“Big, mean, powerful, noisy” NASCAR exceeds Le Mans expectations
After the Project 56 NASCAR smashed the GTE Am cars in Le Mans qualifying, Jenson Button says they’ve far exceeded pre-event expectations.
Button, who’s sharing the ride with NASCAR legend Jimmie Johnson and endurance king Mike Rockenfeller, also described the Hendricks team as perhaps the best he’s ever worked with.
The Project 56 modified NASCAR run by Hendricks Motorsports will remarkably start from P38 on the grid this Saturday after Mike Rockenfeller obliterated the GTE Am field in qualifying.
The Project 56 NASCAR topped the GT cars by over four seconds on the eventual pole time
The German put down a 3’47.976 in the Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, which was only +8.5s slower than the last car in the LMP2 prototype field.
The modified Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 trumped the highest placed AF Corse Ferrari GT by 3.901s, and although it didn’t take part in the Hyperpole session that set the top eight of every grid, its initial qualifying time was 4.4s faster than the eventual Corvette pole getter.
Former F1 world champion Jenson Button, gave his thoughts on how the car has so far exceeded all expectations.
“We came here thinking we’d be in the mix and, when the GTE cars get the amateur drivers in the car, we’d be able to be as quick as them – if not quicker – but we didn’t expect to qualify four seconds in front of the quickest GTE car,” the former F1 world champion said.
Jenson Button and Jimmie Johnson watch on as Mike Rockenfeller tops the GTE Am provisional qualifying session
“Everything has been spot on, all the homework that’s been done by this team has been phenomenal and I would put it up there with one of the best teams I’ve raced with in the world.
“When we started with the Cup car we felt there’s so much potential and then we tweaked it and got faster and faster at Le Mans on the sim, but you never know until you hit the real track.
“To be here now, having qualified faster than we expected on the sim, everybody can be so proud – so far we have overachieved.”
Although they’ll start above the GTE Am cars, the real test will be in the reliably over 24 hours, which the car has done in testing on American roads.
Button has dscribed the Hendrick NASCAR team as one of the best crews he’s ever worked with
There’s also the fact that they’ll lose time in having to change brakes over the course of the race, and that the unexpected is always a factor in round the clock races.
“It’s big, it’s mean, it’s powerful, it’s noisy,” said Rockenfeller about the Project 56 car, who said that the fact they match the GT’s through the corners and chicane bodes well for Saturday.
“It’s very nice in terms of the window. It’s not like it’s super edgy to drive. Yes, there are some spots where we may struggle more than a GT car. They were always afraid we were too slow in the Curves.
“We are actually not. We’re pretty fast. Honestly, the car is just super cool. It’s fun to drive. I’m not super surprised to be honest, because I’ve worked closely with it all the time.
Unlike a standard NASCAR Cup Series car, the Project 56 ZL1 Camaro is equipped with headlights to tackle the Le Mans night session.
“For the GTE teams it’s way easier. They’ve been here year after year, so they know everything. For us there were a lot of areas where we were not exactly sure.
“But of course we were always correlating the American tracks in testing to American tracks on the simulator. Sebring, Austin, whatever.
“So we got the model very close. I can say in the sim I was like doing 3:49. So we knew then if we take the fuel out, which we never did, that we could get there. I’m very happy.”
The on track activity for the 24 Hours of Le Mans grid will have to wait until Saturday, with a 15 minute warm up session prior to the race start at 4pm local time (12 am AEST), which runs through until 4pm Sunday.
