These are the cars and the stars that will fight for overall victory in the 64th Rolex 24 At Daytona: The 11 cars of the GTP category.
Even as this iteration of IMSA GTP begins its fourth year, the brilliant machines from Porsche, Acura, BMW, and Cadillac continue to capture the imaginations of sportscar racing fans around the world. All of their cars have been updated and refreshed for the upcoming season, and have already been tested for a handful of days around Daytona International Speedway.
They’ll be joined by Aston Martin’s V12-powered Valkyrie, which will finally race at Daytona for the first time. Daytona is also the first race for Michelin’s new Pilot Sport Endurance 2026, the new racing tyre for both GTP and WEC’s Hypercar category.
And in this so-called “global all-star race”, top stars from IndyCar and NASCAR will lend a hand and share driving duties with the best that endurance prototype racing has to offer.
Porsche has won this race in each of the last two years, but its established rivals have all either won the race (as Acura did in 2023) or come close.
With special Rolex timepieces as proof of accomplishment, the chance to take a legacy-defining victory at the 24 Hours of Daytona awaits these teams fighting at the front of the field.
Acura ARX-06
#60: Acura Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb-Agajanian
Tom Blomqvist / Colin Braun / Scott Dixon / AJ Allmendinger
#93: Acura Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb-Agajanian
Renger van der Zande / Nick Yelloly / Álex Palou / Kakunoshin Ohta
Acura Meyer Shank Racing came back to IMSA with two cars last season and at times, it was as if they’d never been away. At Daytona, the flagship #60 MSR Acura finished second in GTP.
Over the course of the year, both cars, including the new Honda Racing Corporation USA-engineered #93 Acura, won races, making a late push for the Manufacturers’ Championship that ultimately fell just a little bit short at the final hurdle.
Yes, a mid-season manual adjustment of Balance of Performance helped the Acuras down the stretch after some lacklustre early-season returns. But part of the team’s continued improvement as 2025 progressed was tightening up everything operationally – not just after bringing the IMSA team back together with new staff for one car, but integrating an additional car and meshing HRC US staff with staff from Meyer Shank Racing.
The list of updates to the ARX-06 are subtle on the surface: The rear wheel covers have been cleaned up, the front diveplanes and splitter have been tweaked, as have the engine cover and side pods. Making the car a little more drivable, opening up the operating window, and preventing massive losses in downforce in case of contact at some of the tighter tracks IMSA visits.
When it comes to experience in the Rolex 24 At Daytona, there is no car in the field that has as much of it as the #60 car. Sir Scott Dixon, a three-time overall winner spanning three different decades, makes his 23rd consecutive appearance at Daytona, the longest unbroken streak of any of the 228 drivers in the field.
Only one driver, Colin Braun, is near that level of longevity having made 22 starts in a row – during which, he’s won in three different classes including the 2023 overall victory. NASCAR veteran and 2012 Rolex overall winner AJ Allmendinger makes his 16th start in the race, his first in several years, and is grateful to even have the opportunity to reunite with team co-owner Michael Shank.
By contrast, Tom Blomqvist is the raw and inexperienced rookie in the black and orange #60 Acura, but something has to be said of a driver who, in four previous starts in the premier class, has never finished lower than second. It’s a good little streak of performances that Blomqvist and company hopes won’t end in 2026.
It can be argued that the red and black #93 car’s line-up, while younger, is perhaps stronger top to bottom. Both two-time overall winner Renger van der Zande and co-driver Nick Yelloly were excellent after joining Acura from Cadillac and BMW, respectively. Yelloly may well have been GTP’s quickest driver of all in 2025, and they’re both hungry to build on that success.
No other car has the #60’s level of experience, but only the #93 has four-time IndyCar champion and reigning Indy 500 winner Álex Palou, who’s been the definition of a “plug and play” driver every time he’s driven a GTP car in recent years. We expect the same this year from the Spanish superstar.
And while Kakunoshin “Kaku” Ohta will be racing in America less frequently this year than last year, the talented Japanese driver returns to Daytona with much more confidence and comfort in his ability to wheel his ARX-06. If this car wins it all, it’s very likely that strong performances from Ohta will be part of that story.
