NASCAR chairman Jim France's car wins Rolex 24 pole, then gets disqualified

France owns NASCAR, the IMSA sports car series, the Daytona track and the Action Express car that was disqualified. His car for this weekend features regulars Aitken and Earl Bamber, as well as Mercedes Formula 1 test driver Frederik Vesti and NASCAR rising star Connor Zilisch.

Zilisch, a 19-year-old Cup Series rookie, earned a Rolex class victory in 2024 but is racing at the top level for the first time. Gary Nelson, the Action Express team manager, held his breath last weekend when he sent Zilisch out for night practice because he was unsure if his experience level was high enough to manage the closing rate between the top cars and the slower classes — especially in the dark.

Zilisch was flawless.

“He calculates his risk pretty well. He doesn’t get in trouble, or he hasn’t, yet, driving our car,” Nelson said. “We put him out there at night with 55 other cars on the track for almost an hour and I was concerned, obviously, because there’s traffic, we’re in the fastest car, we’re passing cars constantly and many times those other cars don’t see us coming.

“You have to be able to slice through the traffic without hitting anything or getting hit. When the session was over I made it a point to talk to him as soon as he got out of the car just to see if his blood pressure was up or his adrenaline was up and he was just like ‘So what time is dinner?’”

Now the teenager will have to help navigate the Cadillac through a stacked GTP field.

The Rolex marks the unofficial start of the motorsports season and this year's race features 60 cars from 12 different automakers, 228 drivers from 32 countries and no clear favorite.

Porsche Penske Motorsports is seeking a third consecutive victory in the event and again with an overhauled lineup. Roger Penske's No. 7 Porsche 963 has won the race the last two years with two different lineups and Felipe Nasr is the only holdover for the last three years.

Nasr was paired last year with Nick Tandy and Laurens Vanthoor as the trio held off its sister No. 6 car and the No. 60 Acura from Meyer Shank Racing over the final hour to give Porsche its 20th overall victory at Daytona.

But the Brazilian has new teammates this year, paired with Julien Andlauer of France and Laurin Heinrich of Germany. Vanthoor was moved to the No. 6 entry and will share driving duties with Kévin Estre of France and Matt Campbell of Australia.

Meyer Shank Racing has built a lineup in its No. 60 Acura that harkens back to the “star car” days when Chip Ganassi Racing would field an entry packed with talent from across motorsports. This year the No. 60 is a four-driver lineup that boasts a combined 10 Rolex victories.

Shank regulars Colin Braun (4 wins) and Tom Blomqvist (2) anchor the entry along with six-time IndyCar champion Scott Dixon (3) and NASCAR driver AJ Allmendinger, who was the closing driver for Shank's 2012 victory.

Allmendinger, who at 44 years old is the second-oldest driver in NASCAR's Cup Series, was brought back by team owner Michael Shank because Shank is convinced Allmendinger should have won multiple Rolex watches in his career.

“Drivers are not our problem,” Shank said of his two-car Daytona effort.

The car that will start from the pole includes four-time IndyCar champion Alex Palou along with previous race winner Renger van der Zande, as well as Nick Yelloly and Kaku Ohta.

Palou earlier Friday was ordered to pay McLaren Racing more than $12 million in damages in a breach of contract dispute brought when the Spaniard backed out of two different deals with McLaren. He twice signed to move to McLaren's IndyCar team but ultimately decided to remain with Ganassi.

It is Allmendinger's 17th appearance in the Rolex.

“I know AJ jokes around, but he knows this race. He doesn’t know the car super well, but he knows how to handle the traffic, how to race at night," Shank said. “And he's been so loyal to me and this team. That kind of loyalty is just unheard of. I just wanted him. I just wanted to try to win one more time with him, because he should have won four by now.”

Cadillac will put up a fight with four different entries, three from Wayne Taylor Racing, which now runs under the TWG Motorsports. That allowed Andretti Global to send Indianapolis 500 winner Marcus Ericsson to Daytona in one car, and Colton Herta, who is leaving IndyCar this year to race in Formula 1's feeder series, in another.

Action Express is the fourth Cadillac.

AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing