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The Rolex 24 at Daytona has been rather low on NASCAR crossovers in the past few years, but the number of Cup Series drivers for 2025 has officially doubled, due to a skiing mishap.

Austin Cindric, the 2022 Daytona 500 winner and no stranger to Daytona’s sports-car road course, will drive a Ford Mustang GT3 in the endurance classic scheduled for Jan. 25-26.

He’ll replace veteran road-racer Ben Barker, who broke his collarbone while snow-skiing during the holidays.

Cindric, whose “day job” is piloting Roger Penske’s No. 2 Ford in NASCAR’s Cup Series, will co-drive the No.

64 Mustang with veterans Mike Rockenfeller and Sebastian Priaulx in the GTD Pro class.

Rockenfeller and Priaulx will be full-time teammates in the car this year for Multimatic Motorsports.

It’s important that I wish Ben all the best in his recovery as I get to keep his seat warm,” Cindric said.

“I’m keen to do my part in contributing to a great result, but also representing Multimatic and Ford properly as they start their season in IMSA.”

One other full-time Cup driver — 2025 rookie Shane van Gisbergen — is also entered in the Rolex, co-driving a Corvette in the same GTD Pro class. One of his co-drivers is 2025 Xfinity Series rookie Connor Zilisch.

The 24 Hours of Daytona has become a very meaningful event for me and my career,” he said.

In his five previous Rolex 24s, Cindric has driven a Lexus GT3 (twice), a Mercedes-AMG (once) and a prototype in the LMP2 class (twice).

Twice his team has finished as high as fifth in class.