Beyond the talk last weekend of the prospect of F1 star Max Verstappen joining Ford’s Hypercar programme in the future, DSC spoke with Mark Rushbrook, the global director of Ford Racing, about the potential for additional crossovers between the Blue Oval’s NASCAR and endurance programmes in the coming years.
The natural fit for this would be the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona, either with a Mustang GT3 or a Ford GTP entry (if the brand opts to take its prototype to IMSA in the future). The Rolex 24 is a race held at the site of the most prestigious NASCAR race, and crucially, takes place in January, outside the Cup Series’ gruelling 38-event season. So, could we see Cup Series drivers and/or teams take on the challenge in the near future?
“Brad Keselowski’s comments last November were specifically, if we are doing IMSA, he was saying he’d like to run the Hypercar team out of RFK. He’d love to race it as well,” Rushbrook said.
“I’m not against it, I think there’s actually an opportunity with a GT3 car, right, as these GT3s are in many ways similar to NASCAR, with the next-gen car. We love the crossover, like when Cam Waters, for instance, came over to do a NASCAR race.”
On the potential for Ford to enter a car at the Rolex 24 crewed entirely by NASCAR drivers in the future, in either GT3 or GTP, Rushbrook also confirmed that Ford has discussed it.
DSC believes that there was talk in recent years that the three NASCAR Cup Series manufacturers – Ford, Chevrolet and Toyota – could potentially each enter a car in the race with a set of drivers plucked from their stock car stables. But the status of this initiative is currently unknown.
“I know we’ve talked about it,” Rushbrook added. “I don’t know if Chevy or Toyota, or others, have, but it would be great to do it. They could be competitive, it would be a great story, but it would cost a lot of money. Are they going to win? Maybe, but it’s always a matter of budget.”
DSC has also spoken with IMSA President John Doonan about the potential for the three NASCAR Cup Series OEMs and a set of star drivers to come together in the future to compete at the Daytona 24 Hours.
“We’ve seen NASCAR drivers come over in the past, and we believe the Rolex 24 attracts star power,” he said. “Having the three Cup Series manufacturers in the race with guest cars would be something we would welcome with open arms and love to see.”
On the broader subject of IMSA GTP, Ford’s stance hasn’t changed. It remains non-committal about bringing its LMDh challenger to North America.
Rushbrook made it clear that he was not concerned about the category’s health following Acura’s recent announcement of its departure at the end of the 2026 season. Instead, his apprehension regarding an expansion of IMSA’s top class continues to stem from the scale of Ford’s current commitments in the paddock.
“We’re always looking at a five-year cycle plan, where are we going to be racing for the next five years, making those decisions. Mustang GT3 has been fantastic because we can race as a factory in IMSA, we can race with customer teams here (in WEC) and SRO, and other series around the world,” he explained. “That’s working great for us. Part of the reason we’re going Hypercar is for the overall win at Le Mans because of our history there, but also to race as a factory in WEC because we can’t do that with the Mustang.
“When we look at IMSA, we’ve got so much presence there already. You look at the last two race weekends we had, over 30 Mustangs racing in three different series throughout the weekend. I don’t know that we need more Ford presence than that, and we’re able to do it as a factory (in GTD Pro). It’s a wonderful series, great tracks, great competitors, but we don’t see as much need to go there with Hypercar.”
He did, however, leave the door still ajar for Ford to compete in the big IMSA Endurance Cup races, such as the Rolex 24. “That is talked about. Is there an opportunity to do the Daytona 24 Hours in 2028 or 2029, of course? But I’m not saying ‘yes’.”
As it stands, Ford is focused fully on getting its WEC effort off the ground in 2027; it’s ‘all systems go’ right now.
While there is no firm date or plan for a full LMDh car reveal, Rushbrook teased that we’re likely to see it for the first time in spy shots from its initial August rollout at Paul Ricard. Its driver roster is gradually nearing completion, with more news on that expected next month. And around 70 per cent of the positions have been filled within the team ahead of the start of track testing.
Images courtesy of Ford Racing & IMSA