24 Hours of Le Mans starting Grid
Hypercar
- #50 FERRARI AF CORSE Antonio Fuoco 3:22.982
- #51 FERRARI AF CORSE Alessandro Pier Guidi +0.773
- #7 TOYOTA GAZOO RACING Kamui Kobayashi +1.285
- #8 TOYOTA GAZOO RACING Brendon Hartley +1.469
- #75 PORSCHE PENSKE MOTORSPORT Felipe Nasr +1.549
- #2 CADILLAC RACING Earl Bamber +2.188
- #5 PORSCHE PENSKE MOTORSPORT Frédéric Makowiecki +2.194
- #3 CADILLAC RACING Sébastien Bourdais +2.539
- #6 PORSCHE PENSKE MOTORSPORT Kévin Estre 3:26.900
- #93 PEUGEOT TOTALENERGIES Mikkel Jensen 3:27.260
- #94 PEUGEOT TOTALENERGIES Loïc Duval 3:27.850
- #311 ACTION EXPRESS RACING Luis Felipe Derani 3:27.960
- #708 GLICKENHAUS RACING Romain Dumas 3:28.497
- #709 GLICKENHAUS RACING Esteban Gutierrez 3:29.082
- #4 FLOYD VANWALL RACING TEAM Tom Dillman 3:29.745
#38 HERTZ TEAM JOTA Will Stevens NO TIME SET (61 overall)
LMP2
- #48 IDEC SPORT Paul Loup Chatin 3:32.923
- #28 JOTA Pietro Fittipaldi 3:33.035
- #41 TEAM WRT Louis Deletraz 3:33.240
- #47 COOL RACING Reshad De Gerus 3:33.580
- #63 PREMA RACING Mirko Bortolotti 3:33.983
- #14 NIELSEN RACING Ben Hanley 3:34.021
- #9 PREMA RACING Bent Viscaal 3:34.658
- #10 VECTOR SPORT Gabriel Aubry 3:35.091
- #923 RACING TEAM TURKEY Dries Vanthoor 3:35.176
- #23 UNITED AUTOSPORTS Tom Blomqvist 3:35.519
- #45 ALGARVE PRO RACING James Allen 3:35.578
- #22 UNITED AUTOSPORTS Filipe Albuquerque 3:35.587
- #39 GRAFF RACING Giedo van der Garde 3:35.652
- #65 PANIS RACING Job van Uitert 3:35.691
- #34 INTER EUROPOL COMPETITION Albert Costa 3:35.755
- #31 TEAM WRT Robin Frijns 3:35.853
- #43 DKR ENGINEERING Maxime Martin 3:35.951
- #37 COOL RACING Malthe Jakobsen 3:36.271
- #80 AF CORSE Ben Barnicoat 3:36.483
- #30 DUQUEINE TEAM Neel Jani 3:37.213
- #35 ALPINE ELF TEAM André Negrao 3:37.498
- #32 INTER EUROPOL COMPETITION Anders Fjordbach 3:39.303
- #36 ALPINE ELF TEAM Matthieu Vaxiviere 3:59.171 (59 overall)
#60 TOWER MOTORSPORTS Steven Thomas NO TIME SET (60 overall)
38 overall: #24 HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS Mike Rockenfeller Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 3:47.976 [Innovative Cars, Garage 56]
LMGTE Am
- #33 CORVETTE RACING Ben Keating 3:52.376
- #25 ORT BY TF Ahmad Al Harthy 3:53.905
- #54 AF CORSE Thomas Flohr 3:54.582
- #21 AF CORSE Julien Piguet 3:54.744
- #83 RICHARD MILLE AF CORSE Luis Perez Companc 3:55.033
- #57 KESSEL RACING Takeshi Kimura 3:55.637
- #55 GMB MOTORSPORT Jens Reno Møller 3:57.240
- #74 KESSEL RACING Yorikatsu Tsujiko 3:59.648
- #60 IRON LYNX Alessio Picariello 3:53.374
- #98 NORTHWEST AMR Alex Riberas 3:53.406
- #77 DEMPSEY – PROTON RACING Julien Andlauer 3:53.481
- #86 GR RACING Benjamin Barker 3:53.531
- #100 WALKENHORST MOTORSPORT Jeffrey Segal 3:53.590
- #85 IRON DAMES Michelle Gatting 3:53.603
- #72 TF SPORT Valentin Hasse-Clot 3:53.703
- #56 PROJECT 1 – AO Matteo Cairoli 3:53.947
- #66 JMW MOTORSPORT Louis Prette 3:54.093
- #911 PROTON COMPETITION Martin Rump 3:54.129
- #16 PROTON COMPETITION Jan Heylen 3:54.137
- #88 PROTON COMPETITION Harry Tincknell 3:58.486
- #777 D’STATION RACING Satoshi Hoshino NO TIME SET
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