The Rolex 24 at Daytona has a rich history dating back to 1962. Originally, it was the Daytona Continental, a three-hour sprint race. In 1964, it became a 2000-km. race before it became a 24-hour event for the first time in 1966. With the exception of 1972, when it was six hours, it has been 24 hours ever since.
Traditionally, it has been a race where sports car veterans reigned supreme. However, there have been multiple instances in which full-time drivers in NASCAR at the time have tasted the spoils of overall victory. Most of them have one organization in common: Chip Ganassi Racing.
The most successful driver in this group is Juan Pablo Montoya. Montoya is a three-time overall winner of the race, the victories coming in 2007, 2008 and 2013 for Ganassi. The first two came in Riley Mk. XIs po0wered by Lexus engines. The third was in the Riley Mk. XXVI (aka the Riley DPG3 with a BMW engine). All three came when Montoya was driving for Ganassi in Cup.
The 2008 victory for Montoya also had Dario Franchitti on the team. While he will always be best remembered as a NTT IndyCar Series driver, Franchitti was also a full-time Cup driver at that time for Ganassi.
In 2015, both Kyle Larson and Jamie McMurray scored overall honors for CGR in their Ford-powered Riley Mk. XXVI they shared with IndyCar veterans Scott Dixon and Tony Kanaan. For Larson, it was only his second career start in a sports car race. McMurray had started six previous Rolex 24s, plus one event on the infield road course at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Both drivers have made only one more start since.
Casey Mears was part of the winning overall team in 2006 with Dixon and Dan Wheldon. This came despite Wheldon having an unusual style in downshifting the car at times that weekend that was described as “jake braking.” It’s not typical to describe driving a racecar in the manner of a driving an 18-wheeler.
AJ Allmendinger has driven for Michael Shank Racing on and off for many years in IMSA competition. His sole overall victory at Daytona came in a very competitive race in 2012 with teammates Oswaldo Negri Jr., John Pew and Justin Wilson. In the 22nd hour, he had this bumping match for the overall lead with Allan McNish.
Jeff Gordon is also an overall winner of the Rolex 24 at Daytona, although the victory came after he retired from Cup competition. His triumph came in 2017 with Wayne Taylor Racing in the first race for the DPis. He shared a Cadillac DPi-V.R. with Max Angelelli and the Taylor brothers (Jordan and Ricky). He had also made one previous start for WTR in a Pontiac-powered Riley Mk. XI in 2007. He ended up third overall that day.
Outside of the septet above, likely the biggest NASCAR crossover in the Rolex 24 was in 2001 when Dale Earnhardt drove for Corvette Racing in a Chevrolet Corvette C5-R. Earnhardt, teamed with his son Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kelly Collins and Andy Pilgrim, finished fourth overall and second in the GTS class in a race that featured significant time in the wet.
Earnhardt greatly enjoyed his experience in the Rolex 24 and was likely to continue to compete in sports car races in the future. Unfortunately, he died two weeks later, so we’ll never know what he could have done.
In a 2019 NBC podcast, Earnhardt Jr. stated that he was sure that his father would eventually race at Le Mans. Corvette Racing was willing to take him there as well.
Likely the closest call for Cup regulars winning the Rolex 24 came in 2004. Howard-Boss Motorsports was in good position to win overall in the debut for the Chevrolet-powered Crawford DP03. Tony Stewart was leading overall when the car suffered a suspension failure in the final hour with a three-lap lead. Stewart pitted and the team tried to make extremely rudimentary repairs. It even attempted to use wood at one point.
Despite this attempt to fix the issue, Stewart continued and drove on three wheels at times. He was still leading with 18 minutes to go when the suspension completely collapsed and put him into the wall on the backstretch. Ultimately, Stewart, Earnhardt Jr. and Andy Wallace were credited with a fifth-place finish.
