A dozen IndyCar drivers racing Rolex for preseason prep

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Alex Palou had a superb first yr with Chip Ganassi Racing. He received his first IndyCar race and parlayed it into the sequence championship. He purchased his first automobile — a Porsche — and attended his first live performance and first NASCAR race and quietly married his longtime girlfriend through the offseason.

What can he probably do for an encore?

“Win the Indianapolis 500,“ the 24-year-old Spaniard mentioned with a smile. “Win the massive races.”

His first likelihood comes this weekend, when Palou makes his debut within the Rolex 24 at Daytona, the longest endurance race of his profession. Staff proprietor Ganassi has revived his “star automobile” idea at Daytona and can subject a pair of Cadillacs loaded with expertise.

Palou will share the No. 01 along with his IndyCar teammate Scott Dixon, a six-time sequence champion, in addition to the 2 full-time IMSA drivers: Sebastien Bourdais, a four-time IndyCar champion, and Renger van der Zande, a two-time Rolex winner.

Palou is in a subject filled with superstars and a part of a stacked staff — his IndyCar teammate Marcus Ericsson is a part of the sister No. 02 Ganassi automobile that features former Components One driver Kevin Magnussen — and doesn’t really feel as if the title he received 4 months in the past provides him a lot clout.

“I believe the championship was good for us, however it was not wonderful,” Palou informed The Related Press. “Lots of people all the time talked concerning the different groups, so we have to do extra to have individuals speaking about us. And I do know our groups at Daytona have quite a lot of names and it’s fairly cool, however it doesn’t imply something. I've by no means received Daytona, Marcus has by no means received Daytona.”

Ericsson then interrupted his teammate: “I’ve by no means even raced at Daytona.”

“Sure, see. We're nobodies,” Palou added.

However at Daytona the 2 are amongst a dozen full-time IndyCar drivers within the subject, all seeking to shake away the offseason rust and discover the rhythm they’ll want when their season opens Feb. 27 throughout the state in St. Petersburg.

Dixon is all the time within the twice-round-the-clock sports activities automobile race and Saturday shall be his nineteenth consecutive begin. Alexander Rossi returns for one more stint with defending Rolex winners Wayne Taylor Racing, whereas Simon Pagenaud and Helio Castroneves will open their first full season driving for Meyer Shank Racing as a part of the Rolex lineup celebrating Shank’s tenth anniversary of his Daytona victory.

Rinus VeeKay is making his Rolex debut with Racing Staff Nederland, an LMP2 entry composed completely of Dutch drivers. Additionally in that class is the trio of younger IndyCar stars Colton Herta, Pato O’Ward and rookie Devlin DeFrancesco, who're driving for DragonSpeed USA. Herta and O’Ward have competed towards one another since they had been kids and have been teammates earlier than, whereas Herta and DeFrancesco shall be teammates this season at Andretti Autosport in IndyCar.

Jimmie Johnson is racing for the general victory with Motion Specific Racing, and Indy Lights champion Kyle Kirkwood is within the new GTD Professional class driving for Vasser Sullivan Racing, a Lexus staff determined for a Rolex victory.

“Each single certainly one of my seasons have all been based mostly off of momentum. Often my worst race is the primary race of the yr, then I construct on prime of that,” Kirkwood mentioned. “Beginning it off early with the 24-hour, attempting to get into that race mode, is tremendous necessary. I did it final yr. It was an enormous assist. Being with the Lexus guys, Vasser Sullivan, has been a blessing in my profession as a result of I’ve discovered a lot with them in sports activities automobiles that really interprets over to IndyCar.”

Townsend Bell, the NBC Sports activities analyst, is within the second Vasser Sullivan automobile that can race within the GTD class and spent two days in Indianapolis final week with the IndyCar subject. He mentioned a number of drivers bemoaned not being within the Rolex and mentioned “proper now it’s tougher to get into this race than it's to get into IndyCar.”

“As restricted as IndyCar testing is true now, any observe time in any type of actual racing setting has bought to assist,” Bell mentioned. “The race craft, working with the staff, having the adrenal ranges excessive — which you don’t get in any type of coaching you do — there’s nothing like what you get from pure competitors. If I used to be a full-time IndyCar driver, I’d wish to be right here as a result of when St. Pete hits... they wish to have some momentum.”

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