This weekend is North America’s auto racing’s groundhog day. The WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season kicks off with the Rolex 24 this weekend marking the official start of the 2019 racing season. Yeah, so we’re super excited, just as you should be.

Below is the broadcast schedule and some potential highlights of this year’s event.

Broad Casts Schedule (All times Pacific)

SATURDAY, JAN. 26

-- IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship 2019 Rolex 24 Preview Show, Daytona Beach, Fla.; 10 p.m., NBCSN (T)

-- IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Rolex 24 at Daytona, Daytona Beach, Fla.; 11a.m.-5 p.m., NBCSN (L)

-- IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Rolex 24 at Daytona, Daytona Beach, Fla.;11:25a.m-8:55 p.m., IMSA.tv (L)

-- IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Rolex 24 at Daytona, Daytona Beach, Fla.; 3-6p.m., NBC Sports app (L)

-- IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Rolex 24 at Daytona, Daytona Beach, Fla.; 9 p.m.-3 a.m., NBCSN (L)

SUNDAY, JAN. 27

-- IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Rolex 24 at Daytona, Daytona Beach, Fla.; midnight-11:35 a.m., IMSA.tv (L)

-- IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Rolex 24 at Daytona, Daytona Beach, Fla.; 12 a.m.-3 a.m., NBC Sports app (L)

-- IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Rolex 24 at Daytona, Daytona Beach, Fla.; 3 a.m.-12 p.m., NBCSN (L)

L = live, S = same day, taped, T = tape delay

IMSA.tv = online

*All times Eastern

Story Lines:

Fast Freddie:

Two time Formula 1 Champion Fernando Alonso joins with the Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac DPi-V.r with fellow former F1 driver Kamui Kobyashi and WTR full season drivers Jordan Taylor and Renger van der Zande. This is the second Daytona 24 for Alonso.

Zanardi:

A legend returns to North America. Overshadowing Alonso is the return of Alex Zanardi to headline his first North American race since he lost both his legs in a crash in 2001. Zanardi’s car uses a steering wheel with hand levers to control throttle and braking on his Team RLL #24 BMW M8 GTE.

All Female Team:

Meyer Shank Racing will field the #57 Acura NSX GT3 with an all female driver lineup made up of Katherine Legge, Simona De Silvestro, Bia Figueiredo and Christina Nielsen. Legge will continue with the Meyer Shank team for the remainder of the WeatherTech season.

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Joest Do It:

The 2019 Daytona 24 Hours marks 40 years since Mazda debuted at Daytona, a race they won the first time out. The Mazda Team Joest entries look strong this year as Oliver Jarvis claimed the first pole position (1m33.685s) for the Mazda Daytona Prototype since it entered the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. Jarvis's time was the fastest ever sportscar lap around the Daytona International Speedway, eclipsing the 1m33.875s record set by PJ Jones in an Eagle-Toyota MkIII in 1993. This could be the start of Joest dominance that hasn’t occurred since the Audi Team Joest dominated sports car racing in the 2000s.

Complete Entry List:

Daytona Prototype International (DPi) – 11 entries

#5 Mustang Sampling Racing Cadillac DPi (Barbosa/Conway/Albuquerque/Fittipaldi)
#6 Acura Team Penske Acura DPi (Montoya/Cameron/Pagenaud)
#7 Acura Team Penske Acura DPi (Taylor/Castroneves/Rossi)
#10 Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi (van der Zande/Taylor/Alonso/Kobayashi)
#31 Whelen Engineering Racing Cadillac DPi (Nasr/Curran/Derani)
#50 Juncos Racing Cadillac DPi (Owen/Binder/Cannapino/Kaiser)
#54 CORE Autosport Nissan DPi (Bennett/Braun/Dumas/Duval)
#55 Mazda Team Joest Mazda DPi (Bomarito/Tincknell/Pla)
#77 Mazda Team Joest Mazda DPi (Jarvis/Nunez/Bernhard/Rast)
#84 JDC-Miller Motorsports Cadillac DPi (Trummer/Simpson/Miller/Piedrahita)
#85 JDC-Miller Motorsports Cadillac DPi (Goikhberg/Vautier/DeFrancesco/Barrichello)

Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) – 4 entries

#18 DragonSpeed Oreca 07 Gibson (Gonzalez/Maldonado/Saavedra/Cullen)
#38 Performance Tech Motorsports Oreca 07 Gibson (K Masson/R Masson/Cassels/Wright)
#52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports Oreca 07 Gibson (McMurry/Aubry/Kvamme/Guibbert)
#81 DragonSpeed Oreca 07 Gibson (Hedman/Hanley/Lapierre/Allen)

GT Le Mans (GTLM) – 9 entries

#3 Corvette Racing Corvette C7.R (Magnussen/Garcia/Rockenfeller)
#4 Corvette Racing Corvette C7.R (Gavin/Milner/Fassler)
#24 BMW Team RLL BMW M8 GTE (Krohn/Edwards/Mostert/Zanardi)
#25 BMW Team RLL BMW M8 GTE (Farfus/De Phillippi/Eng/Herta)
#62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GTE (Rigon/Molina/Pier Guidi/Calado)
#66 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT (Hand/Muller/Bourdais)
#67 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT (Briscoe/Westbrook/Dixon)
#911 Porsche GT Team Porsche 911 RSR (Pilet/Tandy/Makowiecki)
#912 Porsche GT Team Porsche 911 RSR (Bamber/Vanthoor/Jaminet)

GT Daytona (GTD) – 23 entries

#8 Starworks Motorsport Audi R8 LMS GT3 (Chase/Dalziel/Perez Companc/Haase)
#9 PFAFF Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R (Hargrove/Robichon/Kern/Olsen)
#11 Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini Huracan GT3 (Ineichen/Bortolotti/Engelhart/Breukers)
#12 AIM Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 (Montecalvo/Bell/Telitz/Segal)
#13 Via Italia Racing Ferrari 488 GT3 (Longo/Franzoni/Gomes/Bertolini)
#14 AIM Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 (Heistand/Hawksworth/Cindric/Cassidy)
#19 Moorespeed Audi R8 LMS GT3 (Davis/Riberas/Hardeman/Winkelhock)
#29 Montaplast by Land Motorsport Audi R8 LMS GT3 (Morad/Miles/Vanthoor/TBD)
#33 Team Riley Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 (Keating/Bleekemolen/Stolz/Fraga)
#44 Magnus Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 (Potter/Lally/Pumpelly/Mapelli)
#46 EBIMOTORS Lamborghini Huracan GT3 (Busnelli/Babini/TBD/TBD)
#47 Precision Performance Motorsports Lamborghini GT3 (Dunn/Lundqvist/Pavlovic/Yount)
#48 Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 (Sellers/Hardwick/Lewis/Caldarelli)
#51 Spirit of Race Ferrari 488 GT3 (Dalla Lana/Lamy/Lauda/Serra)
#57 Heinricher Racing Acura NSX GT3 (Legge/Beatriz/De Silvestro/Nielsen)
#63 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 488 GT3 (MacNeil/Vilandner/Farnbacher/Westphal)
#71 P1 Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 (Buhk/Schiller/Baumann/Perez)
#73 Park Place Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 (Lindsey/Long/Campbell/Boulle)
#86 Meyer Shank Racing Acura NSX GT3 (Farnbacher/Hindman/Marks/Allmendinger)
#88 WRT Speedstar Audi Sport Audi R8 LMS GT3 (Vervisch/van der Linde/James/DeAngelis)
#96 Turner Motorsport BMW M6 GT3 (Auberlen/Foley/Machavem/Klingmann)
#99 NGT Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 R (Haering/Bacler/Muller/Goerig/Renauer)
#540 Black Swan Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R (Pappas/Seefried/Cairoli/Werner)