NEW RIDE: Josef Newgarden gets acquainted with sportscar, Daytona during Rolex 24 testing

DAYTONA BEACH — While much of a two-day IMSA test at Daytona International Speedway was about breaking in a new car, for one team Tuesday's session was about breaking in a new driver.

Two-time IndyCar Series champion Josef Newgarden will run his first race at the famed track during the Rolex 24 at Daytona Jan. 28-29. The event kicks off the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup schedule and is a crown jewel of endurance racing.

Calling it an event on his "bucket list" earlier in the week, Newgarden will be joined by Team Penske IndyCar teammate Scott McLaughlin, who will also make his debut in the event. Chip Ganassi Racing development driver Kyffin Simpson and reigning IMSA LMP2 champion John Farano will complete the star-studded driver lineup in the No. 8 Tower Motorsports entry.

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Newgarden is a decorated open-wheeler, having won the 2017 and 2019 IndyCar Series championships. But his appearance in the Rolex 24 will mark the culmination of a long-held aspiration and Tuesday and Wednesday offered key learning opportunities for a driver that hasn't piloted a sportscar since running IMSA Lites in 2008.

Newgarden hoped to get into fine-tuning over the course of the two days but goals were a little more basic in Tuesday's initial run, such as simply cranking the engine.

"The way you start it," Newgarden said with a sheepish smile. "Just getting going. Getting familiar with the team, getting familiar with the car, more just learning the procedures.

"There's a lot of differences from IndyCar, just trying to get my head around that initially. Then, we can start diving into race-performance stuff — how we're going to be on long runs, how the car really feels — but the procedural stuff is really first on my list."

After successfully getting the engine fired, Newgarden found himself making laps on the 3.56-mile Rolex 24 course at one of the world's most famous race tracks. The moment wasn't lost on the native of Nashville, who will turn 32 later this month.

"Total treat," he said. "Always wanted to run here. Been trying to run this race for a long time and for it to finally work out was exciting."

In terms of first impressions?.

"It's amazing how you don't really notice the (31-degree) banking as much as you assume," Newgarden said. "When you're in the car doing 160-plus miles per hour, you don't notice the level of banking that is here and it's quite high.

"We run at places with pretty high banking. Texas is up there too but not at Daytona's level. It just always blows me away that once you get up to speed, it's not as it looks when you're sitting there standing still."

Easing the process for Newgarden is his ability to lean on McLaughlin, who is undergoing his own endurance-race crash course as well. The connection between the two can be seen in the duo's humorous "Bus Bros" YouTube series.

"We're going to be going through it together," Newgarden admitted. "It's going to be a journey for both of us but that's why I've got my Bus Bro here. We're going to be ready to rock."

Largely, this week's testing was to further dial in the new LMDh (Le Mans Daytona hybrid) models, a car announced in 2020 that will fulfill the requirements of both IMSA and the World Endurance Championship (WEC), thus making entries eligible for not only the Rolex race but also the 24 Hours of Le Mans and 12 Hours of Sebring.

The Tower Motorsports outfit wasn't one of the nine such entries in attendance this week. Those cars, competing in a different class, figure to have a leg up in terms of raw speed and power.

But over the course of 24 hours, steady could in fact win the race, especially with so many unknowns surrounding the new cars. Mechanical issues popped up for BMW on Tuesday, speaking further to the scramble still going into getting the LMDh race ready.

For Newgarden, steadiness starts behind the wheel and while the week may have started with the ignition, by the end of two days, his goal was to have a much better understanding of what will be required come race day.

"When you come to something new and you don't know all the details of it, it's a small detail that can catch you out," Newgarden said. "It's not so much, 'Hey, can I drive the car consistently the whole race.' I feel like I can do that.

"I can maybe do a good job of staying mistake free, which is going to be important for this kind of event. It's going to be knowing the details and knowing what I don't know at this point. I want to make sure I'm not missing anything when I show up."

Reach Ryan Pritt at rpritt@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter @RPritt. 

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Josef Newgarden, 2-time IndyCar champ, tests IMSA sportscar at Daytona