Acura Meyer Shank Racing had a bit of a tough time during the Roar Before The 24, but with the team and drivers now looking like they’ll fire on all cylinders operationally, a return to the form that led Acura to three straight wins from 2021–23 should be on the cards.
Aston Martin Valkyrie AMR-LMH
#23: Aston Martin THOR Team
Ross Gunn / Roman de Angelis / Alex Riberas / Marco Sørensen
If you’re a fan of the Aston Martin Valkyrie, but lamented that it withheld its debut until after last year’s Daytona 24 Hours, then your patience has been rewarded. The V12-powered top-tier prototypes will finally race in IMSA’s biggest event. And if you’ve never seen or heard the Valkyrie running in person until now, trust us, it’s a treat for the eyes and ears.
Aston Martin THOR Team (The Heart Of Racing) used the remaining IMSA races and all eight WEC rounds to its advantage, becoming increasingly competitive as the year progressed on both fronts. It culminated in a maiden podium at Petit Le Mans just three months ago, the perfect way to wrap up the car’s first season of American racing.
It’s the only car that will not come to Daytona using any of its Evo ‘joker’ upgrades, a pragmatic approach from Aston Martin and THOR Team Principal Ian James, who each feel that there’s still more performance to be extracted out of the existing package.
That continuity is also reflected in the driver line-up: Four Aston Martin GT specialists who’ve made the leap to prototypes look effortless. This includes Roman de Angelis and Marco Sørensen, who took Heart of Racing to a GTD victory in 2023. Sørensen and Alex Riberas were front and centre for the Valkyrie’s WEC breakout at Fuji, while full-season drivers De Angelis and Ross Gunn carried the car to its Road Atlanta podium.
Even still, there may be reason to temper expectations. At both the Roar Before The 24 and the November IMSA Sanctioned Test, Aston Martin lost two full days of testing due to technical problems. Because of the limited track time – only completing 77 laps at the Roar – the Valkyrie didn’t get a chance to show strong pace relative to its more-established peers.
24 hours around the high banks of Daytona present their own difficulties, but there’s reasons to be cheerful as the Valkyrie finished its first races at Sebring and Le Mans without any terminal issues.
All hopes for a strong result at Daytona rest on whether or not the Valkyrie can complete all 24 hours of racing without major issues. If that threshold is cleared, though, they have the driving talent and the experience to put in a respectable performance.
BMW M Hybrid V8
#24: BMW M Team WRT
Sheldon van der Linde / Dries Vanthoor / Robin Frijns / René Rast
#25: BMW M Team WRT
Raffaele Marciello / Philipp Eng / Marco Wittmann / Kevin Magnussen
The team has changed, the car has been overhauled, and even the familiar cast of drivers has been shuffled around as BMW pursues its first Rolex 24 overall win since 2013.
Daytona is the start of BMW M Team WRT’s first full-time foray into American motorsport. DSC readers will be well aware of the Belgian team’s exploits as GT3 racing’s greatest dynasty, as multi-time LMP2 champions, and as the team that’s run the BMW M Hybrid V8 for the last two years in WEC and the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
After a couple of IMSA one-offs from its time with Audi, WRT takes over from long-serving BMW partner Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing as GTP service provider, the latest in a series of changes that the German manufacturer has made in order to bridge the gap to its rivals.
The car they’ll run is still the M Hybrid V8, but it’s undergone a significant styling change that’s not only for form, but function as well – promising a more consistent car, with better aerodynamic balance and cooling in critical areas. It was fast, possibly fast enough to have won last year’s race from the pole, but small mistakes and setbacks added up over time in last year’s challenge.
With all the change operationally, BMW sticks with the same eight Hypercar/GTP drivers that it had last year. Though, of those eight drivers, only two of them are running in the same car numbers that they drove in last year’s Rolex 24.
Robin Frijns, Sheldon van der Linde, and two-time Daytona class winner René Rast have now moved over to the #24 car to partner the sublime Dries Vanthoor, last year’s Daytona polesitter and the ‘MVP’ for BMW last year across both series.
