Acura ARX-06 Takes Pole for 2026 Rolex 24 at Daytona
Acura started its 2026 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship campaign strongly today. It qualified on pole and placed both Acura Meyer Shank Racing with Curb Agajanian ARX-06 cars in the top four for this weekend’s 64th running of the Rolex 24 at Daytona.
Renger van der Zande, a two-time Rolex 24 race winner, qualified the #93 Phillips 66 Acura ARX-06 on the front row. He and his teammates Nick Yelloly, four-time and reigning Honda-powered NTT INDYCAR SERIES champion Alex Palou, and Honda Formula Dream Project driver Kaku Ohta aim to put Acura back in victory lane at Daytona. The #93 set the second-fastest time in qualifying, but officials promoted it to pole position after post-qualifying technical inspection.
Acura has won the Rolex 24 at Daytona three times in recent years. It took back-to-back-to-back victories in 2021, 2022 and 2023, including wins with Meyer Shank Racing in 2022 and 2023. Last year, Acura MSR finished P2 in the twice-round-the-clock classic. The #60 car of Tom Blomqvist, Colin Braun, Scott Dixon and Felix Rosenqvist finished only 1.335 seconds behind first place.
The sister #60 Acura ARX-06 returns this year with three of the same four drivers. AJ Allmendinger joins Braun, Dixon and Blomqvist for the 2026 running of the race. The four drivers share ten Rolex wins between them (Braun 3, Blomqvist 2, Dixon 4, Allmendinger 1). They will start Saturday’s race from fourth.
Acura qualifying results for the Rolex 24 at Daytona placed the #93 Acura Meyer Shank Racing with Curb Agajanian Acura ARX-06 first, with Renger van der Zande and co-drivers Nick Yelloly, Alex Palou and Kaku Ohta. The #60 Acura Meyer Shank Racing with Curb Agajanian Acura ARX-06 qualified fourth, with Tom Blomqvist and co-drivers Colin Braun, Scott Dixon and AJ Allmendinger.
Renger van der Zande (#93 Acura Meyer Shank Racing with Curb Agajanian Acura ARX-06) qualified first: "I think this truly showcases what we've learned over the course of our first year working together as a group. There are so many people, so many resources, and so much talent, but we still needed to find a cohesive way to work together—and that is exactly what you see now on our team. We're going into our second year of this Meyer Shank Racing and Honda Racing Corporation USA effort, and the homework we've done has been incredible. I've never seen it at this level before in any team. The only thing we needed to improve last season was execution, and today was a good example of how we have learned to do exactly that. We're starting from the front at Daytona in our #93 Acura ARX-06, and there's a long race ahead of us. We'll stay calm, stay cool, and go from here."
Tom Blomqvist (#60 Acura Meyer Shank Racing with Curb Agajanian Acura ARX-06) qualified fourth: "The field is very, very close. We had a really promising practice session this morning, so we were feeling pretty good going into qualifying,g but we didn't have a great session. I got a bit out of sync, then another car spun in front of u, so I had to kind of back it up. I think we missed the balance a little bit in qualifying, and it wasn't as good as we had expected. Luckily, we don't have too much to worry about with 24 hours of racing ahead of us to move forward."
