DAYTONA BEACH – Jack Aiken proved his Cadillac V-Series.R was really fast for one lap during pole qualifying Thursday for the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona. 

Now comes the biggest challenge: can it survive a twice-around-the clock marathon on the 3.56-mile Daytona International Speedway’s road course? 

In what most endurance drivers consider the least most significant task of the grueling race, Aiken’s prototype was clocked at 136.429 mph, a fraction of a second quicker than the Acura ARX-06 of Alex Palou (136.281 mph) and another Cadillac driven by Jordan Taylor (136.240). 

One lap around the circuit that combines a flat, twisting infield road course and the majority of the high-banked speedway wasn’t much of a challenge, Aiken said, especially since the record winning distance in 2020 was 833 laps – 2,965.48 miles. 

“With qualifying here, it's a little bit going into the unknown because there's not a big focus on qualifying,” Aiken said. “Through the practice sessions and the tight tire allocation and the time on track, frankly, we don't tend to want to spend it on the qualifying session.” 

Retired driver Hurley Haywood always said the car that spends the least amount of time on pit road and doesn’t run off the track has the best chance to win. He should know, because along with Scott Pruett, the driver from St. Augustine has won the most-prestigious sports car race in America a record five times. 

A full field of 60 cars will practice on Friday before taking the green flag on Saturday at 1:40 p.m. (NBC/Peacock). 

The race features the top four divisions of the International Motor Sports Association. In addition to the sleek GT Prototypes, the Le Mans Prototype 2, GT Daytona and GT Daytona Pro classes will share the track. With a dramatic variation of speeds, it makes for a greater challenge for the faster prototypes and the slower GT Daytonas. 

The quickest ORECA LMP2 07 was driven by Jeremy Clarke at 128.222 mph, followed by the GT Daytona Pro of Alexander Sims at 121.934 and the GT Daytona driven by Zachjari Robichon at 121.926 mph. 

Counting the Wayne Taylor Racing car, Cadillac will have three of the top seven starting cars. 

“It's good that we've got more than one Caddy towards the front, and, you know, they've been stronger all week,” Aiken said. “I think the approach will be the same. We'll help each other out in the way we’ve passed and try not to make life too difficult. 

“If there's stuff that we can do to help each other in terms of strategy, then we'll always look at that as well – just keep the communication open. So, I doubt there'll be a fixed plan. It's always hard to do that when the race ends.” 

NOTES: Aiken’s co-drivers will be Earl Bamber, Frederik Vesti and up-and-coming NASCAR rookie Connor Zilisch, who was traveling from the Charlotte, North Carolina, ahead of a massive snow and ice storm during Thursday’s time trials ... Defending 24-hour race winner and IMSA Weather Tech Series Champion Porsche 962 from Penske Motorsports for Matt Campbell qualified sixth at 136.770 mph. His co-driver for the championship, Mathieu Jaminet, left Penske at the end of the season and signed with Genisis Magma Racing to compete for the World Endurance Championship. He wasn’t racing at Daytona and was replaced by Laurens Vanthoor and Kevin Estre.