Drivers from the NTT IndyCar SERIES and INDY NXT by Firestone are extending their racing campaigns by jumping into all four classes for the Motul Petit Le Mans, the season-ending IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race taking place Oct. 1-3 at Road Atlanta. The 10-hour endurance test brings together a wild mix of single-seater talent taking on sports cars.
IndyCar champions Scott Dixon and Alex Palou are teaming up here—potentially for the final time following their six seasons together at Chip Ganassi Racing—though they are sharing separate entries for Acura Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb Agajanian in the premier Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) class for Saturday's race. Six-time series champion Dixon will share the No. 60 Acura ARX-06 alongside former IndyCar drivers Tom Blomqvist and Colin Braun on the 12-turn, 2.54-mile road course in Braselton, Georgia. Dixon is leaving Chip Ganassi Racing at the conclusion of this year after 24 full-time seasons to move to Arrow McLaren next season in the NTT IndyCar SERIES. Meanwhile, five-time series champion Palou starts two consecutive weekends of sports car racing by sharing the No. 93 Acura ARX-06 with Nick Yelloly and Renger van der Zande, with Palou also set to drive in the Indianapolis 8 Hour Intercontinental GT Challenge race Oct. 10 on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.
Palou and Dixon possess a genuinely good chance at an overall victory on Saturday if the pace from Thursday's opening practice is any indicator. Yelloly set the pace as quickest at 1 minute, 11.506 seconds in the No. 93, while Braun was a whisker slower at 1:11.509 in the No. 60. Beyond the garage dynamics between Dixon and Palou, this event marks the end of Acura’s prototype program in IMSA and with MSR.
Adding to the intrigue in the GTP class, former IndyCar driver Colton Herta is returning to America to share the No. 40 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac V-Series.R with Jordan Taylor and Louis Deletraz. Herta enters this weekend following a disappointing first season in 2026 in Formula 2, the final step on the ladder to Formula One.
Moving down the classes, the GT Daytona PRO (GTD PRO) category features two Indy NXT by Firestone champions in its driver lineups. The 2021 Indy NXT champion and 2026 NTT IndyCar SERIES runner-up Kyle Kirkwood returns to the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus RC F GT3 as a teammate to former IndyCar and Indy NXT driver Jack Hawksworth and Ben Barnicoat. Kirkwood wasted no time, going quickest in the class in practice Thursday. Freshly crowned Indy NXT champion Nikita Johnson will also race in the No. 59 RLL Team McLaren McLaren 720S EVO GT3, the same machine he drove in the TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks on Sept. 20 at IMS.
The Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) and GT Daytona (GTD) classes each feature an active Indy NXT by Firestone driver as well. Jacob Abel shares the No. 18 Era Motorsport LMP2 car, while James Roe joins the driver lineup for the No. 80 Lone Star Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 in GTD.
Fans looking to catch the action can tune into live coverage of the 10-hour race starting from noon-3 p.m. ET Saturday on NBC, followed by 3-10:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN. The entire race will also be streamed live on Peacock.
