The 2023 24 Hours of Le Mans was a mix of things. It was the 100th time that the longest race in the world took place. The best Hypercar and GTE teams put on a great show of skill and stamina. Last, it showed how much Europeans love NASCAR. You might know about the story behind this year’s Garage 56 entry. It’s a specially modified Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 NASCAR Cup car that has been made 500 pounds lighter and fitted with headlights, taillights, paddle shifters, wider wheels, and tires, and an aggressive aerodynamics kit to assist the team survive the very competitive Le Mans competition. Garage 56 didn’t just make it, and it wiped it out. At the end of testing, the Camaro had a four-second lead over the GTE pack. Even though they had some problems early on, the team of 2010 Le Mans winner Mike Rockenfeller, 2009 Formula One champion Jenson Button, and NASCAR driver Jimmie Johnson drove the stock car back to the front of the GTE field before sunrise. The Camaro raced around the Circuit de la Sarthe without problems for most of the race. However, an engine problem in the last 40 minutes of the race took the car out of it and put it at the bottom of the GTE field. Even so, when Johnson took the team’s chequered flag, he got almost as many cheers as the winning Ferrari 499P. Even though the Garage 56 car finished 39th overall, it brought something new to Le Mans. The NASCAR booth in the crowd area was one of the busiest places all weekend. The bright blue Garage 56 team shirts were a big part of what made the booth so appealing. Only two cars had the cross-plane V8 earthquake at Le Mans, and the Camaro was much louder than the Cadillac V-Series—r prototype. I was used to hearing the sound of the stock car at Le Mans, and it never got old to me. At the race, I saw a small piece of home for the first time. People’s responses to the race car from my country made me like it even more. They loved the Camaro every time it went around the track. Even though it brought back the “Big M8” cliche, it was hard to ignore visually or audibly, and the car and the team had a lot of charm. Seeing Jeff Gordon in the paddock (his number 24 was on the Garage 56 car) and the uniquely American thrill of taking a loud, brash, big race car to a top-tier European race was just the right amount of patriotism. It was also amazing to see the Hendrick garage packed into the pit building, hear Jimmie Johnson talking with some of Le Mans’ best legends, and hear the unmistakable Every three-and-a-half minutes, cup cars roar. Conversely, the car ran in the 24 just to run, not to win or get any special recognition. It was only run because it was a race to show how good American race cars are. After the race, Johnson said, “My heart is full.”Seeing so many known faces was a great thing to do. My collection is finished. I’m thrilled. Even though I made jokes about Garage 56 winning the race overall, the fact that the car ran for almost 24 hours shows that racing is in its golden age, which everyone knows. The Corvette team won its class on the last lap, Cadillac Racing came third overall, and Garage 56 brought American power to the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The race weekend is the most fun thing I can think of.
