Daytona announces date of next year's Rolex 24, and it looks familiar
The anchors of 2025 Speedweeks are now officially in place.
A week after announcing the date of next year's Daytona 500 — Feb. 16, by the way — Daytona International Speedway has slotted the Rolex 24 into its familiar position on the final weekend of January. The 2025 Rolex will get the green flag Saturday, Jan. 25, and gasp to a halt the next day after two laps around the clock.
The Rolex has made its home on the final weekend of January since 2006, two years after the NFL moved the Super Bowl from the final Sunday of January to the first Sunday of February. With the increase from 16 to 17 regular-season games in 2021, the Super Bowl is now played on the second Sunday of February.
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Everything about the '25 Rolex will be familiar. The three-day test session ("Roar Before the Rolex") will take place the previous weekend — Jan. 17-19 — while the Friday of Rolex week will include the season-opening event for the Michelin Pilot Challenge.
The Jan. 26 close of the Rolex 24 will come three weeks before the Daytona 500. Prior to 2006, the close of Rolex weekend would roll into the mid-week arrival of stock cars in preparation for all practice, qualifying and racing leading up to the Daytona 500, which for years was run two Sundays after the Rolex.
With recent talk of the NFL inevitably moving from 17 to 18 games, there's the obvious possibility of the Super Bowl moving a week later, to the Sunday currently occupied by the Daytona 500. That would likely lead to yet another restructuring of future Daytona race dates.
For now, though, everything remains in routine formation.
Said Speedway president Frank Kelleher, via press release: "Coming off the back of announcing the 2025 Daytona 500 date, we couldn’t think of a better opportunity to reveal the dates for the Rolex 24 At Daytona. The Rolex is one of our biggest and most unforgettable events we host at The World Center of Racing, and we look forward to welcoming our fans from around the globe back in January of 2025.”