They trade places with 2019 GTLM winner Philipp Eng, Raffaele Marciello, and ten-year Formula One veteran Kevin Magnussen, who join Marco Wittmann in the #25 car. There’s no real deficiencies in either crew when it comes to driving talent.
But the areas in which BMW M Team WRT’s first foray into IMSA GTP will be defined are the finer details – strategy, tactics, and operational savvy. It was perceived by some as the big reason why BMW ended its 18-year partnership with RLL and brought in WRT to run the IMSA programme. WRT, meanwhile, is not setting expectations too high going into Daytona with a staff that’s only been formed over the winter, and is still not fully complete.
That, however, doesn’t rule out the possibility that 50 years after BMW won its first Daytona 24 Hours in ’76, that this new chapter of BMW’s IMSA heritage can begin with a successful outing in this year’s Rolex 24.
Cadillac V-Series.R
#10: Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing
Ricky Taylor / Filipe Albuquerque / Will Stevens
#40: Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing
Jordan Taylor / Louis Delètraz / Colton Herta
#31: Cadillac Whelen
Jack Aitken / Earl Bamber / Frederik Vesti / Connor Zilisch
Cadillac returns with three revamped V-Series.Rs for this year’s Rolex 24 At Daytona, eager to put a painful 2025 race behind them – and return to the form that saw the manufacturer win this race four years in a row during the DPi era.
Last year, Cadillac welcomed Wayne Taylor Racing back into the fold and sought to bring all three of its cars in harmony under the motto of “One Cadillac,” but it was only one Cadillac that reaped the reward of victory throughout last season. That was the red Cadillac Whelen car run by Action Express Racing, which closed out the season with back-to-back wins at Indy and Road Atlanta.
Three-time overall winners of this event and three-time runners-up since AXR’s last Daytona victory in 2018, the red #31 Cadillac is a compelling entry.
Can Earl Bamber, in his 12th Rolex 24, finally get his first winner’s timepiece and replicate the career milestone established last year by his old Porsche teammate Nick Tandy? Can Jack Aitken continue the brilliant late-season form that saw him surge from nowhere to second in the GTP drivers’ championship? Can young Frederik Vesti put last year’s unfortunate crash at Speedway Turn 4 in the rearview?
Oh, and we haven’t even gotten to perhaps the most fascinating story in this #31 car: The GTP debut of NASCAR rising star, and 2024 LMP2 class winner, Connor Zilisch. What role will the 19-year-old play in this year’s event? He’s been quick in everything he’s driven in his career, from spec Miata and MX-5 Cup all the way to this bright red V-Series.R, and as his star in stock car racing continues to rise, he brings mass appeal to this event from fans eager to see what he’ll do.
On the other side of this Cadillac triumvirate, Wayne Taylor Racing is trying to put the frustrations of a winless season behind it – not at all what anyone expected from the hyped WTR and General Motors reunion.
But there’s too much talent and experience in either of the new-look WTR Cadillacs for the drought to continue, even if WTR couldn’t borrow Toyota’s Brendon Hartley and Kamui Kobayashi this year. Brothers Ricky and Jordan Taylor are now making their 19th straight Rolex 24 appearances, on either side of the team.
Ricky and co-driver Filipe Albuquerque have each won this race twice overall – as allies and adversaries – and will be back in the blue-fronted #10 car, sharing it with the co-author of Cadillac’s maiden WEC victory in São Paulo, Will Stevens, who’s proven to be a strong component of Hertz Team JOTA’s success in WEC.
Jordan will be with the talented Louis Delètraz in the black and white #40. Deletraz will be motivated to put last year’s big accident at Daytona behind him and get back to the form we’ve seen from him in LMP2. They’re joined by the ultra-talented GTLM and LMP2 Rolex winner, Colton Herta, who’ll make a few stops in IMSA with Cadillac WTR as he pursues new challenges as Cadillac Formula 1 Team’s reserve driver and racing in Formula 2.
This year, the 5.5-litre V8-powered V-Series.R has a different look, with redesigned rear wings and splitters that shed drag, improve efficiency, and also promise to give the teams more setup flexibility. Together with a new all-Brembo braking system, Cadillac has worked tirelessly to develop a car capable of winning the big races in 2026, starting with the Rolex 24.
