The 2020 Rolex 24 at Daytona will receive some NASCAR flavour. On Monday, Lexus Motorsports and AIM Vasser Sullivan announced Kyle Busch would race in IMSA and the Rolex 24 for the first time, driving AIMVS’s Lexus RC F GT3 in the GTD class.
“We’re thrilled to have a racer of Kyle’s caliber join AIM VASSER SULLIVAN to open our 2020 season at the Rolex 24 at Daytona,” team co-owner Jimmy Vasser stated. “Kyle has proven he can compete and win in many forms of motorsports and we look forward to having him drive the Lexus RC F GT3 at Daytona.”
Busch is currently fighting for his second Monster Energy Cup Series championship. Driving for Joe Gibbs Racing (a Toyota team), he sits third in points with four wins and is in position to make the Championship Round. Although he has neither raced in the Rolex 24 nor IMSA before, he has enjoyed success on NASCAR’s road courses with four Cup victories on such tracks (two apiece at Sonoma Raceway and Watkins Glen International).
He also has two road race victories in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, winning at Watkins Glen in 2017 and the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in 2008.
“Kyle has been a fixture in our Toyota family for over a decade and is the winningest driver in the Toyota NASCAR program,” Lexus’ Vice President of Marketing Lisa Materazzo said. “He has accomplished so many firsts for Toyota throughout his tenure and we couldn’t be happier to have him join AIM VASSER SULLIVAN and drive the Lexus RC F GT3 in a world class event like the Rolex 24 at Daytona.”
NASCAR and IMSA have crossed over on numerous occasions over the years. The 2019 Rolex 24 saw Juan Pablo Montoya, who has two Cup wins, finish eighth overall. Justin Marks and former Cup race winner A.J. Allmendinger were team-mates, while Xfinity regular Austin Cindric raced for AIM Vasser Sullivan. Jack Hawksworth, one of Cindric’s partners that race, made his Xfinity début in August with JGR at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course; coincidentally, Cindric won that event.
On Twitter, Busch posted a video expressing his excitement for competing:
