NASCAR drivers entered in the Rolex 24 include Chase Elliott, Jimmie Johnson
Two weeks before NASCAR Cup cars hit the track for the season-opening Daytona 500, a handful of those same drivers will test their endurance and road course racing abilities at the Rolex 24 at Daytona, motorsports’ annual 24-hour race that starts the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season.
The race starts at 3:30 p.m. Jan. 30 on NBC. Coverage for the full event is available on NBC Sports Gold TrackPass and the full NBC television schedule is below (all times EST), along with a list of NASCAR drivers in the race.
Those drivers include defending Cup champion Chase Elliott, who is making his Rolex 24 debut, and seven-time Cup champion Jimmie Johnson, who retired from full-time racing at the end of last season. Johnson is making his eighth Rolex 24 title attempt.
“For me, I just felt like I wanted to try different things,” Elliott, 25, told IMSA.com. “... I think the more diverse you can be, the better you’ll be at the end of the day and the more equipped you’re going to be down the road.”
“Just trying to learn as much as I can at the age I’m at,” Elliott said. “It’s a good time to do these things. I have good opportunities to go do them, so why not?”
NASCAR drivers in Rolex 24
- Chase Elliott
Elliott will drive the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac DPi V.R for Action Express along with teammates Pipo Derani, Felipe Nasr and Mike Conway. This is Elliott’s first year in the Rolex 24, but his teammates have all entered the event before. Brazilian sportscar driver Derani won the race in 2016. Nasr and Derani also won this year’s Motul Pole Award 100 qualifying race, so the team will start on the pole Saturday.
Jimmie Johnson
Johnson is also competing for Action Express Racing, but in the No. 48 Ally Cadillac DPi V.R with two-time Rolex 24 winner Kamui Kobayashi, Indianapolis 500 winner Simon Pagenaud (2019) and Mike Rockenfeller. Johnson, who is scheduled to run a part-time IndyCar schedule with Chip Ganassi Racing this year, will be making his first Rolex 24 start since 2011. He was part of a runner-up team in 2005 and 2008.
Johnson’s former NASCAR Cup championship-winning crew chief Chad Knaus is joining the team at the track for the race. Knaus, the vice president of competition at Hendrick, is reportedly supporting the No. 48 Cadillac team along with four other Hendrick employees.
Austin Dillon, Cody Ware
Dillon and Ware will both race in the Rick Ware Racing Eurasia’s Le Mans Prototype 2 entry this weekend. Their teammates are Salih Yoluc, who won a class of last year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans race, and Sven Muller, who was added as the team’s fourth driver Wednesday after original entrant Mathieu Jaminet tested positive for COVID-19.
While Ware, who is running a full-time Cup schedule this year for RWR, competed in last year’s Rolex 24, this is Dillon’s first attempt in the event. He said the goal of his entry is to help prepare him for more NASCAR road course races.
“My grandfather (NASCAR team owner Richard Childress) also wanted me to get more road course racing experience,” Dillon told MRN. “I was just glad to get in another car and get on the track.”
A.J. Allmendinger
Allmendinger is entered in the Rolex 24 driving the No. 60 Acura ARX-05 for Meyer Shank Racing with teammates Dane Cameron, Oliver Pla and Juan Pablo Montoya. Allmendinger will enter select NASCAR Cup races this year for Kaulig Racing, including the Daytona road course, and is set to run a full Xfinity season. This will be his 15th Rolex 24 entry. He won the race with the team in 2012.
A full list of teams and drivers can be found here.
Rolex 24 TV schedule, how to watch
Saturday, Jan. 30
3:30-4:30 p.m. – NBC
4:30-8 p.m. – NBCSN
8-11 p.m. ET – NBC App
11 p.m.-12 a.m. – NBCSN
Sunday, Jan. 31
12 a.m.-3 a.m. – NBCSN
3-6 a.m. ET – NBC App
6 a.m.-2 p.m. – NBCSN
2-4 p.m. – NBC
Radio: All 24 hours will be available on IMSA Radio and on XM Radio 202 and Sirius 216.
This story was originally published January 30, 2021 at 7:00 AM with the headline "NASCAR drivers entered in the Rolex 24 include Chase Elliott, Jimmie Johnson."
