2025 Rolex 24 at Daytona: I Stayed Awake for the Whole Thing (Mostly)

• I attended last weekend's Rolex 24 at Daytona with the Acura and Honda racing teams.
• I stayed up for the entire 24-hour race, because I'm a masochist.
• Here's my full account of 24 straight hours of motorsports madness (with a side helping of delerium).

The Rolex 24 at Daytona is one of my favorite races of the year. It's not the sheer length of the race that's impressive — other full-day events include the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Nürburgring 24 and, of course, your local 24 Hours of Lemons crapbox-a-thon. Instead, it's the little things that make Daytona so special: The fact that you can see the whole track, watching the sunrise over Florida's overwhelmingly flat horizon, enjoying four classes of race cars duking it out simultaneously, and still having time to take a break and drink a Bud Light on your way to ride the Ferris wheel.

Acura — and its motorsports division, HRC (Honda Racing Corp.) — brought me to this year's Rolex 24 to watch the ARX-06 race car battle fierce competition from the likes of BMW, Cadillac and Porsche. The No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing ARX-06 finished in second place overall, behind Porsche, after an absolutely grueling race that saw both of Acura's entrants deal with technical and mechanical problems. But rather than give you a play-by-play of the racing itself — something that's just old news at this point — I'm here to entertain you with another type of recap: what it's like to be awake for the entire 24-hour race.

After walking the grid and checking out the behind-the-scenes action at the Acura pit, I headed up to a suite to settle in and watch the green flag. I started an hour-long timer on my phone right when the race kicked off and forced myself to write down three thoughts every time my annoying ringer went off. (OK, it was originally five thoughts, but some of them got a little, uh, not publishable.) The first update happened an hour after the race started. Please enjoy my descent into madness.

Saturday, 2:40 p.m.

• I bet you can see the gold Acura Integra Type S race car from space. Also, that car rips.
• Is this the first time a guitar solo national anthem has been played at a race?
• I should probably put on sunscreen, though that would certainly break my tradition of getting horribly sunburned at literally every race I've ever been to.

Saturday, 3:40 p.m.

• All of the Lamborghini GTD Pro cars are making this high-pitched whistle and it's super annoying.
• I love the chaos that begins when the GTP and LMP2 cars start to lap the slower GTD Pro and GTD cars. That's when the real racing begins.
• I wonder if there are more bodies or alligators in the infield lake.

Saturday, 4:40 p.m.

• I hope the people flying out of the Daytona Beach airport are watching the race as they take off. That would be so cool.
• Man, I wish that Garage 56 Camaro was here.
• HRC president Koji Watanabe came in for an interview; the company is really excited about the ARX-06 entries this year. Sounds like HRC might be expanding to offer more customer parts, or even full-on cars. I'm excited for the HRC Integra to go into production.

Saturday, 5:40 p.m.

• Grabbed a bag of popcorn not realizing it was this gross, like, strawberry vanilla flavor dessert popcorn. What the heck is this? Don't mess with popcorn.
• Sun's going down. It's getting cold. I should've brought a coat. Denim jackets don't work for all occasions, Ewing.
• OK, seriously, what is with the Lamborghini whistle? A group of us think it's aero-related. Time to investigate.

Saturday, 6:40 p.m.

• There's only been one full-course yellow flag so far; that's great racing.
• None of the cars I like are currently leading their classes. Come on, guys!
• How is it that I'm almost 40 years old and I still can't work a Nespresso machine to save my life? Like, I always screw up the order of operations. Do I open the lid first or put in the pod? Do I have to wait for the water to warm up first or does it just happen like a Keurig? I just want a coffee.

Saturday, 7:40 p.m.

• You guys remember ringback tones? Pretty sure mine was, like, Alkaline Trio or something.
• Ugh, the No. 93 Acura ARX-06 just had a mega issue with Alex Palou behind the wheel. I hope they can fix it.
• Riding backwards on a golf cart is the correct and best way to ride on a golf cart.

Saturday, 8:40 p.m.

• Riding the Ferris wheel costs eight dollars now? OK, inflation. If you wanted to ride this thing for the entire race, it'd be $2,304. Note to self: Find extra $2,304 in Edmunds' 2026 budget.
• It's cool how close you can get to the action. Standing at the International Horseshoe, there's only a rickety fence and a guardrail keeping me from complete disaster should things go wrong.
• Yellow headlights are better than white headlights. On race cars, anyway.

Saturday, 9:40 p.m.

• Earl Bamber. What a name. So fun to say.
• I'm bored with LMP2 — except for AO Racing's Spike the Dragon, of course.
• Heck yeah, someone brought Jenga.

Saturday, 10:40 p.m.

