IndyCar Drivers Ready to Roll in Rolex 24 at Daytona

The season-opener at St Petersburg is still seven weeks away but nearly half of the full-time IndyCar drivers are set to get their first taste of racing next weekend. The 61st edition of the Rolex 24 at Daytona will feature many of the current stars of the open wheel series, and even more from the past.

With the official entry list of 61 cars set to be released soon, 11 drivers have already announced plans to race in the iconic endurance event at the end of the month. Six of the team owners will also be competing in the event this year.

Scott Dixon will be making his 20th Rolex 24 start, and his third consecutive in Chip Ganassi's No. 01 Cadillac. The six-time IndyCar champ has been the overall winner three times at Daytona, most recently in 2020 with Wayne Taylor Racing. He will team up with four-time champion Sebastien Bourdais.

Team Penske will be well represented this year. Reigning series champion Will Power will be making his IMSA debut with the SunEnergy1 Racing team in the No. 75 Mercedes-AMG in the GTD class. His IndyCar teammates Josef Newgarden and Scott McLaughlin will make their Rolex 24 debut together in the No. 8 Tower Motorsports entry in the LMP2 category.

Austin Cindric is another Penske driver that will be competing in the event, as the Daytona 500 winner drives for Rick Ware Racing in LMP2. Roger's new Porsche Penske Motorsport GTP team will also make its debut.

All four Andretti Autosport drivers will be competing this year, but all with different teams in different classes. Colton Herta will drive the No. 25 BMW for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing and Kyle Kirkwood returns to the No. 12 Lexus in GTD with Vasser Sullivan. Romain Grosjean will be driving the No. 63 Huracan for Iron Lynx Racing while Devlin DeFrancesco joins the No. 51 Rick Ware Racing team in LMP2.

This will be the fifth Rolex 24 start for Herta, and his first in the premier prototype division. The 22-year old has won in GTLM (2019) and LMP2 (2021) in his previous efforts with BMW. Michael Andretti's team just recently announced their partnership with Wayne Taylor Racing, while they still seek to find their way into the Formula One paddock.

Meyer Shank Racing will have both Helio Castroneves and Simon Pagenaud back in their No. 60 Acura ARX-06 entry, which won the race last year. Making his third consecutive start, Ed Carpenter Racing driver Rinus VeeKay will be behind the wheel of the No. 11 LMP2 entry for TDS Racing.

There are a handful of big-name drivers that will not be racing in the race this year. That includes new Arrow McLaren teammates, Alexander Rossi and Pato O'Ward. With Ganassi opting for three-driver lineups this year, both Alex Palou and Marcus Ericsson will be watching from the sidelines after making their debuts last year.

The Roar Before the 24 will take place on January 20-22 followed by the 24-hour race on January 28-29.