DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Five teams opened the 2026 IMSA season pursuing their third straight championships of either the full season IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship title or specialized excellence in the five IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup races.
Two of them, Porsche Penske Motorsport and Paul Miller Racing, are off to banner starts. Winward Racing and AO Racing have shown title-winning potential, while TDS Racing has some ground to make up.
Porsche Penske Triple Play, Again?
For Team Penske, winning championships since 2012 has been an annual feature. Across its sports car, IndyCar, NASCAR or Supercars programs, Team Penske has won at least one title for 14 straight years.
In IMSA, they now have a chance to add a three-peat in the top class, to do with the same manufacturer, Porsche, what they did nearly 20 years ago in the American Le Mans Series.
In 2006, 2007 and 2008 in the ALMS’ Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) class, a Penske Porsche RS Spyder won the title three straight years. Lucas Luhr and Sascha Maassen delivered the first title in 2006 in the No. 6 car, with Timo Bernhard and Romain Dumas going back-to-back in 2007 and 2008 in the No. 7 car.
Porsche Penske Motorsport won the 2024 and 2025 Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) titles with Felipe Nasr and Dane Cameron in the No. 7 Porsche 963 in 2024, then Matt Campbell and Mathieu Jaminet in the No. 6 Porsche 963 last year.
Nasr and new full-season co-driver Julien Andlauer are off to a near-perfect start in 2026 with endurance driver Laurin Heinrich, as the No. 7 car has won both the Rolex 24 At Daytona and Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring for a second straight year. Nasr, Andlauer and Heinrich leave Sebring with an 80-point lead over the No. 31 Cadillac Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R of Jack Aitken, Earl Bamber and Frederik Vesti.
Penske also went back-to-back in Daytona Prototype international (DPi) with Cameron and Juan Pablo Montoya (No. 6 Acura ARX-05 in 2019) and Helio Castroneves and Ricky Taylor (No. 7 Acura ARX-05 in 2020). Since that program ended after 2020, there was no three-peat attempt.
Miller Racing’s Roll Continues
Paul Miller Racing’s first two years in GTD PRO have brought Michelin Endurance Cup crowns – albeit with two different lineups, BMW car specifications and car numbers.
The Bryan Sellers/Madison Snow/Neil Verhagen trio won in the No. 1 BMW M4 GT3 in 2024 with Max Hesse and Dan Harper breaking through in the sister No. 48 BMW M4 GT3 EVO in 2025.
The single No. 1 entry of Verhagen, Hesse and Connor De Phillippi – joined by Harper in Daytona – won the season-opening Rolex 24 and added a fifth place at Sebring.
This entry is leading both the Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) full season (tied with Michelin Endurance Cup-only competitors Manthey, but up 30 points over the next full-season entry from Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports) and Michelin Endurance Cup standings by six.
Winward’s GTD Run Dented
In just five seasons, Winward Racing has risen to become the benchmark program in Grand Touring Daytona with its No. 57 Mercedes-AMG GT3 and the full-season pairing of Russell Ward and Philip Ellis, joined in Michelin Endurance Cup rounds by Indy Dontje.
Their pursuit of their third straight GTD full-season crown started perfectly at the Rolex 24 with a win there, but Ward got caught up in an incident not of his making at Sebring.
That leaves the No. 57 car 146 points back of championship leaders Heart of Racing Team and its No. 27 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo, driven by Eduardo “Dudu” Barrichello, Tom Gamble and Zacharie Robichon. Gamble lost 30 points as a result of losing the lead on the final lap at Sebring, so it’ll be interesting to see if that single position change matters later this year.
AO Eyes Michelin Endurance Cup Crown
AO Racing’s race results for its No. 99 ORECA LMP2 07 in Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) and No. 77 Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) in GTD PRO through two rounds leave them sixth and fourth in their respective class standings. Those results are something of a misnomer, because the No. 99 car has led most of the first two races in LMP2, but been sidetracked by adverse luck late in races.
The No. 99 car led a race-high 298 of 686 laps at the Rolex 24, and a race-high 192 of 338 laps at Sebring, for a total of 490 of 1,024 laps out front. Those laps out front mean the No. 99 car ranks best in LMP2 Michelin Endurance Cup points – up by four over the No. 8 Tower Motorsports and No. 04 CrowdStrike Racing by APR entries.
AO entered the year with a rare chance to win a full season title in three straight years across two different classes, or potentially, win both class titles in the same season.
In just its second season on the grid and first in GTD PRO, AO Racing captured the 2024 crown with Heinrich in the No. 77 Porsche, either green “Rexy” or pink “Roxy” the dinosaur depending on the race. AO then won LMP2 title in 2025 with Cameron and PJ Hyett sharing “Spike,” the purple dragon liveried No. 99 ORECA which was gold at the Rolex 24.
TDS Racing Adjusts
TDS Racing rallied to win the LMP2 championship in the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup with Steven Thomas, Mikkel Jensen and Hunter McElrea in their No. 11 ORECA LMP2 07 in 2024 and 2025 with wins at both of the last two races, both years. They’ll need a similar rally in 2026 with its new-look lineup, as they’re 11 points back of the leaders through two races.
TDS features the lineup of Tobi Lutke, Charles Milesi, David Heinemeier Hansson and Mathias Beche aboard its No. 11 ORECA. They’ve finished 12th and seventh thus far, without any top three segment finish in the Michelin Endurance Cup.