Penske IndyCar star Scott McLaughlin is looking increasingly likely to race for the team’s IMSA SportsCar Championship squad for the first time at next 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 test starting on Friday has been described by team boss Jonathan Diuguid as a “first step” to him racing one of the factory 963 LMDhs in the 2026 season-opener on 24-25 January.
McLaughlin, who has competed at Daytona three times in LMP2 and GT Daytona Pro machinery, has been nominated to drive the two Porsche Penske Motorsport entries at the test along with fellow Penske IndyCar racer Josef Newgarden, who was part of the line-up in the winning PPM entry at Daytona in 2024.
“Josef obviously had good success in the car and I would say that this is the first step in that direction [McLaughlin and Newgarden racing for Porsche at Daytona],” said Diuguid, managing director of PPM and Penske Racing’s president since July.
“That is probably the best way to describe it, but we haven’t made any decisions.”
Diuguid explained that Porsche and Penske are leaning towards a return to a four-driver line-up in each car for Daytona after slimming down to three for the defence of its crown in the season-opener this year.
Overall winner #7 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963: Felipe Nasr, Nick Tandy, Laurens Vanthoor
Photo by: Courtesy of IMSA
“We’ve done it both ways and won it both ways,” he said. “The car count is really high so it is mentally taxing.
“Physically-wise it is really no issue, but that is probably the biggest feedback we’ve had from the drivers — that with such a high car count and the consistent traffic it is a lot more mentally taxing than the Le Mans 24 Hours.”
Two-time Indy 500 winner Newgarden joined PPM for Daytona in 2024 as the fourth driver in the winning #7 car alongside full-season regulars Felipe Nasr and Dane Cameron and endurance driver Matt Campbell.
Diuguid insisted that no conclusions should be drawn into the line-up for this week’s Daytona test with regard to PPM’s IMSA regular crews for next year.
Felipe Nasr, Matt Campbell and Julien Andlauer are the other three drivers listed in each of the PPM cars for the three-day test on 14-16 November.
He said it was at least in part linked to driver availability, pointing out that Laurens Vanthoor and Lauren Heinrich had a clashing commitment at the FIA GT World Cup in Macau.
#7 Team Penske Porsche 963: Matt Campbell, Felipe Nasr
Photo by: Richard Dole / Motorsport Images
He said that no further announcements should be expected until Porsche’s traditional Night of Champions prize-giving ceremony on 29 November.
Porsche will be required to slim down its LMDh roster in the wake of the factory withdrawal from the Hypercar class in the World Endurance Championship.
This year it had eight regulars across the two 963 programmes, while next year it will require only four full-timers as well as two more semi-regulars for Daytona, the Sebring 12 Hours and the Petit Le Mans IMSA finale at Road Atlanta.
Mathieu Jaminet, who took the IMSA drivers’ title with Campbell, this year has already announced his departure from Porsche.
The Frenchman is expected to end up at WEC newcomer Genesis, the prestige brand of South Korean manufacturer Hyundai, taking the seat that had been earmarked for Stoffel Vandoorne.
Vandoorne left Peugeot after the Fuji WEC round in October, but it was announced that he would return to the French manufacturer earlier this month.
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