2019 Rolex 24 at Daytona

To see the Roar Before the 24-event, see 2019 Roar Before the Rolex 24 at Daytona.

The 2019 Rolex 24 at Daytona is the 57th running of the Rolex 24 at Daytona. It also serves as the opener of the 2019 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. The race is held January 26-27, 2019, although the tournament is held January 7-20, 2019.

Many IndyCar players chose to withdraw from the 2019 Race of Champions, held the same weekend, to focus on the Rolex 24.

The defending race winners are João Barbosa, Filipe Albuquerque and Christian Fittipaldi. This is however, Christian Fittipaldi's final race of his legendary career.

Qualified countries
None of them qualified
 * AFC
 * (Will Power) (8)
 * (Allen Ford) (28)
 * (Apolo Anton Ohno) (12)
 * (Jirayu La-ongmanee) (5)
 * (Jakkapat Wattanasin) (27)
 * CAF

None of them qualified
 * CONCACAF
 * (James Hinchcliffe) (20)
 * (Nidoking) (31)
 * (Patricio O'Ward) (22)
 * CONMEBOL
 * (Larvesta) (24)
 * (Haxorus) (32)
 * (Graham Rahal) (15)
 * OFC


 * UEFA
 * (Jinjett Wattanasin) (26)
 * (Decidueye) (21)
 * (Metagross) (3)
 * (Beartic) (7)
 * (Josef Newgarden) (6)
 * (Milo Manheim) (29)
 * (Ueli Kestenholz) (16)
 * (Simon Pagenaud) (10)
 * (Honchkrow) (23)
 * (Marko Manieri) (19)
 * (Tanont Chumroen) (25)
 * (Joey Fatone) (11)
 * (Vaporeon) (30)
 * (Pee Saderd) (2)
 * (Volcarona) (4)
 * (Ryan Hunter-Reay) (9)
 * (Mario Lopez) (13)
 * (Heracross) (18)
 * (Chespin) (17)
 * (Pidgeot) (14)
 * (Scott Dixon) (1)

Withdrawals

 * Larry Birkhead → replaced by 🇹🇭 Charwin Jitsomboon
 * 🇹🇭 Kan Kantathavorn → replaced by 🇸🇪 Marcus Ericsson
 * 🇨🇦 Cameron Mathison → replaced by 🇦🇹 René Binder
 * 🇷🇸 Robert Wickens → replaced by 🇹🇭 Sirasak Ittipholpanich

Seeds
The seed announcement were originally on November 4, 2018, at the 2018 Robert Wickens Paralyzed Cup, after the final is ended; but IndyCar decided to move it after the completion of the Jirayu La-ongmanee-Max Chilton match; Jirayu La-ongmanee won the match in straight sets on his 23rd birthday.

Dale Coyne Racing qualified their equal-highest seeding, with Beartic seeded 7th. Mario Lopez's return to the major IndyCar tournaments have him seeded 13th. Cyprus qualified 29th with Milo Manheim, a celebrity that was expected to win DWTS season 27, instead of Bobby Bones.

Shockingly, the 2018 Petit Le Mans winner Magmortar, failed to qualify.

Abomasnow, the leader of the Bee Mask, demonstrated at the draw that neither Josef Newgarden, Ryan Hunter-Reay, nor Patricio O'Ward can't qualify for Sunday's final, due to them racing at the 2019 Race of Champions. After Abomasnow finished talking about the Race of Champions, Abomasnow again demonstrated that Cameron Prosic, Cameron Marshall, Donald Bennie and Maneesh Gupta had to play their matches late at 7:00 PM EST due to their school work on culminating tasks (also considered Culminating Season).

