Porsche can extend its lead as the manufacturer with most wins at the Rolex 24 at Daytona in Florida if it comes first again this year.
The German automaker already holds the record for most wins by a manufacturer in the endurance race. But if he wins this weekend’s opening event of the 2025 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, organized by the International Motor Sports Association, he will extend that total to 20.
He got the no. 19 last year, giving him the same number of wins as his top three competitors combined. Porsche’s first victory in the race was in 1968.
The prospect of conquering the No. 20 has instilled extra motivation in the Team Penske team running Porsche’s 963 LMDh cars in the IMSA Grand Touring Prototype class.
“It’s very important to put these milestones and lines in the sand,” Jonathan Diuguid, CEO of Porsche Penske Motorsport, said in an interview.
“When you can focus on things like 20 wins in one race like Daytona, they’re probably never going to catch it — in my lifetime anyway. And so, to be a part of expanding those records and expanding those target positions for our competitors is very important, really rewarding.”
Porsche won its 19th Daytona last year, battling Cadillac and the Action Express team. After a full day of racing, Porsche’s Felipe Nasr brought his car to the checkered flag, coming in first by just 2.1 seconds.
“It was amazing,” Nasr, a former Formula 1 driver from Brazil, said in a recent interview. “Everything I knew as a driver, I had to try.”
Porsche Penske Motorsport won the 2024 IMSA constructors’ title, while Nasr and Dane Cameron of the United States, who was his teammate at the time, won the drivers’ championship. In total, Porsche won three more races in 2024, with Nasr and Cameron taking one more victory after Daytona. The team’s second car — driven by Frenchman Mathieu Jamine and Englishman Nick Tandy — scored the other two as they finished second in the drivers’ championship.
These results represented a significant improvement from the 2023 IMSA series for Porsche Penske Motorsport. This was the first season that Porsche and Penske joined forces to run the 963 car in the championship, as well as in the Hypercar division of the World Endurance Championship, a separate program that runs around the world using cars of the same type as the Grand. The Touring Prototype class at its best.
That season marked a transition for Porsche as it began competing in the top sports car racing categories again, following a change in car design rules that made racing programs less expensive.
Porsche won three IMSA races in its first season back, but none of its drivers were challenged for the 2023 championship and it was beaten by Cadillac in the constructors’ standings. Porsche struggled to make their cars fast fast and they were also mechanically unreliable.
“The 2023 season didn’t go the way any of us wanted,” Duguid said. “So a lot of hard work went into the offseason.”
The team introduced a new front suspension design to try and make their car faster in tighter, slower corners. He has also worked to better understand how the car’s tires can perform faster when temperatures rise through a 24-hour race like Daytona.
In last year’s race, Porsche had a lead in the cool night conditions, but Cadillac was faster when the sun came out.
“Even though we won last year, we haven’t taken our foot off the gas trying to get better,” Diuguid said. “We could sit back and say, ‘Hey, the car won all these races and championships, why are we changing anything?’
“And the reason is because we know we can improve. That’s why we keep coming back to the track.”
For the new IMSA season, Porsche Penske Motorsport has also reduced its number of drivers following a performance review. Tandy became Nasr’s full teammate in IMSA and Cameron was dropped from the program.
At the 2024 Daytona race, both Porsche cars were fielded by four drivers each. This time, there will be three of each.
For Daytona and the other major events at Sebring, Fla., and Road Atlanta, Nasr and Tandy will be joined by Laurens Vanthoor, who races a Porsche in the FIA World Endurance Championship. IMSA rules allow lineups to expand beyond full-time crews for the longer races for safety reasons.
“It’s really about the physical side of it,” Diuguid explained. “And just make sure they’re fresh when they’re in the car.”
Porsche Penske Motorsport chose to make all these changes as a result of the extremely close competition last year, when teams from four different manufacturers won races. Cadillac won the season finale at Road Atlanta, which is called Petit Le Mans in homage to the endurance race in France. BMW and its Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing team came on strong as the year progressed and won the penultimate race of the season at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
“I’m not discounting anybody,” Diuguid said. “Because the quality of the teams and the quality of the drivers in the IMSA field is second to none and probably the highest I’ve seen in the last 15 years.”
Cadillac is expected to pose a significant threat to Porsche.
Last year, Cadillac’s Action Express team narrowly lost at Daytona, a result that largely led to a late-race pit stop when Nasr refueled faster than Cadillac and took the lead it would not lose.
“We feel like we have something to prove after last year,” Action Express team manager Gary Nelson said in a recent interview.
“Porsche is the defending champion and race winner. So you have to say that’s the goal – to beat them. But we’ve worked awfully hard this offseason to improve every detail of our program.”
But Nasr is confident Porsche will win.
“I think with the momentum we’ve built as a team and how we’ve developed as a whole, both of our cars have a strong chance to fight for the win,” he said.
“It’s a race where everyone tries to give 100%. And I feel ready. We did it in 2024 and it will be incredible to do it again, back to back.”
