2020 Roar Before the Rolex 24 at Daytona

For the race, see the 2020 Rolex 24 at Daytona.

For the unseeded tournament, see 2020 Unseeded Roar Before the 24.

The 2020 Roar Before the Rolex 24 at Daytona is the warm-up race used for the 2020 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship opening round, the 2020 Rolex 24 at Daytona at Daytona International Speedway's road course. The event is scheduled to take place January 3–5, 2020, although the tournament starts on December 30, 2019.

Jirayu La-ongmanee is the defending champion.

The tournament originally had 64 players and 16 seeds. However, after Abomasnow's win as a mentor with Boss in The Face Men Thailand season 3, the tournament was expanded to 128 players and 32 seeds. The format introduced in 2020 will be in for future Roar Before the Rolex 24 tournaments.

The draw format will also be changed. In previous IndyCar Tour tournaments, until the 2019 Swiss Open, the 17th-24th seeded players played against players seeded 1-8 and the 25th-32nd seeds played against players seeded 9-16. Instead, it will be the 17th-24th seeded players playing against players seeded 9-16 in the third round and the 25th-32nd seeded players against players seeded 1-8. This format was changed so that it allowed lower-ranked IndyCar full-time captains to play the higher-ranked full-time captains.

Entry list
A total of 40 cars are entered for the Roar Before the 24.

IndyCar representatives
IndyCar isn't expecting Jirayu La-ongmanee, Metagross and Beartic to represent the series, with Beartic the only Sword and Shield qualifier among the three.
 * Chespin
 * Nidoking
 * 🇹🇷 Pidgeot
 * 🇺🇦 Scott Dixon

Chespin, Nidoking, and Pidgeot, who moved from IndyCar in 2019 to IMSA in 2020, are representing IndyCar despite not participating in any race in 2020.

Participants
The seeds were announced after lots of non-qualifying Pokémon Sword and Shield species were revealed on the Tour during the 2019 The Face Men Thailand Finals. Only Beartic was a legit qualifier.
 * Seedings are from the Pokémon Sword and Shield announcement at the The Face Men Thailand Finals.
 * Beartic seeded above Jirayu La-ongmanee and Josef Newgarden in the top eight because of Bosnia and Herzegovina's qualification for Pokémon Sword and Shield.
 * Seeds 17-32 are from the tournament expansion.

Withdrawals

 * 🇳🇬 Cedric Ceballos → replaced by Pongsakorn Mettarikanon
 * Ed Jones → replaced by Dragapult
 * 🇪🇨 Drew Lachey → replaced by Phasut Banyaem

Seeds
Seeds 17 to 32 (Heracross to Larvesta) originally didn't qualify for the seedings with the old system used before 2020. However, with the announcement regarding the tournament's expansion, entry is restricted due to One Year 365 วัน บ้านฉัน บ้านเธอ. The restrictions for players applied for the 2020 Roar Before the 24: they had to be a current or former IndyCar Series captain, a contestant on The Mask Singer Thailand, a Thailand SuperStar IG entry ranked above Abomasnow (with 1.766 million followers) by the tournament start (despite the 0 followers), or a Thai actor signed into Channel 3 or Channel 7.

Kunatip Pinpradab qualified for the tournament despite being ranked below Abomasnow before December 30, 2019, the start of the tournament.

🇺🇦 Scott Dixon 🇷🇺 Pee Saderd 🇷🇸 Volcarona (Quarterfinals) 🇧🇪 Metagross (Quarterfinals) 🇧🇦 Beartic (Quarterfinals) 🇫🇷 Simon Pagenaud (Quarterfinals) 🇰🇷 Jirayu La-ongmanee Josef Newgarden (Fourth round) 🇵🇱 Joey Fatone (Fourth round) 🇦🇺 Will Power (Fourth round) 🇦🇿 Decidueye (Third round) 🇯🇵 Apolo Anton Ohno (Fourth round) Graham Rahal (Third round, retired) 🇸🇰 Ryan Hunter-Reay (Third round) 🇪🇸 Mario Lopez (Third round) 🇷🇴 Vaporeon (Third round)

🇸🇪 Heracross (Fourth round) 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Pachara Chirathivat (Fourth round) 🇲🇩 Amoonguss (Third round) 🇲🇽 Patricio O'Ward (Second round) 🇮🇹 Marko Manieri (First round) 🇨🇦 James Hinchcliffe (Semifinals) Magmortar (Fourth round) Honchkrow (Third round) Adam Rippon (Second round) 🇦🇲 Cinderace (Third round) 🇧🇬 Cody Nickson (Third round) Machamp (Third round) 🇮🇸 Scolipede (Third round) Tanont Chumroen (Third round) 🇵🇪 Jaylerr Kritsanapoom (Third round) 🇧🇷 Larvesta (First round)

IndyCar Cup
The IndyCar Cup for the 2020 Roar Before the Rolex 24 will be held on December 27, 2019, after the 2019 Swiss Open.

