Your entire Andretti World IndyCar Collection 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 anticipate a enjoyable number of full-time groups and drivers in attendance to launch the yr, together with an attention-grabbing mixture of one-off and part-time visitor drivers to chase for images and autographs. Unfold all through the Roar Earlier than the 24 check (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 Categorical Mercedes-AMG GTD), and Marcus Ericsson (Wayne Taylor Racing Lamborghini GTD) are discovered throughout three totally different groups.
It’s an admittedly unusual scenario the place the trio aren’t in IMSA GTP — the collection’ prime class the place IndyCar’s main drivers are sometimes positioned — however fairly, 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 unit Lexus program in 2026 for a seventh season of enduro motion is by selection.
There’s a fourth member of the Andretti World group within the area with Colton Herta (Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing GTP), who’s now not a fixture in its IndyCar program — though he’s tipped to make a return for the Indianapolis 500 — as his upcoming season shall be spent racing in Formulation 2 and check driving for the TWG Motorsports-led Cadillac F1 group, which owns Andretti World and the Cadillac WTR GTP effort. Inside 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 Highway 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 Automotive champion Sebastien Bourdais (Tower Motorsport), current 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 abilities to trace throughout 24 hours of racing.
Returning to GTP, Ganassi’s deep ties to Honda are evident by the location of its defending IndyCar champion and Indy 500 winner Alex Palou and its six-time IndyCar champion Scott Dixon (primary 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 to this point. 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 automotive ace AJ Allmendinger from the Kaulig Racing NASCAR Cup Collection group, who gained the Rolex 24 in 2012 with MSR and can share the No. 60 Acura with Dixon.
There was hope for brand new NASCAR Xfinity Collection champion Jesse Like to contest his first Rolex 24, and whereas these plans fell by, his primary 2025 rival, Trackhouse Racing’s Connor Zilisch, will make his IMSA GTP debut (Motion Categorical Racing Cadillac) after rising up the IMSA ladder within the Mazda MX-5 Cup collection and successful the Rolex 24’s LMP2 class in 2024 (Period Motorsport). Zilisch could have Mercedes F1 reserve driver Frederik Vesti as a teammate within the AXR Cadillac; Vesti gained two enduros after Daytona with the GTP group in 2025.
Final yr, 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 yr off from the Rolex 24, Wickens is again and has Group Penske IndyCar frontrunner Scott McLaughlin amongst his co-drivers.
F1 veteran Kevin Magnussen has pivoted to manufacturing unit prototype racing with BMW and heads again to the Rolex 24 as a part of the German marque’s revised GTP effort (BMW M Group WRT). Magnussen’s former Haas F1 teammate Romain Grosjean, who final competed at Daytona with the Lamborghini GTP program which shut down in the course of the offseason, made sufficient of an impression on Invoice Riley, whose Riley Motorsports campaigned the automotive for Lamborghini, to deliver Grosjean in to finish its new effort (Myers Riley Motorsports Ford Mustang GTD).
Though extra all stars might 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 yr in LMP2 (Pratt Miller Motorsports) and is supposed to do the vast majority of the WeatherTech Championship season with Wright.
