NASCAR president Jim France’s car wins the Rolex 24 pole, then is disqualified

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — The Cadillac sports car owned by NASCAR President Jim France won the pole for the Rolex 24 at Daytona but was later disqualified during inspection, moving one of the favorites to the back of the class for the start of the most prestigious endurance race in the United States.

Action Express Racing won pole at speed with driver Jack Aitken, but lost its position when the number 31 failed inspection because the rear pad’s friction surface was beyond the allowable tolerance. The disqualification dropped Cadillac to the bottom of the top GTP class, while one of two Acuras owned by Meyer Shank Racing was knocked into the lead for a race that begins Saturday and runs twice around the clock at Daytona International Speedway.

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

Zilisch, a 19-year-old Cup Series rookie, has one Rolex class win in 2024, but is racing at the highest level for the first time. Gary Nelson, the Action Express team manager, held his breath last weekend when he sent Zilisch on night practices because he wasn’t sure his experience level was high enough to handle the closing pace between the top cars and slower classes, especially in the dark.

Zilisch was impeccable.

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

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“You have to be able to cut through traffic without hitting anything or getting hit. Once the session was over, I decided to talk to him as soon as he got out of the car just to see if his blood pressure was high or his adrenaline was high and he said ‘So, what time is dinner?'”

Now the teenager will have to help drive 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 favorites.

Porsche Penske Motorsports is looking for a third consecutive victory in the event and once again with a revamped lineup. Roger Penske’s No. 7 Porsche 963 has won the race the last two years with two different grids, with Felipe Nasr being the only one left for the last three years.

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Nasr was paired last year with Nick Tandy and Laurens Vanthoor as the trio held off its sister car No. 6 and the Acura no. 60 of Meyer Shank Racing in the final hour giving Porsche its twentieth overall win at Daytona.

But the Brazilian has new teammates this year, paired with Julien Andlauer of France and Laurin Heinrich of Germany. Vanthoor has been moved to entry no. 6 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. 1 Acura. 60 reminiscent of the days of “star cars,” when Chip Ganassi Racing fielded a full entry of talent from across motorsports. This year the No. 60 is a four-driver lineup that boasts a total of 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 final driver for Shank’s 2012 win.

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

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

The car that will start from 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 was last Friday ordered to pay McLaren Racing more than $12 million in damages in a breach of contract dispute raised when the Spaniard backed out of two separate deals with McLaren. He signed twice to move to McLaren’s IndyCar team, but ultimately decided to stay with Ganassi.

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It is Allmendinger’s 17th Rolex appearance.

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

Cadillac will compete with four different entries, three from Wayne Taylor Racing, which now races under 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 the Formula 1 feeder series, in another.

Action Express is the fourth Cadillac.

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