(Photo courtesy of IMSA)

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. _ Add another historic victory to Roger Penske’s iconic motorsports career.

Team Penske kicked off its 60th anniversary season with overall victory Sunday in the 64th Rolex 24 at Daytona, Penske’s third consecutive win in the world-renowned sports car endurance race. IMSA’s WeatherTech SportsCar Championship 2026 season-opener attracted a record crowd to Daytona International Speedway’s road-course.

Brazilian Felipe Nasr drove the No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963 across the finish line 1.569-seconds ahead of Brit Jack Aitken in the No. 31 Cadillac Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R after a particularly spirited battle through the final hour between the two. The No. 24 BMW M Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8 was third, 21-seconds behind the winner in the team’s first race running the IMSA BMW GTP program.

“The driving that he’s done for us and at the end there, probably one of the best drives I’ve seen,” Penske _ 88, and a former sports car racer _ said of Nasr. “You know for our 60th it’s a big deal, and here at Daytona, to have three wins here is certainly special. Starts out the year the right way.”

Nasr’s body of work now equals and follows on the heels of fellow-Brazilian Helio Castroneves’ three consecutive overall wins (2021-23) on Daytona’s famed 3.56-mile “roval.” Peter Gregg also achieved the feat when he won three straight in 1973, ’75 and ’76 (there was no race in ’74). Both Nasr’s co-drivers _ German Laurin Heinrich and Frenchman Julien Andlauer _ won their first Rolex 24s and Andlauer achieved his first WeatherTech Championship win of any kind.

Plaudits were earned for team and manufacturer as well. Team Penske tied Chip Ganassi Racing and Wayne Taylor Racing with its third consecutive win and 46th in any IMSA class. Porsche brought home its 21st overall Rolex 24 victory, the most of any manufacturer.

“Three in a row, it’s just a very special day _ I dreamed of that,’’ Nasr said. “We had a battle all the way to the end with the (No.) 31. … I was just trying all I could because I know in these final hours everyone is using everything they have inside the car, and the Cadillac was a strong car.

“The field has such good drivers. I have to acknowledge that the level of this race is getting higher and higher in this GTP (Grand Touring Prototype) class. It was pure racing. I used everything I had.”

Sunny skies and 70-degree temperatures _ warmer-than-usual Rolex 24 weather _ straddled a heavy overnight fog that brought out a full-course caution flag for six hours, 33 minutes, the longest in Rolex 24 history.

When racing resumed after the fog lifted just after 7 a.m. (EST), the action picked up. The Penske Porsches battled closely with the BMWs and Cadillacs for the overall lead and, as is so typical of this legendary race, the final hours delivered high drama.

The Nos. 7 and 6 Penske Porsches truly dominated the event statistically, combining to lead 521 of the 705 laps completed (74 percent of the race). Still, Team Penske had to fend off a strong two-car BMW effort and a powerful Cadillac presence that included a pair of Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing entries in addition to the runner-up No. 31 Cadillac Whelen entry.

Also factoring into the mix was a persistent push from the two-car Acura Michael Shank Racing w/Curb Agajanian Acura ARX-06 effort that claimed pole position. Nine of the 11 GTP cars led laps.

Twice in the final hour, Aitken was able to move within less than a half-second of Nasr, pulling alongside in one particular attempt to pass heading into Turn 1. But Nasr was on his game, negotiating the 60-car field throughout the race and repelling Aitken’s attempts to overtake during the final 60 minutes.

“The guys all around from the team in the pit box to my teammates did a fantastic job to get us back into a position at the end of the race,’’ said Aitken, who was aiming to park the No. 31 Cadillac in Victory Lane for a third straight WeatherTech Championship race dating to the final two of 2025. “The Porsches were very strong all race, very impressive. We tried to challenge them best we could and I got close to them a few times.

“Just really, really heart-breaking but we had great runs and I’m proud of that. I had a couple moments where I stuck my nose in there, but it was always from just a bit further back just trying to make something happen. I never got a super-great run on them. I was trying to find an opening here and there, and (there was) a fine line between making a gap open up and causing a bit of an accident.”

