Stock Cars at La Sarthe: The NASCAR Classic Steals Le Mans
Fifty years after NASCAR's first appearance at Le Mans, 35 stock cars returned for the inaugural HSR NASCAR Classic. Andrew Jordan swept Sunday in an ex-Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota to take overall honours.
The 2026 Le Mans Classic Legend added a new grid with an old soul. The HSR NASCAR Classic presented by Goodyear brought 35 rumbling stock cars to the Circuit de la Sarthe, most of them shipped from the United States, as a tribute to the fiftieth anniversary of NASCAR's first appearance at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1976. It was Historic Sportscar Racing's first overseas event. It was also, by acclamation, the weekend's loudest.
Thirty-five V8 stock cars at full chat down the Mulsanne is an experience the La Sarthe faithful will not forget.
How the weekend unfolded
Saturday's opening sprint was chaos of the best kind: with no refuelling available, much of the field ran dry, and JC France, grandson of NASCAR founder Bill France Sr., took the win in a Garage 56-liveried 2014 Chevrolet Camaro, fifty years after his grandfather's cars stole the show as guest entries in 1976. Sunday belonged to Andrew Jordan. The British touring car champion, driving the ex-Michael Waltrip Racing 2011 No. 15 Toyota Camry, won both Sunday sprints, the finale by a commanding 26 seconds, to claim the inaugural overall honours.
The names on the grid
The entry list read like a NASCAR fever dream: 2004 Cup champion Kurt Busch in his 2020 Monster Energy Chevrolet Camaro, Joe Nemechek in a Talladega Nights tribute Old Spice Toyota, Ryan Gemmell in a Perrier Chevrolet. Busch and Gemmell both fell out of the finale with mechanical trouble, but the spectacle never dipped. Thirty-five V8 stock cars at full chat down the Mulsanne is an experience the La Sarthe faithful will not forget.
The analysis: why it worked
The tribute could have been a novelty. Instead it was a reminder that NASCAR and Le Mans share a root system: big, loud, brave machinery driven at the limit. HSR, part of IMSA since 2022, exists to keep racing history alive by racing it, and the NASCAR Classic is the formula at its best. The 1976 guests were a curiosity. The 2026 return was a homecoming.