🇺🇦 Scott Dixon (Quarterfinals) 🇷🇺 Pee Saderd (Quarterfinals] 🇧🇪 Metagross (Quarterfinals) 🇷🇸 Volcarona (Third round) 🇰🇷 Jirayu La-ongmanee (Champion) Josef Newgarden (Third round, retired) 🇧🇦 Beartic (Quarterfinals) 🇦🇺 Will Power (Third round) 🇸🇰 Ryan Hunter-Reay (Second round, retired) 🇫🇷 Simon Pagenaud (Fourth round) 🇵🇱 Joey Fatone (Semifinals) 🇯🇵 Apolo Anton Ohno (Third round) 🇪🇸 Mario Lopez (Fourth round) 🇹🇷 Pidgeot (First round)  Graham Rahal (Third round) 🇨🇿 Ueli Kestenholz (Final)

Chespin (Second round) 🇸🇪 Heracross (Fourth round) 🇮🇹 Marko Manieri (Second round) 🇨🇦 James Hinchcliffe (Fourth round) 🇦🇿 Decidueye (Third round) 🇲🇽 Patricio O'Ward (Third round) Honchkrow (Semifinals) 🇧🇷 Larvesta (Second round) Tanont Chumroen (First round, retired) 🇦🇱 Jinjett Wattanasin (Fourth round) Jakkapat Wattanasin (Fourth round) 🇮🇷 Allen Ford (Second round) 🇨🇾 Milo Manheim (Fourth round) 🇷🇴 Vaporeon (Third round) Nidoking (Third round) Haxorus (Third round)

IndyCar Cup 1
The IndyCar Cup is held January 19, 2019, at the Daytona International Speedway road course. It is used as a warmup for the final, held Saturday five hours before the Cup starts (at 2:00 EST, 1:00 CST). Abomasnow preferred to start the first of the two IndyCar Cups at 7 PM EST (6 PM Mexico Time), to have the start later than the ROC Nations Cup at the 2019 Race of Champions; due to the nature of both events.

The seeding pots are the seeds from the tournament. Because Patricio O'Ward, Josef Newgarden and Ryan Hunter-Reay are competing at the Race of Champions, Magmortar, Adam Rippon and Jordan Fisher replaced them. This is because of Abomasnow's talking about the event in Mexico. Everyone seeded lower than Newgarden, Hunter-Reay and O'Ward moved up a position; while the seeding for Dixon, Saderd, Metagross, Volcarona and La-ongmanee are unchanged.

This is the first time in any IndyCar Cup event that only the group winners advanced to the quarterfinals. Bold determines the name made the round of 16.

IndyCar Cup 2
The second of the two IndyCar Cups was held January 25, 2019, at the Daytona International Speedway road course. It is used as a warmup for the 24 hour race, held Saturday and Sunday. Demonstrated by the Team Seeded captain Abomasnow, the second of the two IndyCar Cups started at 7 PM EST on Friday; due to track activity. Abomasnow said that was the earliest time they can have it started. The late start to the Cup was also due to Abomasnow and IndyCar getting guessed by the judges on both The Masked Singer (Rabbit) and The Mask Line Thai (Takraw).

The seeding pots are the seeds demonstrated by Team Unseeded's Flygon and Dragalge while at the 2019 Race of Champions Unseeded Cup supervising the unseeded players participating. Pee Saderd and Scott Dixon swapped spots, while Metagross and Will Power swapped seeding, so Power went ahead of La-ongmanee and Metagross went behind both La-ongmanee and Newgarden.

Of these 32 qualified countries participating, 28 of them qualified for the first Cup, held January 19, after the Ueli Kestenholz vs. Kao Jirayu La-ongmanee final. It was held at the same time as the Nations' Cup at the 2019 Race of Champions, to see which country became the fastest of them.

Only four countries, Paraguay (which is Abomasnow's home country), Lithuania, Moldova and Netherlands, didn't participate from the first to the second Cup. All four countries eventually failed to qualify for the 2018 FIFA World Cup finals as well as The Kardashians vs. The West Family, which ironically was Jirayu La-ongmanee's tournament debut.

The poor performances of seeds in the first two seeding pots continued. Josef Newgarden copied his group stage exits in both the Nations and Drivers' Cup at the 2019 Race of Champions for the Second Cup. He was 0-2 after the first two matches of Group B were completed. As it stands, only Ryan Hunter-Reay and Chespin advanced from their group at the third round of matches. Apolo Anton Ohno finished 3rd in his group, although he went 1-2 with James Hinchcliffe and Larvesta; with the faster time the tiebreaker. Hinchcliffe advanced to the Round of 16 over Ohno by only 0.03 seconds. Bold determines the name made the round of 16.

Group E
This is the same group as Group C at the 2018 Mississauga Thailand Grand Festival.