Mark Martin, due to his long affiliation with Roush Racing, made a number of appearances in the Rolex 24. He has three class victories in the race, the first of which came in 1989. The third is the most notable of the bunch. That was in 1995 when he shared a car with Paul Newman, Tommy Kendall and Mike Brockman. The No. 70 Ford Mustang with logos for the film Nobody’s Fool finished third overall.
Terry Labonte spent eight years at the beginning of his Cup career driving for team owner Billy Hagan, who also raced in IMSA at the time. As a result, Labonte was something of a familiar sight in the IMSA paddock, not just at Daytona. He has nine starts in the Rolex 24, dating back as far as 1981. He also competed at Sebring International Raceway multiple times and even at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. In 1984, Labonte started out his first Cup championship season with a GTO class victory and sixth overall in a Chevrolet Camaro painted up similarly to the Piedmont Airlines Chevrolet with which he won the Cup championship.
Gordon’s protégé Jimmie Johnson has also been a prolific racer in the Rolex 24. He has nine starts in the endurance classic. While he hasn’t won, he has finished second overall three different times, the most recent of which being in 2021 for Action Express Racing alongside Kamui Kobayashi, Simon Pagenaud and Mike Rockenfeller.
Bobby Allison made a number of starts in the Rolex 24 dating all the way back to the first 24-hour edition in 1966, without much luck. Those starts came in everything from prototypes to a Buick Somerset that was originally built as a prototype for a stillborn NASCAR LR Series.
Kurt Busch also has an overall podium finish in the Rolex 24. That came in 2008, which Wayne Taylor Racing and Team Penske jointly entered a Pontiac-powered Riley chassis with Toshiba backing. Busch teamed with Ryan Briscoe and Helio Castroneves to finish third.
Of the 10 winningest drivers in the history in the Cup Series, nine of them have raced in the Rolex 24. The only exception is Richard Petty.
The list of drivers above is not exhaustive. Other drivers such as Darrell Waltrip and Cale Yarborough have competed in the race as well.
Traditionally, NASCAR drivers running in the Rolex 24 was not necessarily a big deal. It was a relatively common thing and drivers often simply did it for fun.
In the Grand-Am years, NASCAR drivers (and drivers from other series) competing became a big marketing opportunity for the sanctioning body and Daytona to promote the race. There would be pictograms on Grand-Am’s website indicating how many champions would be in the race.
That was a period when you’d have a lot of NASCAR drivers in the race. There was a Multimatic Daytona Prototype with Busch, Greg Biffle and Matt Kenseth driving in 2005. Kevin Harvick ran in 2002 for Flis Motorsports in a Re/Max-sponsored Chevrolet Corvette with Rick Carelli. He led the AGT class early before a blown engine put him out. Even Modified racer Ted Christopher made a couple of starts.
Today, sports car racing in general is stronger than it once was. Teams don’t necessarily need to bring in drivers outside of sports car racing in order to make a splash.
In this year’s Rolex 24 at Daytona, there are only three Cup drivers entered. Shane van Gisbergen and Connor Zilisch are entered as part of a joint effort between Trackhouse Racing and TF Sport known as Trackhouse x TF Sport. The effort is something that Trackhouse owner Justin Marks has wanted to do for years and was looking for the right opportunity.
Austin Cindric, who wasn’t originally scheduled to be in the race, is racing for Ford Multimatic Motorsports in place of Ben Barker, who was injured in a skiing accident. Cindric explained the circumstances to Frontstretch back during IMSA Media Day on Jan. 16.
These three drivers will do battle with hundreds of others over 24 hours this weekend in Daytona.
Phil Allaway has three primary roles at Frontstretch. He's the manager of the site's FREE e-mail newsletter that publishes Monday-Friday and occasionally on weekends. He keeps TV broadcasters honest with weekly editions of Couch Potato Tuesday and serves as the site's Sports Car racing editor.
Outside of Frontstretch, Phil is the press officer for Lebanon Valley Speedway in West Lebanon, N.Y. He covers all the action on the high-banked dirt track from regular DIRTcar Modified racing to occasional visits from touring series such as the Super DIRTcar Series.