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I Covered NASCAR, IMSA & IndyCar’s Season Openers: Here’s How They Compare

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It has been a busy last three months for me.

At the end of January, Frontstretch sent me to the season-opening events for three of North America’s major racing series. In January, it was the IMSA endurance racing crown jewel in the Rolex 24 at Daytona International Speedway. Less than a month later, I covered the NASCAR opening weekend of Speedweeks and the biggest stock car race in the world; the Daytona 500. Finally, this past weekend, I was also granted the chance to report at my first NTT IndyCar Series race with the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.

Despite all being in the same state, they are three vastly different events, each with its own racing culture and fanbase, and all three of them have their varying characteristics including both their pros and their cons.

So, how do they compare?

Grand Prix of St. Petersburg

First things first. In full disclosure, the Daytona 500 and the Rolex 24 are both NASCAR and IMSA’s biggest races of the year. The Grand Prix of St. Petersburg is not, at least to my understanding, a crown jewel, other than the fact that it’s race one of the season. IndyCar has its own crown jewel race in the Indianapolis 500.

Instead, the St. Petersburg street course is reserved for one of four street races throughout the open wheel series’ schedule and doesn’t have as long of a history as some of the other courses on the calendar have.

That said, it is certainly unique.

When you first approach the St. Petersburg downtown area, you wouldn’t necessarily know that one of America’s major racing series is hosting its season-opening event only a few blocks away. That is, unless you were to stumble upon the area during one of the event’s five racing series track sessions.

In that case, there’s nowhere you can escape from the noise as the field passes the part of the circuit you’re closest to. That must be either exciting or annoying if you’re a student at the nearby University of Southern Florida that’s trying to study over the weekend.

But let’s be real. If you live in downtown St. Pete, you’re probably not doing much studying on the weekends. You’re likely out at one of the many pubs and restaurants that so happen to be right next to the course itself.

All of those businesses and local attraction might be why there were many fans talking about how it was their first time at a racing event. If you’re vacationing in the area already, you might as well go to this loud event that’s happening nearby.

It doesn’t take up much time, either. A hardcore race fan might be interested in attending IndyCar and Indy NXT Series practice and qualifying sessions, but few casual sports fans checking out the scene for the first time would have the same interest.

With both the IndyCar main event and the Indy NXT race all wrapped up within the span of five hours on the same day, attending the race weekend doesn’t take up your whole weekend. Heck, it doesn’t even take up your Sunday evening, either. I was able to leave the track at an early 5 p.m. local time, which may be the earliest I’ve ever departed a racing circuit after the main event.

One can see how that may attract nearby tourists or aspiring IndyCar fans, and if that is the case, it certainly worked. Because on Sunday, the St. Petersburg infield was packed.

Never in my six years of motorsports journalism have I encountered a wall of flesh so compact that I was unable to leave pit road to get to back into the infield. Maybe that’s because there was little room for so many fans. Whatever the case, people came to IndyCar’s first race of 2025 in droves, and while I have written about the casual fan so far, don’t worry IndyCar diehards, I saw you in there, too.

Among the casual t-shirts and jeans were IndyCar fans donning their favorite team’s attire. Only instead of the usual t-shirts and beer that I’m used to in the NASCAR world, I saw more polo shirts and the plastic cup cocktail. Different strokes for different folks.

Is the area enriched with the culture of 22 years of open-wheel racing history? Not at my first glance, no.

But is it a cool event with a gorgeous background and a fun nearby area that can attract and maybe even keep a casual fanbase? Absolutely.

Rolex 24 at Daytona

Now onto the uncasual fanbase.

There are plenty of passionate fans at the races I have seen in my last few years of racetrack travel, but I’m not sure if I saw any that were as dedicated to their car manufacturers as they are in the world of sports car racing.

That’s nothing new, sure, but entering the Daytona International Speedway infield and passing the camping section and the sporadic fan memorabilia to the old days of IMSA competition reminds you of the rich history of the Rolex 24.

There aren’t any yacht clubs or ocean front views reminiscent of a miniature Monaco Grand Prix like there are in St. Petersburg, but there are plenty of Porsches, Corvettes, BMWs, Ferraris, Mercedes and Mustangs adorning the strip of road that connects the speedway’s two tunnels and beyond. All of them are more likely than not being driven by someone that is there to cheer for the respective car’s team.

