The 24 Hours of Daytona traces its origins to NASCAR founder Bill France Sr., who built Daytona International Speedway in 1959 and conceived the race to attract European sports car endurance racing to the United States. The event is informally considered part of the Triple Crown of Endurance Racing alongside the 12 Hours of Sebring and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The 2014 edition held additional significance as the first race held under the merged IMSA banner, which had combined the American Le Mans Series and the Rolex Series into a single unified championship. IMSA president Scott Atherton confirmed the race as the season opener in September 2013. It was also the first of four North American Endurance Cup events on the 2014 calendar.
Action Express Racing dominated the Prototype category, leading a sweep of the top four overall positions for Corvettes. Brazilian driver Christian Fittipaldi and Portuguese driver João Barbosa claimed their second Rolex 24 victories together, while Frenchman Sébastien Bourdais secured his first win at the event. Bourdais held off the Wayne Taylor Racing Corvette by just a second and a half at the finish line, producing a dramatic climax to the overall battle.
In the GT Le Mans class, Porsche North America took victory with their 911 RSR, edging out the Team RLL BMW entry. The Prototype Challenge category was led home by CORE Autosport ahead of 8Star Motorsports.
The GT Daytona class result was subject to controversy. Level 5 Motorsports in their Ferrari was initially penalized after the race, handing the win to the Flying Lizard Motorsports Audi. IMSA subsequently rescinded the penalty, restoring the Ferrari to first place in the GTD class, creating one of the more unusual post-race result reversals in the event's history.
The race was marred in its third hour when Memo Gidley's GAINSCO Corvette ran into the back of the slowed Risi Ferrari driven by Matteo Malucelli. The impact was severe enough that officials halted the race for approximately one hour while both drivers were extracted from their cars. Both Gidley and Malucelli were transported to Halifax Medical Center, where they remained for several days following the incident.
The 2014 running of the Rolex 24 represented the end of one era and the beginning of another for North American sports car racing. The unification of IMSA's two predecessor series brought together prototype and GT machinery under a single regulatory framework for the first time, drawing manufacturers and teams who had previously been split across competing championships. The return of Le Mans-specification cars to Daytona added an international dimension that had been absent for years, aligning the event more closely with the global endurance racing ecosystem. Action Express Racing's clean sweep of the top four prototype positions underlined Corvette's dominance in the new era's opening act, while the GTD controversy highlighted the growing pains of administering a newly merged and more complex class structure.