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

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — The Cadillac sports car owned by NASCAR Chairman Jim France won the pole for the Rolex 24 at Daytona but was later disqualified during inspection, putting one of the favorites at the back of class for the start of America’s most prestigious endurance race.

Action Express Racing won the pole on speed with driver Jack Aitken, but lost the position when the No. 31 failed inspection because the friction surface of its rear skid exceeded the permitted tolerance. The disqualification relegated the Cadillac to the back of the GTP’s top class, while one of two Acuras owned by Meyer Shank Racing was pushed to the front 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 disqualified Action Express car. His car for this weekend includes 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 a victory in the Rolex class in 2024, but is racing at the highest level for the first time. Action Express team manager Gary Nelson held his breath last weekend when he sent Zilisch to night testing because he wasn’t sure if his experience level was high enough to handle the pace of closing in between the top cars and the slowest 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 out there at night with 55 other cars on the track for almost an hour and I was obviously worried, because there’s traffic, we’re in the fastest car, we’re constantly overtaking cars and often these other cars don’t see us coming.

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“You have to be able to navigate traffic without hitting anything or getting hit. After 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 high or his adrenaline was pumping and he was like, ‘So, what time is dinner?'”

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

The Rolex marks the unofficial start of the motorsport 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 aiming for a third consecutive victory in this event and once again with a reshuffled crew. Roger Penske’s No. 7 Porsche 963 has won the race the last two years with two different crews and Felipe Nasr is the sole survivor from 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 No. 6 car and Meyer Shank Racing’s No. 60 Acura over the final hour to give Porsche its 20th overall victory at Daytona.

But the Brazilian has new teammates this year, with Frenchman Julien Andlauer and German Laurin Heinrich. Vanthoor has been moved to No.6 and will share driving duties with Frenchman Kévin Estre and Australian Matt Campbell.

Meyer Shank Racing has assembled a model lineup for its No. 60 Acura that harkens back to the “star car” days when Chip Ganassi Racing fielded a car filled with talent from across motorsports. This year, the No. 60 is made up of four drivers who have a total of 10 Rolex victories.

Shank regulars Colin Braun (4 wins) and Tom Blomqvist (2) anchor the entry with six-time IndyCar champion Scott Dixon (3) and NASCAR driver AJ Allmendinger, who was the closing 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 several Rolex watches during his career.

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

The car starting from pole includes four-time IndyCar champion Alex Palou, former race winner Renger van der Zande, as well as Nick Yelloly and Kaku Ohta.

Palou was ordered earlier Friday to pay McLaren Racing more than $12 million in damages in breach of contract litigation brought when the Spaniard pulled out of two different deals with McLaren. He twice signed to join McLaren’s IndyCar team, but ultimately decided to stay with Ganassi.

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This is Allmendinger’s 17th appearance behind the wheel of a Rolex.

“I know AJ is joking, but he knows this race. He doesn’t know the car very well, but he knows how to deal with 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 him. I just wanted to try to win one more time with him, because he should have won four by now.”

Cadillac will battle with four different entries, three from Wayne Taylor Racing, which now operates under the management of 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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AP Auto Racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing