2020 WeatherTech 240

The race was the first for the series following the suspension due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and was initially announced to be run behind closed doors.^[3] However, it was later announced that a maximum of 5,000 fans were to be admitted, with all required to be residents of the state of Florida.^[4] The race was also the first time since 2010 that the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship or its previous series had competed in the Paul Revere 250 Independence Day event.^[5]

Before the race, Ryan Briscoe, Renger van der Zande, Scott Dixon, and Kamui Kobayashi led the DPi Drivers' Championship with 35 points each, ahead of Oliver Jarvis, Tristan Nunez, and Olivier Pla with 32 points each, and Sébastien Bourdais, João Barbosa, and Loïc Duval with 30 points each.^[6] With 35 points, the GTLM Drivers' Championship was led by John Edwards, Jesse Krohn, Augusto Farfus, and Chaz Mostert with a three-point advantage over Earl Bamber, Laurens Vanthoor, and Mathieu Jaminet.^[6] In GTD, the Drivers' Championship was led by Bryan Sellers, Madison Snow, Corey Lewis, and Andrea Caldarelli with 35 points, ahead of Andy Lally, John Potter, Spencer Pumpelly, and Marco Mapelli with 32 points each.^[6] Cadillac, BMW, and Lamborghini were leading their respective Manufacturers' Championships, while Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R, BMW Team RLL, and Paul Miller Racing each led their own Teams' Championships.^[6]

A total of 26 cars took part in the event, down from the 39 entries from the season's opening event. There were 8 cars in the DPi class, 6 cars in the GTLM class, and 12 cars in the GTD class.^[7] In DPi, Gabby Chaves filled in for Felipe Nasr in the Whelen Engineering Racing entry, due to Nasr testing positive for COVID-19.^[8] Multimatic Motorsports took over the Mazda DPi program from Joest Racing.^[9] The LMP2 class did not participate in the event.^[7] In GTLM, Risi Competizione were absent. In GTD, Paul Miller Racing, the GTD class winner in the Rolex 24, didn't enter the event due to effects of the pandemic.^[10] Likewise, Pfaff Motorsports also didn't enter, due to travel restrictions surrounding being based in Canada.^[11] The No. 19 GEAR Racing powered by GRT Grasser entry, the No. 91 of Wright Motorsports, and the No. 23 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin all declined to enter the event as well.^[12][13][14] Team Hardpoint made their series debut, and Gradient Racing returned for the first time since 2018.^[15][16] Prior to the event, Aaron Telitz was announced as the replacement for Parker Chase in the No. 14 entry for AIM Vasser Sullivan.^[17] Compass Racing made their season debut.^[7]

There were two practice sessions preceding the start of the race on Saturday, one on Friday and one on Saturday. The first session on Friday lasted one hour while the second session on Saturday lasted 75 minutes.^[18]

The first practice session took place at 6:15 pm ET on Friday and ended with Juan Pablo Montoya topping the charts for Acura Team Penske, with a lap time of 1:35.960.^[19] The GTLM class was topped by the #912 Porsche GT Team Porsche 911 RSR-19 of Laurens Vanthoor with a time of 1:44.003. Tommy Milner in the #4 Corvette Racing entry was second and Nick Tandy rounded out the top 3.^[20] The GTD class was topped by the #63 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 488 GT3 of Toni Vilander with a time of 1:47.481.^[21]

The second and final practice session took place at 10:15 am ET on Saturday and ended with Oliver Jarvis topping the charts for Mazda Motorsports, with a lap time of 1:34.398.^[24] The GTLM class was topped by the #911 Porsche GT Team Porsche 911 RSR-19 of Nick Tandy with a time of 1:42.990. Oliver Gavin in the #4 Corvette Racing entry was second and Jordan Taylor rounded out the top 3.^[25] The GTD class was topped by the #14 AIM Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 of Aaron Telitz with a time of 1:46.694.^[26]

Saturday's afternoon qualifying was broken into three sessions, with one session for the DPi, GTLM, and GTD classes, which lasted for 15 minutes each, and a ten minute interval between the sessions.^[18] The rules dictated that all teams nominated a driver to qualify their cars, with the Pro-Am (GTD) class requiring a Bronze/Silver Rated Driver to qualify the car. The competitors' fastest lap times determined the starting order. IMSA then arranged the grid to put DPis ahead of the GTLM and GTD cars.^[29]

Qualifying was broken into three sessions. The first was for cars in GTD class. Corey Fergus qualified on pole for the class driving the #76 car for Compass Racing, beating Aaron Telitz in the #14 AIM Vasser Sullivan entry by less than two tenths of a second.^[30]

The second session of qualifying was for cars in the GTLM class. Oliver Gavin qualified on pole driving the #4 car for Corvette Racing, besting Jordan Taylor in the sister #3 Corvette Racing entry.^[31]

The final session of qualifying was for the DPi class. Hélio Castroneves qualified on pole driving the #7 car for Acura Team Penske, beating Oliver Jarvis in the #77 Mazda Motorsports by less than fifty-hundredths of a second.^[32]

Pole positions in each class are indicated in bold and by ‡.

Pos.	Class	No.	Team	Driver	Time	Gap	Grid
1	DPi	7	Acura Team Penske	Hélio Castroneves	1:34.390	_	1‡
2	DPi	77	Mazda Motorsports	Oliver Jarvis	1:34.422	+0.032	2
3	DPi	55	Mazda Motorsports	Jonathan Bomarito	1:34.454	+0.064	3
4	DPi	6	Acura Team Penske	Juan Pablo Montoya	1:34.532	+0.142	4
5	DPi	10	Konica Minolta Cadillac	Ryan Briscoe	1:35.061	+0.671	5
6	DPi	31	Whelen Engineering Racing	Gabby Chaves	1:35.244	+0.854	6
7	DPi	5	JDC-Mustang Sampling Racing	João Barbosa	1:35.737	+1.347	7
8	DPi	85	JDC-Miller MotorSports	Chris Miller	1:35.945	+1.555	8
9	GTLM	4	Corvette Racing	Oliver Gavin	1:42.251	+7.861	9‡
10	GTLM	3	Corvette Racing	Jordan Taylor	1:42.523	+8.133	10
11	GTLM	24	BMW Team RLL	Jesse Krohn	1:42.628	+8.238	11
12	GTLM	912	Porsche GT Team	Laurens Vanthoor	1:42.629	+8.239	12
13	GTLM	25	BMW Team RLL	Bruno Spengler	1:42.674	+8.284	13
14	GTLM	911	Porsche GT Team	Nick Tandy	1:42.754	+8.364	14
15	GTD	76	Compass Racing	Corey Fergus	1:47.015	+12.625	15‡
16	GTD	14	AIM Vasser Sullivan	Aaron Telitz	1:47.152	+12.762	16
17	GTD	96	Turner Motorsport	Robby Foley	1:47.468	+13.078	17
18	GTD	12	AIM Vasser Sullivan	Frankie Montecalvo	1:47.502	+13.112	18
19	GTD	63	Scuderia Corsa	Cooper MacNeil	1:47.595	+13.205	19
20	GTD	86	Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian	Matt McMurry	1:47.779	+13.389	20
21	GTD	57	Heinricher Racing with MSR Curb-Agajanian	Misha Goikhberg	1:47.799	+13.409	21
22	GTD	16	Wright Motorsports	Ryan Hardwick	1:47.839	+13.449	22
23	GTD	74	Riley Motorsports	Gar Robinson	1:47.998	+13.608	23
24	GTD	44	GRT Magnus	John Potter	1:48.772	+14.382	261
25	GTD	22	Gradient Racing	Till Bechtolsheimer	1:48.795	+14.405	24
26	GTD	30	Team Hardpoint	Rob Ferriol	1:49.193	+14.803	25
Sources:[33][34]

• ¹ The No. 44 GRT Magnus entry was moved to the back of the GTD field as per Article 40.1.4 of the Sporting regulations (Change of starting tires).^[29]