Chaos at Daytona as F1, NASCAR and IndyCar stars stuck behind SIX HOUR safety car

Rolex 24 at Daytona

Chaos at Daytona as F1, NASCAR and IndyCar stars stuck behind SIX HOUR safety car

It's not a thrilling spectacle

Chris Deeley

Sunday 25 January 2026 21:00

You think F1's a little bit heavy on the weather delays? Reckon they roll around behind the safety car a bit too long? Let us introduce you to this year's Rolex 24 at Daytona, where a whole fleet of endurance cars were stuck chilling out under yellow flags, behind the pace car, for more than six and a half hours.

A mass of fog drifted over the Florida track a little after midnight, reducing visibility to a point that it was clearly unsafe to race, especially considering the pace disparity between cars of different classes.

The fog eventually burned off just enough in the dawn sunlight to get going again, after more than a quarter of this 24 hour race was run behind the safety car.

F1 stars past and future at Daytona

Article continues under video

There were, weirdly, still lead changes behind the safety car – because teams had to pit to keep their cars running, and because no one driver can be in the cockpit for more than four hours in a six-hour period.

A whole host of F1 alums are taking part in the race, including Kevin Magnussen, Logan Sargeant and Romain Grosjean, while there are also 12 IndyCar championships in the field – plus NASCAR stars Connor Zilisch and AJ Allmendinger.

One small upside to the farcical non-racing that's taking place, though? A hypercar traversing the banking of the World Center of Racing through the fog looks really, really cool.