By Holly Cain
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Star power for the Rolex 24 At Daytona is – yet again – at high wattage.
It starts with the first car on the entry list. The No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac DPi driver list includes IndyCar champion Scott Dixon, IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship star Renger van der Zande, IndyCar standout Marcus Ericsson and Kevin Magnussen, making his first Rolex 24 start after six seasons in Formula 1.
These names are indicative of a grid brimming with achievement and expectation, a tradition dating to the inception of endurance sports car racing at Daytona International Speedway.
Seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson, newly crowned NASCAR Cup Series champion Chase Elliott and 2018 Daytona 500 winner Austin Dillon are racing in the 2021 Rolex 24, too.
Indy 500 winners Helio Castroneves, Juan Pablo Montoya, Alexander Rossi and Simon Pagenaud, along with four-time IndyCar champion Sebastien Bourdais, will be there. FIA World Endurance Championship champion Kamui Kobayashi and former Rolex 24 overall champ AJ Allmendinger – a winner in both IndyCar and NASCAR – will be vying for a new timepiece as well.
All this “outside” racing celebrity power is in addition to the WeatherTech Championship regulars who are stars in their own right. Ricky and Jordan Taylor, Dane Cameron and Olivier Pla, Pipo Derani and Felipe Nasr, Antonio Garcia and Harry Tincknell – all will be keeping the competition honest and racing to kick off a strong 2021 WeatherTech Championship run.
This kind of superstar summit at Daytona is not new, it’s a uniquely well-appreciated feature of the opening race of the world’s big-time motorsports calendar. And its lineup has consistently reflected that unique mesh of the world’s greatest drivers – those already with championship hardware and aiming certain to contend for their first.
“I think Daytona is a massive call for drivers who race in a lot of different categories in an elite level,’’ Dixon said.
There is nothing in racing like the Rolex 24 – no other single event that brings together this many championship-winning, headline-earning, skilled-elite to compete in a grueling twice-around-the-clock race to officially wave the green flag for the racing calendar.
This star power has been a defining characteristic of the great history of the Rolex 24, which will mark its 59th time attracting the best behind the wheel.
The late, great Dan Gurney won the inaugural 1962 race – a three-hour event – in what immediately set the mark for thrilling finishes. Gurney’s car lost its engine – while leading – with less than two minutes remaining. He had to painstakingly nurse the car, waiting for the time to max out, coasting from the high banks of the oval portion across the finish line.
In 1964, the only American-born F1 champion, Phil Hill, co-drove to a Daytona victory, becoming the first to win the world’s three classic endurance events at Le Mans, Sebring and Daytona. Two years later, Ken Miles and Lloyd Ruby won the first 24-hour version of the Daytona race and gave Ford a huge win in the midst of the famed “Ford v Ferrari” era depicted in the 2019 film.
Mark Donohue drove a Roger Penske-owned car to the win in 1969. Mario Andretti teamed with Jacky Ickx to win a six-hour version in 1972, five years after Andretti won the Daytona 500, three years after his Indy 500 triumph and six years before he would claim an F1 title.
In 1973, Hurley Haywood won the first of his record five overall Rolex 24 titles, teaming with Peter Gregg in a Porsche. They answered in 1975, technically winning two in a row since the 1974 Rolex was canceled due to the U.S. energy crisis – the only time the race has been called off.
Porsche dominated the 1970s and ‘80s with an A-list of drivers from Haywood to Andretti (who won the pole for the 1984 race co-driving with son Michael) to the great four-time Indy 500 winner A.J. Foyt, who won in 1983.
The 1990s featured the sleek GTP cars and Gurney was back as team owner. His Toyota prototype won with second-generation star P.J. Jones (Indy 500 winner Parnelli’s son) in 1993. Scott Pruett began his Daytona dominance in 1994, capturing his first overall victory. The next year, actor Paul Newman was part of the GTS winning team.
NASCAR legend and seven-time champion Dale Earnhardt made his only Rolex 24 start in 2001. Co-driving a Chevrolet Corvette with son Dale Earnhardt Jr. and sports car greats Andy Pilgrim and Kerry Collins, they finished runner-up to the other Corvette factory car in the GTS class, fourth overall.
Another NASCAR Hall of Famer, Tony Stewart, competed in five Rolex 24s, coming closest to the elite victory in 2004 when his car suffered a massive mechanical breakdown while leading with only 17 minutes remaining in the 24-hour race.
Four-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jeff Gordon raced in 2007 with Wayne Taylor Racing, finishing third, and returned 10 years later – retired from NASCAR and about to be named a NASCAR Hall of Famer – to win overall with the famed team in 2017.
His former NASCAR teammate at Hendrick Motorsports, seven-time Cup Series champion Johnson has raced in seven Rolex 24s. He finished runner-up twice (2005 and 2008). This year’s race will be Johnson’s first start since 2011.
NASCAR champion Rusty Wallace and IndyCar-winner-turned-NASCAR-driver Danica Patrick joined sports car legends Jan Lammers and Allan McNish for a high-profile driver lineup in 2006. The car suffered problems and finished 50th. Instead, Casey Mears became the first fulltime NASCAR driver to win overall, teaming with a couple Indy 500 champions, Dixon and Dan Wheldon. It was the first of a record-setting three consecutive Rolex 24 wins for Chip Ganassi Racing.
The Ganassi team proved itself the team to beat for a decade, featuring not only a perennial contending pair of cars, but a revolving combination of auto racing’s greatest drivers including Pruett, Dixon, Wheldon, Dario Franchitti, Montoya, Daytona 500 champion Jamie McMurray and NASCAR star Kyle Larson.
Two-time F1 champion Fernando Alonso earned his first Rolex 24 title in 2019, helping Wayne Taylor Racing to its second of three overall victories.
Having raced in the Rolex 24 over three decades now, Dixon holds a time-tested perspective of the race. And performance meets expectations.
“I would say (with) the consistency and depth of teams, the quality is very high,’’ Dixon said.
That will be the case again Jan. 30-31, when the stars shine once more on the Rolex 24.