It’s known as “The World Center of Racing” year-round, but it’s the last two weeks of January when Daytona International Speedway annually embodies its moniker of cosmopolitan might.
In the dead of winter, the track’s garage comes alive and crackles with the alluring electricity of delightful accents and exotic machinery. Renowned drivers representing nearly every continent take turns wedging themselves into highly sophisticated cars that they share by trading stints during the 24-hour race. More than a dozen high-profile automakers jam the track’s famous 31-degree banking with luxurious marques known around the globe.
The prestige of the Rolex 24 at Daytona is rooted in its 63-year history as a mecca of motorsports, and that reputation will be reaffirmed on the 12-turn, 3.56-mile road course in 2025. The 61-car field will include winners at the world’s most iconic tracks — Daytona, Indianapolis, Le Mans, Spa and Bathurst, to name only a few.
The “International Race of Champions” brand was claimed long ago, but its spirit applies to the sports car extravaganza in Central Florida as much as any racing event in the world.
Stars from NASCAR, Formula One, IndyCar, Formula E and the World Endurance Championship will race around the clock for an event akin to the Olympics in both its breathtaking scope and competitive vigor.
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“The great thing about the Rolex 24 is such great drivers want to win this race,” said Ricky Taylor, an overall Rolex 24 winner in 2017 and ’21 whose team has won the event with Jeff Gordon, Fernando Alonso and Scott Dixon — three superstars who have combined to win the Memorial Day weekend triple crown of the Monaco Grand Prix, Indy 500 and Coca-Cola 600. “It’s an honor to drive with many of them. It’s a privilege that we get to learn from each other and see what makes those great drivers great. For a driver, that’s super, super cool.”
Other reasons why the Rolex 24 has become such a fixture as a worldwide lid-lifter for the motorsports season:
— It’s so coveted … and also so hard to win. The winner’s roster on the Daytona road course naturally includes some of the biggest names in American motorsports: Gordon, Dan Gurney, Mario Andretti and AJ Foyt among them.
But many NASCAR champions have tried and come up short of sporting the unique trophy awarded to every class winner (a steel and yellow gold Rolex Oyster Perpetual Cosmograph Daytona with a white dial). With at least three drivers sharing the wheel on every entry, victory is elusive amid the never-ending potential for pilot error in heavy traffic (particularly as reflexes fade during the early morning hours) or parts failures in nearly 3,000 miles of racing.
With three runner-up finishes in nine starts, Jimmie Johnson has been agonizingly close to winning the prized watch, and the seven-time NASCAR Cup champ went so far as to assemble a Rolex 24 team in 2021-22 in hopes of checking it off his bucket list.
Kurt Busch, Tony Stewart and Kyle Busch also have chased a Rolex 24 win, as has Dale Earnhardt Jr., who made a celebrated 2001 debut in a No. 3 Corvette with his late father.
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— The history transcends sports cars: When NASCAR founder Bill France created the Daytona Continental in 1962, the concept of the Rolex 24 forerunner was to showcase world-class drivers from various disciplines on his new speedway. More than six decades later, the Rolex 24 continues to fulfill France’s vision of positioning Daytona as a destination event.
Among this year’s best examples will be the Trackhouse Racing Corvette that will team two Americans (Ben Keating and rising star Connor Zilisch) with two New Zealanders who also happen to be three-time Supercars champions and U.S. migrants after excelling Down Under. Shane van Gisbergen, a four-time NASCAR winner who moves into Cup full-time this year, will make his sixth Rolex 24 start, and Scott McLaughlin, a seven-time IndyCar winner with Team Penske, will make his third at Daytona but first in GT.
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An entry list of more than 200 drivers will include many such combinations of drivers whose collective resumes are highlighted by wins in F1, the Indy 500 and Daytona 500 (2022 winner Austin Cindric is a late addition to the Ford lineup as an injury replacement).
— The cars are also the stars: The Rolex 24 at Daytona was a flashpoint during the “Ford vs. Ferrari” wars of the 1960s, and it’s been renewed as an epicenter for manufacturer clashes in the premier Grand Touring Prototype category.
Since the 2023 introduction of a new car with a hybrid engine, IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship teams can compete for overall wins at both Daytona and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. That bridge between the world’s two biggest endurance races has resulted in an automaker spike with BMW, Porsche and Lamborghini joining Acura and Cadillac in IMSA’s top division (and Aston Martin slated to join in the Twelve Hours of Sebring).
The GT classes, which are based on production models, feature even more brand variety. Ford re-entered the fray last year with its Mustang GT3 in a competitive GTD Pro category that already included Chevrolet (Corvette), Ferrari, Lexus, Mercedes, BMW, Lamborghini and Aston Martin.

— A party that never stops: The infield attracts a different type of crowd than the Daytona 500 (there are far fewer BMWs, Porsches and Mercedes clogging the access roads in February), but the fan fervor is similar with an off-the-charts enthusiasm for car culture. When the sun sets a few hours after the green flag, the multihued Ferris wheel off Lake Lloyd becomes a beacon of illumination in a carnival atmosphere of late-night fireworks and early-morning barbecues.
Nate Ryan has written about NASCAR since 1996 while working at the San Bernardino Sun, Richmond Times-Dispatch, USA TODAY and for the past 11 years at NBC Sports Digital. He also has covered various other motorsports, including the IndyCar and IMSA series (including the Rolex 24 at Daytona five times).