Anyway you slice it, a Grand-Am/NASCAR doubleheader is a good thing, affording sport-car racing a chance to piggy-back on NASCAR’s immense popularity while maintaining its own identity. And of course, it sure doesn’t hurt when the doubleheader is held at the World Center of Racing – Daytona International Speedway.
The combination also affords the opportunity for NASCAR drivers to do a “one-off” appearance in a sports car.
We have all of this happening today at Daytona. One ticket gets fans two races: the Brumos Porsche 250 at 2 p.m., followed by the Coke Zero 400 at 8.
The Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series followed by the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.
Kyle Busch and Scott Speed on the high banks followed by … Kyle Busch and Scott Speed on the high banks.
That’s right. Two NASCAR guys are doing both races. Busch and Speed will co-drive the No. 02 Lexus Riley in the Daytona Prototype class, for Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates. That organization also fields the Rolex Series’ reigning championship entry, the No. 01 driven by Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas. Which means it’s not a stretch to put the Busch-Speed entry on a short list of favorites today, especially when you factor in Speed’s varied racing resume that includes time in Formula One.
There’s precedent for this doubleheader, by the way. Years back, Daytona used to have a sports car race begin at the stroke of midnight of July 4 – the Paul Revere 250, it was called. NASCAR cranked up at 10:15 a.m. (then at 11 a.m. for a number of years) with the Firecracker 400.
By any measure, this doubleheader is a better deal, providing a measureable midday boost for the best sports car series in the world, with help from its next-door neighbor, NASCAR.
