DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — The Rolex 24 of Daytona is one of the most important endurance races on the IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship calendar.
This year over 60 cars competed in five different classes in the 24-hour long race to kickoff off the 2022 racing season. Teams competing in the race usually recruit drivers from outside the regular IMSA field to come and drive for them.
Ten current IndyCar drivers went the distance starting Saturday afternoon and ending Sunday afternoon, with Helio Castroneves taking the overall checkered flag for Meyer Shank Racing, along with fellow full-time IndyCar teammate Simon Pagenaud.
Castroneves led the team in his signature celebration in climbing the fence in the tri-oval of Daytona International Speedway.
“It sounds cliche, but it’s all about believing,” Castroneves said. “I believe in them, they believe in me. This is exactly what is happening with this group here. With Simon, with Tom, and with Oliver – we all believed that we could do it.”
Regular sportscar drivers Tom Blomqvist and Oliver Jarvis joined Pagenaud and Castroneves in the DPi effort. It’s another big win for the Meyer Shank camp after Castroneves won the Indianapolis 500 back in May of 2021.
MSR’s win also snapped a three-year-long winning streak for Wayne Taylor Racing, who took second place overall.
Fellow IndyCar drivers Colton Herta, Pato O’Ward, and Devlin DeFrancesco joined sportscar veteran Eric Lux in a winning effort in the LMP2 class for DragonSpeed Racing.
Between the four drivers, DragonSpeed led more than 100 laps in the wee hours of Sunday morning and held the lead into the afternoon.