The participating countries are the qualified countries for the seedings of the 2020 Rolex 24 at Daytona (including Patricio O'Ward).

Some notable non-qualifications for the cup included Alexander Rossi and Kunatip Pinpradab, although the Pakistani would've participated if it was not for the Instagram accounts starting to follow seeds from Pee Saderd to Amoonguss, Patricio O'Ward, Vaporeon to James Hinchcliffe, and Tanont Chumroen to Larvesta.

Pee Saderd was the defending champion and successfully defended his Cup title, defeating Jirayu La-ongmanee, who was reported to have dated with Violette Wautier, 2-1.

In arguably one of the biggest IndyCar Cup upsets ever, Scott Dixon failed to get out of the "group of death" Group F. Dixon was predicted to win his group and advance alongside Joey Fatone. Dixon was upset by Jakkapat Wattanasin in his final match, as the Ukrainian failed to finish his lap. This was likely because of the Instagram scenario; Wattanasin had more followers than Dixon entering the Cup but less than the Ukrainian during the Cup. Jaylerr Kritsanapoom upset Simon Pagenaud in Group G, with the Frenchman predicted to win his group. Pagenaud suffered a disappointment for playing Jirayu La-ongmanee in the round of sixteen, although it would've been for Jaylerr if Pagenaud had a faster lap time than the Peruvian in his final match.

Seeding pots
Bold determines the name made the round of 16.

Seed results
🇷🇺 Pee Saderd (Champion) 🇺🇦 Scott Dixon (First round) 🇫🇷 Simon Pagenaud (Round of 16) 🇷🇸 Volcarona (Semifinals) 🇧🇦 Beartic (Quarterfinals) 🇧🇪 Metagross (Quarterfinals) 🇰🇷 Jirayu La-ongmanee (Final) Josef Newgarden (Quarterfinals) 🇦🇺 Will Power (Semifinals) 🇦🇿 Decidueye (First round) 🇵🇱 Joey Fatone (Quarterfinals) 🇸🇰 Ryan Hunter-Reay (First round) 🇯🇵 Apolo Anton Ohno (First round) 🇪🇸 Mario Lopez (Round of 16) Honchkrow (Round of 16) Graham Rahal (First round)

🇸🇪 Heracross (First round) 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Pachara Chirathivat (First round) 🇵🇪 Jaylerr Kritsanapoom (Round of 16) 🇮🇹 Marko Manieri (First round) 🇲🇩 Amoonguss (Round of 16) 🇦🇱 Jinjett Wattanasin (First round) 🇲🇽 Patricio O'Ward (First round) 🇲🇰 Skorupi (First round) Jakkapat Wattanasin (First round) 🇷🇴 Vaporeon (Round of 16) Magmortar (First round) 🇨🇦 James Hinchcliffe (Round of 16) 🇫🇮 Noivern (First round) 🇨🇾 Milo Manheim (First round) Tanont Chumroen (First round) 🇧🇷 Larvesta (Round of 16)

Group B
Group B contains all four Pokémon that qualified for the Alola Pokédex in Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, but not the Galar Pokédex in Pokémon Sword and Shield. None of the Pokémon in this group are available due to their non-qualification.

Group F
Group F is considered the group of death, as it consisted of Scott Dixon, Joey Fatone, his Anthoine Hubert Cup final opponent Amoonguss and Jakkapat Wattanasin. Jakkapat would've qualified had his other opponents not get 20,000 followers over the December 20-22 weekend.

Group H
Group H is the only group in the Cup that didn't have at least three members of the Abomasnow clan for the 2020 IndyCar Series season.

IndyCar Cup 2
The second IndyCar Cup in the Roar Before the 24 is held January 2, 2020. IndyCar added an extra Cup due to the 2020 Sebring Open qualifiers held on the original final Cup date (January 24) before the Rolex 24. The Cup is held to celebrate Scott Dixon's baby born on the Friday of the Cup.

Only North Macedonia and Finland didn't participate in this Cup from the other cup, with Armenia and Pakistan replacing them.

Pee Saderd is the defending IndyCar Cup champion, having won the Cup last Friday.

This is one of the few IndyCar Cups to not be held on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday. It is because the draw for the 2020 Rolex 24 at Daytona and track activity for the IMSA cars are held Friday.

Seeding pots
Scott Dixon was added as the top seed during the seeding of the players, due to his wife Emma Davies Dixon giving birth. Bold determines the name made the round of 16.

Group D
Along with Group H, Group D is the group of death, as it contained all four ranked within the 125-128 range in the Thailand SuperStar IG rankings (if it had existed during the first Cup).

With rankings, Kunatip Pinpradab was the lowest among the four, at 128th, with Jakkapat Wattanasin one place above him in 127th, and both Jirayu La-ongmanee and Apolo Anton Ohno were ranked 125th.

Group H
Along with Group D, Group H is considered a group of death, as it contained three of them finishing inside the top twelve in points in 2019.