The Rolex 24 is green at Daytona, and NASCAR reveals their Le Mans "Garage 56" driver lineup!
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NASCAR Reveals Le Mans Drivers | No Jeff Gordon?
33 comments
Jenson actually did compete in Le Mans in 2018
You’re right! My mistake. I read somewhere that he hadn’t, but that was incorrect.
@Eric Estepp do we know if Dale Earnhardt Jr is on the Rolex 24 telecast
@BRIAN PATRICK REDDINGTON I’ve been watching and haven’t seen him. Leigh Diffy, Townsend Bell, Letarte and Marty Snider have been the main commentators.
@Eric Estepp he’ll possibly do the midnight broadcast
Wishing Jeff Gordon well. His Jimmy Fallon appearance was fun to watch.
@Cole Murray i dunno what was the thing that “isn’t mainstream/anti-mainstream”? Like a “non-woke diversity” stuff?
@tolldoll100 What do you mean with the eye roll emoji? It’s true that these tonight shows are woke and even cringy at times I mean look at SNL. What I meant by “good for Jeff”, I literally mean it not being sarcastic. It’s good for NASCAR getting recognized again to the point of becoming mainstream but they’re not there yet.
@Razor I’m just saying that I’m surprised that Jeff was on Kimmel cuz let’s be honest, NASCAR isn’t really mainstream like IndyCar and F1 like they used to be back in the mid 2000’s. What I meant by tonight shows are woke, just look at SNL.
Jeff Gordon once said that he was afraid to get into another car after he and his Wayne Taylor Racing teammates won the Rolex 24 in 2017 because he won in his last race.
Im surprised it’s not Gordon, but Button can do the job. He’s ran in the WEC a few years back in LMP1 for SMP where I think they got a podium at Le Mans (maybe I’m wrong)
2:35 Well, not quite. The Garage 56 entry is scored in the overall race results like any other car and therefore gets a cut from it’s overall position- it just cannot win any class rewards as it will be in it’s own special 1 car category.
It still stands to reason that it won’t win the race, LMH/LMDh are effectively closed-cockpit formula cars with their speeds, but it will be nice to see how it pairs up with other GTEAm class cars which it will have closest relation to.
I watched the Porsche race Gordon competed in and he looked pretty uncomfortable. I think he’s happy where he is now in his life, so I’m not surprised he decided not to do LeMans. If this was only a year or two removed from when he retired I think it’d be a different story.
Chase Elliott was pretty vocal about not wanting to drive in Le Mans. Even if the schedule allowed him to do so, he said he felt the endeavor is pointless because it’s only the single car in that class so the team isn’t actually competing.
Makes sense. I was thinking why not have him race since he really is one of if not the best rc racer in nascar today. If not for dumb things that happened last year he could’ve won 3 maybe 4 of them. But I get why he wouldn’t want to. It’s a good point
Fair. What is the point for NASCAR to race in Le Mans if they’re not competing for the win? Is it all just a publicity stunt or else?
@Cole Murray mostly a publicity stunt but thats not a bad thing. Also a good chance to see what they can do with lap times and durability.
@Daniel Chai Oh okay. Maybe this will pay off for them in the end by attracting an international audience and even international drivers.
Bummed that Jeff won’t be at Le Mans racing, but Button is an interesting pick up. I know this car is a bit different than the actual Cup car, but maybe Button has a fun time doing this and this leads to him doing a RC race with Trackhouse’s Project 91 team.
Racing at Le Mans will put NASCAR technology against other racecars of the world to see how they compare. I am looking forward to this. A radical thought would be to allow NASCAR racers to race their own class at Le Mans.
Jensons participation in this project could lead to an opportunity with Trackhouse P91 deal.
I think the fact that Jeff won the Rolex 24 might also be his way of wanting to go out on top and not do something potentially embarrassing trying to race again years later if he isn’t 150% ready to go again. His last competitive race, he won, and he probably wants to leave it at that
Well, he would be guaranteed to win his class if he drove the NASCAR at Le Mans.
Jenson! My favorite F1 driver. A long time ago, Racer magazine did an interview with him, and he did express interest in running NASCAR after his F1 career was over. This was probably ticking off a bucket list item for him.
I see the Le Mans endeavor as advertising Cup Series on one of the biggest stages available and looking to attract international sponsors, NASCAR has become stagnant when it comes to attracting any major sponsors.
Jeff has suffered from back pain since retiring. A 24 hour “endurance” race and back pain don’t exactly mix.
IIRC, he had surgery during his career.
I was just about to comment this
I believe that nascar wants to introduce itself to the international world in hopes of getting a few people to say I want to check out this series. The driver choice of Button, and Rockefeller brings international drivers into an event that nascar wants to promote to the world. Makes perfect sense to me, just don’t understand why Either driver would agree to drive a car that is not competing. I personally feel that this will be a one off event for nascar, but if they are serious then come back and run Daytona, Sebring, and LeMans against other cars in their class.
I’ve always said 4 or 5 nascar stock cars racing in the endure races would be great maybe they enter the rolex next year
jenson is a great steal for g56, in recent years hes been doing more sports car racing and GTs, so if this nascar does perform more like a sports car than it does a nascar, he should do pretty well all things considered
Somehow, I don’t see them doing just the 3 drivers for this car.
I get the feeling that if Jeff Gordon is willing and available, he will be announced later.
I get the feeling he isn’t certain with potential other things and can’t be certain yet, but that’s just my opinion.
NASCAR needs to run the Rolex 24 next year (especially since they own IMSA) and I think it would be great if they did a 5-10 car class for the race.