The Rolex 24 is the first of five IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup races on the 2026 schedule. By leading at all four junctures when endurance points were awarded, the No. 7 Porsche has opened a significant lead over the competition.

CrowdStrike Racing by APR claimed victory in a very competitive 13-car Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) class, overcoming a first-lap incident moments into the 24-hour race to regroup and win.

It went a long way to avenge a photo-finish runner-up showing for the team’s ORECA LMP2 07 two years ago at Daytona. That memory, when the No. 04 lost by 0.016-seconds, was seared into the memory of team-owner and Bronze-rated co-driver George Kurtz. The No. 04 also finished second a year later, with Kurtz and two of his 2026 co-drivers _ Malthe Jakobsen and Toby Sowery _ on board. Along with fourth driver Alex Quinn, all were elated to nail down the first Rolex 24 win for each.

The No. 04 recovered from that Lap 1 incident Saturday _ collected in a multi-car melee heading into Turn 1 _ but went on to lead often and convincingly. Its healthy 5.590-second win over the No. 43 Inter Europol Competition ORECA marked the largest margin of victory in the four classes competing in the 60-car field. Inter Europol’s second entry, the No. 343 ORECA, completed the LMP2 class podium.

“Fantastic car and it was great in the end,” Kurtz said. “We had some adversity in the beginning, the first turn. We were innocent bystanders and got cleaned out a bit, but the team got us back on track and we never gave up. Really this has been a lifelong dream and we finally got it done.”

The CrowdStrike drivers acknowledged the LMP2 class was particularly competitive, as surviving close calls and rebounding from contact was absolutely part of the winning formula. The No. 04 led 223 laps, including 111 of the last 120 when it counted.

“Watching George get wiped out at the start, LMP2 I’d argue is probably the toughest class in the IMSA field,” Sowery said. “Everybody is in the same car and it’s all about maximizing every other thing possible. Even if things are done as well as they can be on the day by the team, it doesn’t always go your way. For me, it’s about experiencing grit, but we have a great lineup and so we should be one of the teams on the beneficiary of that.”

The No. 99 AO Racing ORECA, which led 298 laps before finishing fifth, took LMP2 Michelin Endurance Cup top honors.

The IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship resumes March 18-21 with the 74th annual Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring at Sebring International Raceway in Florida.

In Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO), starting from the rear of the field proved a minor setback for Paul Miller Racing.

Neil Verhagen’s front-row qualifying effort in the No. 1 BMW M4 GT3 EVO was disallowed after the car was found to have camber in excess of the permitted limit. Despite starting 15th and last, Verhagen and co-drivers Connor De Phillippi, Max Hesse and Dan Harper prevailed to win by 2.223-seconds over the No. 75 Mercedes-AMG GT3 fielded by 75 Express and shared by Kenny Habul, Maro Engel, Australian Supercars champion Chaz Mostert and IndyCar champion Will Power, also of Australia.

Phillip Ellis termed his Grand Touring Daytona (GTD) battle with Nicki Thiim “a little stressful.”

Driver of the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3, Ellis fought door-to-door with Thiim’s No. 44 Magnus Racing Aston Martin GT3 EVO through Daytona International Speedway’s famed tri-oval with 10 minutes remaining in the twice-around-the-clock enduro. Slight contact between the cars sent both into lurid slides _ masterfully corrected by the drivers.

Ellis maintained a slim advantage under braking into Turn 1 and fought off another concentrated attack from Thiim before pulling away to a 1.367-second advantage at the checkered flag.

Ellis, a 35-year-old Swiss-British-German, shared the winning car with Russell Ward, Indy Dontje and Lucas Auer. Thiim sought to deliver a win in the Magnus Aston he co-drove with past Rolex 24 class winners John Potter, Spencer Pumpelly (who entered with a race-high 24 starts, although not consecutive) and team newcomer Madison Snow.

Tom Gamble, Zacharie Robichon, Mattia Drudi and Dudu Barrichello _ the 24-year-old son of former Formula 1 driver Rubens Barrichello _ claimed third in the No. 27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo.