At Petit Le Mans last year, I was talking to Larry about this year and casually mentioned that if him and Kévin were in Car 6 together I would go to all their races. He sort of smiled and said “well that’s the plan.”

And obviously it was, and since I can’t have lied to Laurens Vanthoor about something, I naturally had to go to all the IMSA GTP rounds in 2026. My planning was terrible, I double booked some stuff because of that, and honestly I am not sure that this is something I would EVER recommend someone do. I loved my 2026 IMSA adventure and traveling around the country to support my favorite driver. I also got to see a lot of races from my second, third, fourth, and fifth favorite drivers. I think only the second favorite knows his spot on the list! 

“The season didn’t go the greatest for Kévin, or Car 6, but in spite of all the issues, and in spite of a season to forget, I wouldn’t change a thing about the trip itself. Or at least that’s what I thought at the halfway point. Before Laguna I first half-wondered whether they had made some sort of deal with the devil to get the IMSA seats. By Watkins I was starting to question why I was doing this. At Road America (even before Kévin’s crash) I was regretting the entire thing. It had become a ritual in humiliation. I go, I do a bit for the show, I see Kévin have a terrible race, and I go home. 

My mother always told me when I was younger that I need to look at the glass half full side of things. But when the glass was as smashed as car 6 was every weekend I wasn’t sure there was much positive to look at. I’m going to try though. Because I’m sure there was a positive to every weekend. It’s just about finding that through all the bad things that happened.” 

That’s what I had written prior to Petit Le Mans, and since that was my headspace for most of the season, I decided to keep it. But then Petit happened. Kévin won his first IMSA race. And made the entire season worth it. I don’t actually regret a second of it. But it was still a wild ride. 

Daytona 

Daytona really should have been a hint for how the season was going to be. Ups, downs, blunders, and crashes. 

I guess if I really have to look at it objectively a few of my overall highlights of the season came at Daytona, getting Kévin to take the first of multiple photos of me with his helmet and getting given one of Scott Dixon’s suits. 

It also set the tone for the year with not only the car 6 team and drivers, but all of Porsche Penske Motorsport pretty early on. From starting a running joke about candy with Laurens Vanthoor, to continuing the Chili’s banter with Kevin Estre, to actually talking to Felipe Nasr, to giving Laurin Heinrich a hat that he would actually wear at least once. 

I started my series of questions for drivers at Daytona, and honestly it was a pretty weak start, the question (How much sleep do you think you will get during the race?) was kind of boring and tame compared to what would come but it got drivers to start recognizing me, if they didn’t already. 

One driver who apparently did recognize me and would be a running theme all season was Earl Bamber. I honestly didn’t even realize that Earl knew who I was and as it turned out he did, and was familiar with the podcast. It’s always cool to be known by some of your favorite drivers. 

For each race this year I did my nails to match Car 6. Since this race was a normal livery, I just had metallic red nails with a white 6. Pretty standard. But some of the nails I would do later in the season were anything but. 

Porsche Penske won the race, which I guess was cool, but I wasn’t there to see Car 7 win races, I was going to every race to see Kévin and Larry, and a missed pit call put them out of contention for the win with under an hour to go. Again, maybe I should have just listened to the signs early on. Would have saved me a bunch of heartache. 

Podium #1 for Cadillac. Podium #1 for PPM. 

This is part 1 of a 5 part weekly series documenting my journey to every IMSA GTP round in 2026.