The IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship kicked off the 2026 season on Saturday with the 64th running of the Rolex 24 at Daytona. The grueling 24-hour race saw 11 cars not finish the race. The No. 28 Rs1 Porsche 911 GT3 R, driven by Eric Zitza, lost control and hit the wall at Turn 1, and they were the team was out of the race.
Into the night, fog rolled in, and the race was under caution for six hours and thirty-three minutes. The race resumed at seven in the morning. Another car that was in the running was the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac V-Series.R of Filipe Albuquerque was in their pit box when the car caught on fire, and that ended their day with two hours left of the race.
On the final lap, the No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963 of Felipe Nasr held off Jack Aitken in the No. 31 Cadillac Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R by 1.569 seconds. The other drivers who drove the No. 7 car were Laurin Henrich and Julien Andlauer.
It was Porsche Penske Motorsport’s third straight Rolex 24 at Daytona win. Helio Castroneves was the last driver to win three straight at Daytona (2021-23) with Wayne Taylor Racing and Meyer Shank Racing, and Peter Gregg won in 1973, 1975, and 1976. There was no race in 1974.
The other winners of the Rolex 24 at Daytona were the No. 04 Crowdstrike Racing by APR ORECA LMP2 07 of Toby Sowery, Alex Quinn, Malthe Jakobsen, and George Kurtz won in LMP2, the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO of Max Hesse, ConnorDe Phillippi, Neil Verhagen, and Dan Harper won in GTD Pro, and the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Russell Ward, Indy Dontje, Philip Ellis, and Lucas Auer won in GTD. Check out the full results here.
The IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship returns in March from Sebring International Raceway.
