Petty joins Earnhardts for Rolex 24 Hours

Petty will share his Porsche with Leo Hindery, Gian Luigi Buitoni and Peter Baron - and will fittingly carry the number 43 which his family has made famous. Petty's last outing in the American endurance sports car classic was with fellow stock car stars Bill Elliott, Ricky Rudd and Ken Schrader in a Roush Racing-run Ford Mustang in 1986. The second Orbit car will include former Grand Prix driver Tommy Byrne in its driver line-up.

The Earnhardt father and son combination had their first taste of Daytona's combined oval and road course on Thursday in their works Chevrolet Corvette.

"I'm sick with the flu, but I'm excited about driving the car," said Earnhardt. "It's a calculated race. There's more to this race probably than a Winston Cup race because of the time factor - the time of the car, the course, consistency, the planning. There's a lot more to this race. There's a lot to a Winston Cup race with pit stops and strategy, but 24 hours is a long time."

Earnhardt Snr is also looking forward to the teamwork aspect of the event, along with his son and co-drivers Andy Pilgrim and Kelly Collins.

"It's exciting," Earnhardt added. "And it's a lot fun. They want everybody to do as good as the other person. They want to help and make sure everybody is good because it's a team effort. They know if this guy does as good as this guy, we're all going to be consistent and go fast. It's pretty neat to be on a team like that. Even though [Richard Childress Racing team-mate Mike] Skinner and I, [Steve] Park and Dale Jr. are team-mates, we all still have that edge to beat the other guy. In this, we all want to help each other."

Earnhardt lapped in the 1m52s bracket, while his more experience team-mates circulated in the 1m49s.