• Massive crash just destroyed one of the Cadillac GTP cars, that stinks. One of the announcers said Rexy — the AO Racing No. 77 Porsche 911 that looks like a dinosaur — was involved, but it wasn't, thank goodness.
• We need to protect Rexy at all costs.
• The fireworks are in 20 minutes! That's the best part of the night.

Saturday, 11:40 p.m.

• More race cars need V8 engines. The Cadillacs, Corvettes and Mercedes-AMG GTs just sound so awesome. Even that Lexus RC F GT3 turns heads when it goes by.
• Why would you choose a middle brownie when you could have a corner?
• Kinda want to take my shoes off.

Sunday, 12:40 a.m.

• Not sure I'll make it all 24 hours. Currently hoarding chairs to fashion into a bed later.
• All right, all of the other media hosted by Honda/Acura have left, so it's just us hardcore overnighters now.
• OK, this is gross, but some guy created bathroom chaos by vomiting in a urinal, or as Andy Kalmowitz from Jalopnik so eleganty put it, "went three in the one."

Sunday, 1:40 a.m.

• Another Cadillac crashed and I watched it drive over its own tire, which is just painful.
• You know, dogs in movies don't know they're in movies.
• I get irrationally angry when someone spells my name "Stephen."

Sunday, 2:40 a.m.

• The hypnotic effect of night racing is taking over. I love when the cars settle into a rhythm during the dark hours.
• Man, I frickin' love Jenga.
• Bamber.

Sunday, 3:40 a.m.

• The black-and-gold Porsche 963 says "Mustang Sampling" on the side, but from up in the suite box (and at this hour), Carter Fry from Car and Driver thinks it says "Sandy Dumpling." So that's its name now. Carry on.
• There was mac and cheese for dinner but we kinda left it under the heat lamp for too long and now it's a little gross. Gonna have some anyway.
• Time to fight with the Nespresso machine again.

Sunday, 4:40 a.m.

• We figured out how to work the dimmer switches in our suite so it's not daylight-bright in here!
• A few people fell asleep. I don't blame them.
• Those of us who are still awake agree that if you damage your race car because you were a bad driver it should get thrown in the infield lake and then you and your team have to go fish it out.

Sunday, 5:40 a.m.

• Rexy is leading the GTD Pro class!
• Got my makeshift chair-bed ready, just in case.
• I feel like the Aston Martins keep going off. Maybe it's the same one. I don't know. I'm not wearing my glasses anymore.

Sunday, 6:40 a.m.

• NOOOO. SCREW YOU, ALARM. Whose dumb idea was this, anyway?
• This chair bed isn't so bad.
• [Incoherent]

Sunday, 7:40 a.m.

• Oh man, that nap felt good.
• Dawn is breaking on the horizon. I love this shade of pink.
• I think I missed a yellow flag? Things seem to be moving along nicely. No cars were retired during my snooze.

Sunday, 8:40 a.m.

• That stupid Lambo whistle is an aerodynamic thing! Helps prevent deer collisions probably/maybe.
• If you're gonna run an LMP2 car, make it look like a dragon.
• They're serving something called "UFO sandwiches" in the suite box. Will investigate.

Sunday, 9:40 a.m.

• Aw, man. Rexy was leading in GTD Pro but then one of its brakes wouldn't come off during a pit stop which caused it some precious time.
• Fell asleep again for 20 minutes while sitting up, which was the move. No chair bed next year!
• UFO sandwiches were good. Eggs, bacon, peppers, yum.

Sunday, 10:40 a.m.

• I've got energy again!
• [Narrator: Actually, he didn't.]
• Other cars the Rexy dinosaur livery would look good on: Aston Martin Vantage, BMW M4, Mercedes-AMG GT. Also a school bus.

Sunday, 11:40 a.m.

• The BMW/Corvette battle is intense. Love how there's bodywork hanging off the back of a Vette.
• Wow, it is properly beautiful outside.
• Every time a car gets taken off the track on a wrecker, I hear that sad Sarah McLachlan "donate money to save the animals" song.

Sunday, 12:40 p.m.

• Things are looking good for Rexy.
• Things are not looking so good for Acura, though I'm amazed the No. 60 car has been able to make up such ground.
• One of the BMW GTP cars sustained some damage and is bouncing all over the place. It's making me carsick just watching. Can't imagine driving.

Sunday, 1:40 p.m.

• I MADE IT!
• Rexy! No! Someone hit it and the lower front fascia (its teeth!) came flying off. RIP, Rexy. I love you.
• Absolutely intense battle between Acura and Porsche at the end. Nice to see Acura finish on the podium after such a wild race.

Epilogue: I slept for 14 hours on Sunday night. Can't wait to (hopefully) do it all again next year.