NASCAR Is Heading Back To Le Mans In 2026
NASCAR’s Garage 56 exhibition entry in the 2023 running 24 Hours of Le Mans was a huge hit.
The fans in France reveled as the thunderous Hendrick Motorsports-built Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 roared around the Circuit de la Sarthe with Jimmie Johnson, Jenson Button and Mike Rockenfeller taking turns behind the wheel.
The one-off effort has been chronicled in the Prime Video documentary “American Thunder: NASCAR to Le Mans” and now there’s going to be something of a sequel.
The NASCAR Classic historic racing series will be taking part in the Le Mans Classic Legend event in 2026.
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The July 2-5 festival will include a series of events featuring historic sports cars form 1923 to 2015 along with the NASCAR Classic race, which is run by IMSA’s Historic Sportscar Racing (HSR) organizsation.
NASCAR Classic also has a seven-race series planned for the U.S. and is open to all Cup Series, Xfinity Series and Truck Series vehicles that aren’t up to current spec. The races feature a mix of all three across multiple generations all on the track at the same time.
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The Le Mans race also marks the 50th anniversary of the first time NASCAR cars took part in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1976, when a Dodge Charger driven my Herschel and Doug McGriff and a Ford Torino driven by Richard Brooks and Dick Hutcherson put on an exhibition, similar to the Garage 56 program.
In the spirit of foreign exchange, the ACO, which organizes the 24 Hours of Le Mans, will send cars from its own vintage racing series to Daytona for the HSR Daytona Classic 24 Hours event being held November 11-15 at Daytona International Speedway.