Unlike St. Petersburg, more fans attended the entire four days of on-track activity during the weekend. That includes the full 24 hours of the Rolex 24 race, which is a huge difference from the short burst of the two-hour GP of St. Petersburg and four-hour Daytona 500. Some of them may even attempt to not sleep during the entire 24 hours if they’re brave enough. To any that did and were successful, I commend you.

It’s also a far more internationally diverse crowd than what appeared to be at the other two events as well. The speedway’s media center itself was a hum of English, German, Italian and Spanish topped with the constant Scottish-accented voice of IMSA Radio broadcaster John Hindhaugh on the intercoms.

Of course, it’s not about what you hear on the inside of the media center that matters the most about the Rolex 24, but rather the outside.

For 24 straight hours, the constant buzz of high-pitched sports cars numbs your ear drums. If you’re a passionate gear head like many sports car fans are, you probably enjoyed it. Living in Daytona Beach, I went to bed Saturday night of that weekend to the sound of racing engines echoing through the sky from the distance of the track miles away. It has a psychological effect. It’s a constant reminder that while the rest of the city may be sleeping, there is still this festival of racing occurring nearby.

And that’s what the Rolex 24 feels like: a festival. If you do stick around at night, you’re treated to the spectacular display of vibrant car lights whizzing on the speedway’s long banked turns next to the bright colorful and changing lights of the iconic Ferris wheel. If you time it just right, you may even be able to see the fireworks show as well.

It may not be the most electric or have the exciting short-burst sprint the other two events do, but it feels like the Rolex is celebrating car culture as a whole in the form of a long, loud and vibrant weekend.

Daytona 500

This was my ninth Daytona 500 in attendance and my third in the world of journalism with Frontstretch, and the feeling you receive when you first enter the gate in the morning feels the same as always.

It’s an electric feeling.

You and everyone else around can feel something huge is about to occur. I didn’t have this feeling at either other event. I imagine it’s likely that same type of anticipation many open-wheel colleagues in St. Petersburg were referring to when talking to me about the Indy 500.

This year was admittedly a little different as my past attendances, as my Frontstretch colleague Michael Massie and I had to arrive at the speedway at 7 a.m. local time because of the added security being brought for President Donald Trump’s attendance. After four straight days of long hours at the track during Speedweeks met with an early-morning start, both of us were exhausted. Later in the day, after two rain delays and a crash-filled 200-lap race that had us running back and forth to the speedway’s infield care center, we were dead tired.

Yet the electricity was still there.

As we passed through the infield every morning during Speedweeks leading up to Sunday, I found some differences between the camping areas that were populated by IMSA sports car fans only three weeks earlier. Flags and posters of car manufacturers were traded with those of a fan’s favorite driver. There are NASCAR fans that are loyal to a certain car brand for sure. Some of them may even dislike a particular brand. However, most of them latch onto a single driver instead.

No corrals of sports cars were in this infield. No high-end yachts graced the infield’s Lake Lloyd, either. Instead, we were greeted by the sight of pickup trucks and painted wheelbarrows used for racing during one of the many infield parties occurring at night.

During the day, however, the constant buzz of sports car engines during Rolex 24 weekend was traded for the 50-second increment of one, continuous loud roar of V8 stock car engines in a drafting pack. Any significant event that occurred before, during, or after the race was met by a loud cheer of around 100,000 fans in the speedway’s stadium seating.

It is unfair to rank or debate which event is better than the other. Each one has a certain meaning to a different fanbase and their beloved motorsport.

If the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg is a weekend getaway, and the Rolex 24 a festival, then the Daytona 500 is a spectacle.

Dalton Hopkins began writing for Frontstretch in April 2021. Currently, he is the lead writer for the weekly Thinkin' Out Loudcolumn, co-host of the Happy Hour podcast, and one of our lead reporters. Beforehand, he wrote for IMSA shortly after graduating from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in 2019. Simultaneously, he also serves as a Captain in the US Army.

Follow Dalton on Twitter @PitLaneCPT