DEARBORN, Mich. — Ford Performance and Chip Ganassi Racing announced their 12-man driver lineup for the 55th running of the Rolex 24 at Daytona Int’l Speedway on Friday, with Verizon IndyCar Series champions Tony Kanaan and Scott Dixon among the cast of characters in the Ford GT camp on Jan. 28-29.
Kanaan, who took the overall victory in the 2015 edition of the twice-around-the-clock endurance classic alongside teammates Dixon, Kyle Larson and Jamie McMurray in CGR’s No. 02 Daytona Prototype, won the Indy car championship in 2004 and the Indianapolis 500 in 2013.
Dixon is a two-time overall winner of the Rolex 24 (2006, 2015) and four-time Indy car champion (2003, 2008, 2013, 2015). He has driven in every Rolex 24 since 2005, all with Chip Ganassi Racing. The 2017 race will be Dixon’s first Rolex appearance in a non-Prototype entry.
In total, Ganassi’s dozen driver will be split across four Ford GT entries, the Nos. 66, 67, 68 and 69.
American Joey Hand will lead the charge in the primary No. 66 Ford, which drove to a sixth-place finish in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GT Le Mans points standings in 2016. Hand will share the seat with his season-long co-driver, Dirk Müller, as well as four-time Indy car champion Sebastien Bourdais.
That trio is the same lineup which drove to victory in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in June.
The No. 67 Ford will see returning IMSA drivers Ryan Briscoe and Richard Westbrook team with Dixon, after Briscoe and Westbrook nearly came away with the GTLM championship in 2016, finishing second in points to Corvette Racing in the final event of the season at Road Atlanta in October.
American Billy Johnson, a former Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge champion, will share the seat of the No. 68 Ford with CGR World Endurance Championship regulars Stefan Mücke and Olivier Pla, who finished fourth in LMGTE points this season.
Finally, the No. 69 Ford will be held down by fellow WEC regulars Andy Priaulx and Harry Tincknell, who finished fifth in WEC GT points and scored two wins during the season. Priaulx and Tincknell will be joined by Kanaan for the 24-hour event.
The 2017 Rolex 24 at Daytona will be the first race of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season, kicking off at 2 p.m. ET, Jan. 28 on FOX.
Four cars. Twelve drivers. One team. Welcome @TonyKanaan to @Ford @CGRsportscar lineup for the @IMSA @Rolex24Hours at @DISupdates #FordGT pic.twitter.com/1g08U8cXGz
— Ford Performance (@FordPerformance) December 23, 2016
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Jacob Seelman is the Managing Editor of Race Chaser Online and creator of the Motorsports Madness radio show, airing at 7 p.m. Eastern every Monday on the Performance Motorsports Network.
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