Jordan Taylor (racing driver)

Jordan Lee Taylor is an American professional racing driver. He competes full-time in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, driving the No. 40 Cadillac V-Series.R for Wayne Taylor Racing. He won the 2017 24 Hours of Daytona and the 2017 championship in the Prototype class of the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
Taylor also won the 2013 Rolex Sports Car Series Daytona Prototypes class, the 2017 Pirelli World Challenge SprintX GT Championship, and was 2014 United SportsCar Championship Prototypes class runner-up. As well, Taylor achieved a GTE-Pro class victory at the 2015 24 Hours of Le Mans in the Chevrolet Corvette C7.R.
Taylor is the youngest son of sports car veteran Wayne Taylor. He raced a Cadillac Prototype for his father's team, where he partnered with his older brother, Ricky, from 2014 to 2017. In 2018, he partnered with Renger van der Zande, as Ricky moved to Acura Team Penske.

Racing career

Born in Orlando, Taylor began his career in professional sports car racing in 2008, competing in the 24 Hours of Daytona and finishing fifteenth. In 2009, he ran right races for Beyer Racing at the Rolex Sports Car Series in the Daytona Prototypes class. His first full season came in 2010, driving a Mazda RX-8 for Racers Edge Motorsports, claiming two GT class podiums. In 2011, he drove a Chevrolet Camaro for Autohaus Motorsports with Bill Lester, where he got one win and three second-place finishes, ending as the GT class runner-up. In late 2011, at a private test at Sebring, he impressed Corvette Racing enough that they recruited him to fulfill the third driver role for the team in the 2012 season, competing at Sebring, Petit Le Mans and also the 24 Hours of Le Mans, where he finished in fifth place in the LM GTE PRO No. 73 Corvette C6.R. Also in 2012, he claimed his second Rolex GT win for Autohaus Motorsports.
In 2013, Taylor joined Wayne Taylor Racing, a team owned by his father, sports car veteran Wayne Taylor, co-driving with Max Angelelli. He and Angelelli teamed to win the 2013 Rolex Sports Car Series' Daytona Prototype championship, winning five races, including the last three of the season consecutively.
In 2014, the Grand-Am Rolex Series merged with the American Le Mans Series to form the new United SportsCar Championship. With his brother Ricky Taylor as teammate, he was runner-up with two wins and six podiums. In 2015, he earned two wins and three second-place finishes. Taylor collected three wins and seven podiums in 2016 and was third in points.
Taylor also competed at the 24 Hours of Le Mans from 2013 through 2017 in the GTE-Pro class for Corvette Racing, where he won the GT Pro class in 2015, and finished second in 2014 and third in 2017.
For the 2017 IMSA season, Taylor drove a Cadillac DPi-V.R. in the new Daytona Prototype International class. He won the 24 Hours of Daytona, the 12 Hours of Sebring, and the next three races. Later, he scored two additional podiums en route to the championship. He also won the Pirelli World Challenge SprintX GT Championship, driving a Cadillac ATS-V.R with codriver Michael Cooper. The duo won at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, took four podiums, and finished in the top ten in nine out of ten races, taking the title by three points.
In 2018, Renger van der Zande became his new co-driver at Wayne Taylor Racing. He scored a single win at Petit Le Mans and three additional podiums, including a second-place finish at the 12 Hours of Sebring, and was third in the overall standings.
Taylor won the 2019 24 Hours of Daytona and finished second at the 12 Hours of Sebring and Petit Le Mans. However, he had poor results at the sprint races and finished fourth in points.
For the 2020 IMSA season, Taylor became a Corvette Racing full-time factory driver. He claimed five wins and three runner-up finishes to claim his third championship.
In 2021, Taylor got a class win at the 24 Hours of Daytona, as well as a second-place finish at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
file:Jordan taylor .jpg|left|thumb|Taylor's No. 9 car at Circuit of the Americas in 2023
In 2023, Taylor made his NASCAR debut in the Cup Series race at Circuit of the Americas, driving the No. 9 as a substitute for Chase Elliott, who was recovering from a leg injury he suffered in a snowboarding accident in Colorado. Taylor started fourth and finished 24th. He later raced Kaulig Racing's No. 10 car in the Xfinity Series race at Portland International Raceway and ran well, but due to an issue, finished 27th. Taylor returned to Kaulig to drive their No. 11 car in the Xfinity Series race at the Charlotte Roval.
For the 2024 IMSA season, after spending four years with Corvette Racing, Taylor returned to his father's team, Wayne Taylor Racing, sharing the No. 40 Acura ARX-06 with Louis Delétraz. His older brother Ricky, as well as Filipe Albuquerque, were teammates in the No. 10 car.

Media appearances

Taylor is well known for his quirky personality and his social media presence. He has an online alter ego known as Rodney Sandstorm, a parody of 1990s racers and Jeff Gordon, whose antics have drawn positive attention toward both Taylor and IMSA.
In particular, during the 2018 Talladega broadcast, Taylor received significant media attention when he, as Rodney Sandstorm, crashed a live NASCAR on Fox broadcast, causing announcer Darrell Waltrip to call for security.