Jack Aitken Sets Fast Time of 1:33.939 for second Cadillac pole since 2024
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Jan. 22, 2026) — Jack Aitken, one of four drivers of the No. 31 Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R, won the pole for the prestigious Rolex 24 At Daytona with a fast lap of one minute 33.939 seconds / 136.429 mph.
It’s the second pole for Cadillac in three years as the program swept the front row in 2024. Aitken’s teammates are Earl Bamber, Frederik Vesti and Connor Zilisch.
“There isn’t a better way to start,” Aitken said. “We had a great ROAR, and we knew that there was potential in the car and it was good to get that done over one lap. It’s nice to see that we are all performing well, but it’s only one lap and we have 24 hours this weekend. That is when the real meat comes, is this weekend. The Whelen Cadillac was just flying, and it got a bit hairy at times; through the Kink it had some movement and that was a bit hair-raising, but it was fast and that is all that matters.”
It carries the momentum for the No. 31 team as it won the final two IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship races in 2025, first with Aitken, Bamber and Vesti winning the Battle On The Bricks at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in September and then another victory in the No. 31 Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R in the Motul Petit Le Mans at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.
“Congratulations to the #31 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R on securing pole position in qualifying for the 2026 Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona,” said Jim Campbell, vice-president of Performance & Motorsports Commercial Operations for General Motors. “It is a proud moment for everyone at Cadillac Racing, and we will be doing all we can to convert the pole to victory at this iconic event.”
The No. 40 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing V-Series.R sponsored by DEX driven by Louis Deletraz was third at 1:34.069 with a speed of 136.240 mph, while teammate Filipe Albuquerque, driver of the No. 10 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing V-Series.R sponsored by DEX was seventh at 1:34.513 with a speed of 135.600.
Deletraz teammates are Jordan Taylor and Colton Herta, while Albuquerque’s teammates are Ricky Taylor and Will Stevens.
Coverage of the Rolex 24 At Daytona starts at 1:30 p.m. ET Saturday, Jan. 24, on NBC, with continuing network coverage on Peacock (U.S.) and IMSA’s YouTube channel (not in the U.S.) until NBC will pick up the broadcast at noon Sunday, Jan. 25, for the finish. Peacock (U.S.) and IMSA’s YouTube channel will stream the entirety of the race along with the IMSA Radio broadcast at IMSA.com, Sirius 211/XM 207, locally at 93.5 FM/1150 AM and 107.9 FM at the track.
Jack Aitken No. 31 Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R run by Action Express Racing:
It looks like as I mentioned there from front to back a pretty close gap. What do you expect as you look ahead to the race, and what did you have to do to score the pole here today?
“Yeah, as always with qualifying here it’s a little bit going into the unknown because there’s not a big focus on qualifying through the practice sessions, and we’re very tight on our tire allocation and time on track frankly, so we don’t tend to want to spend it on qualifying sims. I know some guys did this morning, so we took what we could from those runs to learn as much as we could about this new tire and then just rolled the dice a little bit. It’s a lot of fun because you go into the unknown and you have to judge it lap by lap quite a lot. And the car was a bit loose, which made it a bit scary at times, but clearly, it’s fast. Yeah, the Whelen Cadillac guys did a really good job to sort out a great car for me. So yeah, it was a lot of fun.
Q. How confident were you? At one point, Renger van der Zande obviously took pole from you. You had it first, then he took it. How confident were you that you were going to be able to come back and get that, and were you surprised there wasn’t a little bit more at the very end of the session, that it wasn’t challenged even more so?
“I could see Renger in front of me actually, so it was a good gauge. When we finished the first laps, like flying laps, I could see it going away from me so I was like, that’s not good. Sort of got going after that and put a couple of good laps in even if they were scrappy, and I thought that’s as good as I can do. I peeled off into the pits because these tires do have a peak and then a drop, so I was just hoping nobody had done anything really weird and gone out super late or anything because if you’re just pounding around you’re not going to improve. But yeah, there was still nervous moments waiting in pit lane. It’s a big moment to get your first pole here.”
Q. This was the first qualifying with the new tire from Michelin. How was your experience with this one?
“I think most of the improvements and changes are something that you’ll see more in the race with cold tire performance and the long stint performance has changed a fair bit. But for qualifying over one lap, it peaks pretty hard just like it used to. Lap 4 or so is kind of when you get that peak grip and you’ve got a couple laps to do it, and if you don’t, then it does drop away quite sharply. It’s still a good tire in that sense, but not a lot of changes from last year I would say.”
Q. Jack, you mentioned the focus on race running. Kind of talk about your confidence level on long runs, particularly I know you haven’t had a lot of representative running yet but stuff like double and triple stints. What do you think that’s going to look like?
“I think, yeah, we’re pretty confident with what we can do in terms of the medium and double stinting because I think that’s — even though the temperatures are getting a bit higher over the weekend, it’ll be fun. It’s a little bit ugly, but you can get it done. The soft tire is also not looking bad, I would say. We haven’t gone outright for a long run stint equivalent during practice because again, we just don’t have the time, so it’s lots of short runs, and they never quite behave the same as one big stint. Looking at what others are doing, everyone was in the same boat a little bit. I think we’re in decent shape, but it’s very, very hard to tell, as always, at this point in the weekend. You’ll get your answers, I think, a few hours into the race.”
Q. Jack, a lot was made about this new “One Cadillac” mantra. What might that look like in the early stages of Saturday and Sunday’s race?
“I don’t think there’s going to be any changes. It worked well last year, so it’s good that we’ve got more than one Cadillac towards the front, and they have been strong all week. The Wayne Taylor cars, as well. I think the approach will be the same. We’ll help each other out where we can and try not to make life too difficult if there’s stuff that we can do to help each other in terms of strategy, we’ll always look at that, as well, and it’s just keeping the communication open. I doubt there will be a fixed plan. It’s always hard to do that with racing.”
Louis Deletraz No. 40 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing V-Series.R sponsored by DEX:
“I’m very happy with qualifying. First, congrats to Cadillac and the No. 31 on pole position. I was just one-tenth shy of it. But qualifying is not the most important part here. We just need to be sure that we have a good race car. Honestly, it was a good session. From throughout the Roar to FP1, we kept improving the No. 40 Cadillac and felt confident and I think we have a great race car. Thanks to everyone at Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing. Now, we keep working and just a few hours to the race.”
Filipe Albuquerque No. 10 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing V-Series.R:
“Congratulations to Cadillac and the No. 31. Qualifying was not great. We were expecting to be with the other Cadillacs so it was disappointing. In the morning session, we looked good, so we need to understand what happened there. P7, it just hurts my ego, not the race result so it’s all about that. Now, we will see come the race.”
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