his second without IndyCar team owner Chip Ganassi (whose organization is on hiatus from IMSA). Dixon has four Daytona wins (three overall), which is second among active drivers. “I miss not being here with Chip, and I know he misses being here as well, but I love being a part of this race,” Dixon told NBC Sports. “It’s a real privileged to be here, so I wanted to keep this tradition going.”
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–Dixon’s most recent Rolex 24 win was five years ago in a Cadillac with Wayne Taylor Racing, which is back with the luxury GM brand after a four-year run with Acura. WTR’s two-car effort at Daytona also will include sports car superstar Kamui Kobayashi, who won with WTR in 2019-20 and returns to Daytona after a three-year absence.
–Despite winning the Rolex 24 and GTP championship last year, Porsche Penske Motorsport has retooled its lineup by shifting personnel between its No. 6 and No. 7 963s and dropping from four to three drivers in the endurance races.
–The Cadillac Whelen Action Express team has bid goodbye to Pipo Derani (who won championships with the team in 2021 and ’23) and added the versatile Earl Bamber.
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After logging over nine hours in last year’s epic victory, the Brazilian likely will have a similar workload with fewer teammates.
–BMW M Team RLL has only one holdover from four full-time seats last year, and its driver overhaul has been a smashing success so far. After dominating the Roar test sessions at Daytona last week, newcomer Dries Vanthoor qualified first for the Rolex 24 and delivered BMW its first pole position in GTP.
That’s a major turnaround for the German automaker that has lagged behind Acura, Cadillac and Porsche at Daytona in the first two years of the hybrid prototype.
A strong case can be made for any of the four manufacturers celebrating on the top step Sunday in Daytona’s victory lane.
The level of competition is somewhat astounding to veterans such as Bamber, whose Rolex 24 debut was in 2014, the first year of the revamped IMSA that merged rival sports car series.
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“Everyone’s expectation is they’re going to win or be on the podium,” Bamber told NBC Sports. “And that’s just a testament to how reliable the cars are, how good the teams are, and how good the driver lineups are about getting the car to the end of the race. Rather than 10 years ago when I first started, people are like, ‘Wow, this is amazing. We got to the end of the race.’ No one in the paddock anymore is saying we’re just going to manage the finish the 24.
“It’s just such a big field of high-quality teams, high-quality drivers. And because it’s the offseason of everything, everyone is here. So it’s great to meet everyone. But it poses one of the biggest challenges of the season where everyone is on their ‘A’ game here and everyone’s here to win.”
And especially for MSR, which is desperate for a redemptive victory after its two-year winning streak was interrupted.
“I don’t know how to explain it to people who have never been in that vibe,” Blomqvist said. “It’s surreal. You have so much emotion all at once and so much like self -satisfaction. I think that’s why most of us do this sport, and we don’t get that feeling often. It’s so hard to describe, and it lasts for days. You feel so happy and so good. I remember I was buzzing for ages until the next time I got in the car.”
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Always be closing
Several Rolex 24 drivers picked Max Verstappen as their dream choice to finish the final stint at Daytona. But the four-time Formula One champion probably would struggle in reality to break through in the stacked GTP lineups.
In the victory last year by its No. 7 963, Porsche Penske Motorsport leaned heavily on Matt Campbell and Felipe Nasr, who was behind the wheel the longest among GTP drivers (more than nine hours). That came at the expense of two-time Indy 500 winner Josef Newgarden and IMSA star Dane Cameron (who won his fourth championship last year) logging much drive time in the No. 7.
Those decisions will be easier in the Porsche Penske Motorsport camp with only six drivers this year. But most of the GTP teams have four-driver entries, and there could be some hard decisions depending on who is turning the best and most consistent laps in the first half of the race. The choices won’t necessarily be sports car drivers.
In 2022, MSR elected to close with four-time Indy 500 winner Helio Castroneves when Blomqvist fell ill, and Dixon also has proved to be a strong closer.
“Sometimes drivers have tough days and some have good days, and you really have to judge that on that day, and we look at that constantly,” Shank said. “What kind of day are our drivers having relative to moving through traffic, speed, and dealing with whatever issue we may or may not have. You could take an Alex Palou, or Scott Dixon, we know we could stick them in if we had to. That’s the greatest thing about our deal. I’d feel comfortable sticking any of our drivers in there.”
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Ford vs. Chevy
The 2024 return of Ford to the GT categories was billed as a potential Detroit battle royale.
But the Mustang GT3 struggled to get up to speed last year, and so its traditional natural rivalry with the Chevrolet Corvette Z06 lacked pizazz.
That storyline could get a jolt from both sides this year. Ford swept the top two spots in qualifying for GTD Pro, and Corvette Racing’s typically solid entries will be turned by a third all-star player.
The one-off No. 91 fielded by Trackhouse Racing by TF Sport will feature former Supercars champions Scott McLaughlin (a seven-time IndyCar winner) and Shane van Gisbergen (NASCAR Cup Series rookie after four Xfinity wins last year) joined by rising NASCAR star Connor Zilisch and Bronze ace Ben Keating. A showdown of Bowtie vs. Blue Oval seems very possible.
“It’s crazy competitive, and I would say more competitive than last year for sure,” said Mike Rockenfeller, who took the pole in the No. 64 Mustang (which also includes 2022 Daytona 500 winner Austin Cindric. “It’s going to be tough. Being in the race is a whole different story, and we will have to fight a lot, and that’s good. It’s 24 hours; everybody should have a good chance here.”
LMP2 all-stars
It’s considered the lesser of the two prototype categories, but Le Mans Prototype 2 will feature many big names who easily could have been in GTP under different circumstances.
Cameron, Colton Herta, Sebastien Bourdais and Oliver Jarvis are among the former Rolex 24 winners in LMP2, and the class also has a Formula One winner (Felipe Massa). Callum Ilott, Christian Rasmussen, Pietro Fittipaldi and Malthe Jakobsen are among other young talents in what essentially is a spec class.
“It is tight racing,” said Herta, who made the winning pass in LMP2 at the 2022 Rolex 24. “All the engines are similar, and it really makes for a really close racing battle. In some other classes with there being different manufacturers, sometimes some guys are quicker in the straights or corners, but this is just kind of a straight out dogfight.”
Chicane chicanery?
The Le Mans Chicane (traditionally known as the “Bus Stop”) has produced some of the most memorable action in recent years at the Rolex 24. It’s often been the last chance at a banzai pass or banging fenders for a victory – witness the furious finish in 2022 between two Porsches for the GTD Pro crown.
After last year’s Daytona 500, the chicane underwent significant safety-driven alterations with the adjacent grass removed and larger curbing added. Once able to risk damaging their cars with aggressive passes and side-by-side racing, drivers now face having their race ended in contact with the curb.
But will the bold maneuvers still occur late in the race, or particularly on the last lap if it’s for a Rolex 24 victory?
It bears watching Sunday if a winner takes flight to victory lane by getting air over the curbs in the closing minute.
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