Penske IndyCar star Scott McLaughlin is trying more and more prone to race for the staff’s IMSA SportsCar Championship squad for the primary time at subsequent January’s Daytona 24 Hours.
The inclusion of the seven-time IndyCar race winner on the Porsche Penske Motorsport driver roster for the three-day IMSA pre-season Daytona take a look at beginning on Friday has been described by staff boss Jonathan Diuguid as a “first step” to him racing one of many manufacturing facility 963 LMDhs within the 2026 season-opener on 24-25 January.
McLaughlin, who has competed at Daytona 3 times in LMP2 and GT Daytona Professional equipment, has been nominated to drive the 2 Porsche Penske Motorsport entries on the take a look at together with fellow Penske IndyCar racer Josef Newgarden, who was a part of the line-up within the successful PPM entry at Daytona in 2024.
“Josef clearly had good success within the automotive and I might say that this is step one in that course [McLaughlin and Newgarden racing for Porsche at Daytona],” stated Diuguid, managing director of PPM and Penske Racing’s president since July.
“That’s most likely one of the best ways to explain it, however we haven’t made any choices.”
Diuguid defined that Porsche and Penske are leaning in the direction of a return to a four-driver line-up in every automotive for Daytona after slimming down to a few for the defence of its crown within the season-opener this yr.
Total winner #7 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963: Felipe Nasr, Nick Tandy, Laurens Vanthoor
Photograph by: Courtesy of IMSA
“We’ve performed it each methods and gained it each methods,” he stated. “The automotive depend is admittedly excessive so it’s mentally taxing.
“Bodily-wise it’s actually no subject, however that’s most likely the most important suggestions we’ve had from the drivers – that with such a excessive automotive depend and the constant site visitors it’s much more mentally taxing than the Le Mans 24 Hours.”
Two-time Indy 500 winner Newgarden joined PPM for Daytona in 2024 because the fourth driver within the successful #7 automotive alongside full-season regulars Felipe Nasr and Dane Cameron and endurance driver Matt Campbell.
Diuguid insisted that no conclusions ought to be drawn into the line-up for this week’s Daytona take a look at with regard to PPM’s IMSA common crews for subsequent yr.
Felipe Nasr, Matt Campbell and Julien Andlauer are the opposite three drivers listed in every of the PPM vehicles for the three-day take a look at on 14-16 November.
He stated it was at the very least partly linked to driver availability, mentioning that Laurens Vanthoor and Lauren Heinrich had a clashing dedication on the FIA GT World Cup in Macau.
#7 Crew Penske Porsche 963: Matt Campbell, Felipe Nasr
Photograph by: Richard Dole / Motorsport Photos
He stated that no additional bulletins ought to be anticipated till Porsche’s conventional Night time of Champions prize-giving ceremony on 29 November.
Porsche will probably be required to slim down its LMDh roster within the wake of the manufacturing facility withdrawal from the Hypercar class within the World Endurance Championship.
This yr it had eight regulars throughout the 2 963 programmes, whereas subsequent yr it would require solely 4 full-timers in addition to two extra semi-regulars for Daytona, the Sebring 12 Hours and the Petit Le Mans IMSA finale at Street Atlanta.
Mathieu Jaminet, who took the IMSA drivers’ title with Campbell, this yr has already introduced his departure from Porsche.
The Frenchman is anticipated to finish up at WEC newcomer Genesis, the status model of South Korean producer Hyundai, taking the seat that had been earmarked for Stoffel Vandoorne.
Vandoorne left Peugeot after the Fuji WEC spherical in October, but it surely was introduced that he would return to the French producer earlier this month.
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