Porsche 963
#6: Porsche Penske Motorsport
Laurens Vanthoor / Kévin Estre / Matt Campbell
#7: Porsche Penske Motorsport
Julien Andlauer / Felipe Nasr / Laurin Heinrich
#85: JDC-Miller MotorSports
Nico Pino / Kaylen Frederick / Tijmen van der Helm
In 2024, the Porsche 963 opened up a new chapter in the most accomplished manufacturer in endurance racing’s rich history of success at Daytona. In 2025, it was more of the same, more impressive than the last year.
For the past two seasons, Porsche Penske Motorsport has won the Rolex 24 at Daytona and then gone on to win every GTP championship in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. And after a strong test at the Roar Before The 24 this past weekend, the factory team enters the 64th edition of the Daytona 24-hour classic as the favourite to win the race for the third straight year, and extend its record to 25 overall victories (as chassis and/or engine builder).
It would be a happy way to ring in the 75th anniversary of Porsche Motorsport, the 60th anniversary of Team Penske… and let’s face it, it would write some happier headlines for Porsche after the team’s stunning decision to leave the FIA World Endurance Championship, and its consequences.
That withdrawal has reshaped the two-car factory line-up dramatically. Nick Tandy is no longer in the top class, only a year after his historic ‘Tandy Slam.’ Reigning GTP champion Mathieu Jaminet isn’t in the field after changing manufacturers. His title-winning co-driver Matt Campbell is still with PPM in the #6 Porsche 963, though only part-time in 2026.
That’s because Laurens Vanthoor and Kévin Estre have come over from the WEC side of Porsche Penske to return to IMSA full-time, in the same car number that they wore when they won the 2024 FIA Hypercar World Endurance Championship. In fact, with Campbell in tow, this is the same #6 Porsche Penske line-up that scored the marque’s final Hypercar win at COTA, and finished second at Le Mans.
Vanthoor returns as the defending Rolex 24 winner, Campbell won it in 2024, and Estre is still searching for his first Rolex win after finishing third here last year alongside Campbell and the departed Jaminet.
Only Felipe Nasr returns in a full-season capacity from last year, and the Brazilian has history within his grasp as the lead driver of the #7 Penske Porsche. He can emulate his countryman Hélio Castroneves and become only the third driver to win three straight Daytona 24 Hours. And he got those preparations underway well when he set the fastest time during the Roar.
He’ll have to do it with a new supporting cast this year, but what a cast it is. Julien Andlauer comes over from the shuttered WEC side of Porsche Penske, where he met expectations in his first year with the factory team. The young Frenchman is joined by the newest Porsche works factory driver, Laurin Heinrich, who swaps places with Tandy after a rapid ascent to superstardom as the lead driver of AO Racing’s “Rexy”.
Heinrich will only have three races to showcase what he’s capable of in the factory Porsche 963, but he and Andlauer are both dynamic talents, and together with Nasr, this is yet another strong line-up.
Porsche has modified the 963 with a reprofiled splitter, a redesigned diffuser, and a redesigned engine cover – changes that will help them at all circuits, but were ironically built with Le Mans in mind. They should still serve the factory 963s well around Daytona, though.
You won’t see them on the last remaining privateer 963 on the Daytona grid, though. JDC-Miller MotorSports chose, with IMSA’s blessing, to stay with the previous package and forgo the purchase of the latest evolution.
It’s certainly not ideal, turning up with an older-spec car, with three very young and relatively inexperienced drivers – including a true sportscar rookie in Kaylen Frederick – and fewer resources than the factory team.
But having seen many column inches written over the last few weeks, painting the team’s predicament in a bleak and hopeless manner, John Church and his crew are determined to rewrite the narrative. Nico Pino has talent and showcased as much when he set the second-fastest time in the Roar, splitting the factory Porsches. Tijmen van der Helm continues to improve with experience.
And JDC-Miller has gritted its way to the chequered flag twice with the “Banana Boat” 963, finishing sixth the last two years. Predicting JDC for a podium or better may feel like a stretch, but do not write it off.
Images © IMSA
