The series was launched in 2000 as the Grand American Road Racing Championship, conceived in the wake of the United States Road Racing Championship's collapse in 1999. The founding formula was modeled on the approach of the former IMSA GTP series and the USRRC, centering the championship around the 24 Hours of Daytona and supplementing it with endurance events at Watkins Glen and Indianapolis as part of the North American Endurance Championship. From its inception, the series ran two classes of Sports Racing Prototypes alongside several Grand Touring categories, initially designated GTO, GTU, and AGT before being simplified to GTS and GT in 2001.
Rolex became the title sponsor in 2002, and the championship adopted the name Rolex Sports Car Series. The series underwent its most transformative change in 2003 with the introduction of the Daytona Prototype, a purpose-built tube-frame prototype chassis developed to replace both Sports Racing Prototype classes. The Daytona Prototype was specifically designed to be inexpensive to build and maintain, making it accessible to a wide range of teams. Although SRP cars were permitted to continue through the end of 2003, Daytona Prototypes rapidly took over the field.
In 2004, the GTS class was eliminated to create a larger performance gap between the Daytona Prototypes and the remaining GT cars, which were now the top production-based class in the series. Further simplification in 2005 consolidated all Grand Touring machinery into a single GT class, establishing the two-class DP and GT format that would define the series for the rest of its existence.
The two-class structure of the Rolex Sports Car Series proved highly effective at generating large grids. Car counts at many events reached fifty entries or more, a level rarely seen in North American road racing. At shorter circuits where it was impractical to run both classes together, the series introduced a split-format weekend, with GT cars racing on Saturday and Daytona Prototypes on Sunday, each race covering the same distance independently.
When both classes ran together on longer circuits, a wave start was used: Daytona Prototypes took the green flag first, followed by GT cars roughly twenty to thirty seconds later. This approach, adapted from motorcycle racing by series director Roger Edmonson, allowed the two classes to compete more safely by keeping faster and slower machinery separated at the start.
The series had a formal relationship with NASCAR through the Grand American Road Racing Association's ties to the France family, which owned both organizations. This connection brought occasional participation from NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers, particularly at the Rolex 24 at Daytona, elevating the profile of that event significantly.
Multiple tire manufacturers competed for supply contracts during the series' early years. From 2000 to 2001, Michelin, Dunlop, Goodyear, Avon, Pirelli, Hoosier, and Yokohama all supplied tires to competitors. Beginning in 2002, the field narrowed to Dunlop and Goodyear as the only suppliers. After 2004, the manufacturers' competition ended with Hoosier Racing Tire becoming the sole official tire partner from 2005 through 2007. Pirelli held the tire partner role from 2008 to 2010 before departing the series in 2011 to focus on Formula One. Continental then served as the official tire partner through the series' final season in 2013.
On September 5, 2012, Grand-Am announced that the Rolex Sports Car Series would merge with the American Le Mans Series to create a unified North American road racing championship. The new series launched in 2014 as United SportsCar Racing, later renamed the TUDOR United Sports Car Championship and eventually the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. The final Rolex Sports Car Series race was held on September 28, 2013 at Lime Rock Park in Connecticut.
The series' legacy lies primarily in demonstrating that a cost-controlled, two-class prototype format could sustain large grids and commercially viable events in the United States. The Daytona Prototype concept, though retired after the merger, established a template for affordable professional prototype racing that influenced subsequent discussions about accessibility in North American sports car racing.