Porsche Penske Motorsport Earns Third Straight Rolex 24 at Daytona Win
With 60 entries spanning four classes – GTP, LMP2, GTD PRO and GTD – there were bound to be action from start to finish. There always is. There were nine caution periods, with the longest of those for fog. Yes, fog caused the pace vehicle to lead the field for nearly six and a half hours during night running. The first caution came on the first lap of competition; there were no caution periods in the final two hours of racing, which is an anomaly in this long-distance competition.
While the victory by Porsche Penske Motorsport might seem to be preordained, the second place result from Whelen Engineering’s No. 31 Cadillac V-Series.R was the type of comeback we always hope to see in long-distance racing. The No. 31 had earned pole position for this race, but was placed to the rear of the 11-car GTP (Grand Touring Prototype) field after a mechanical infraction discovered following qualifying on Thursday. Still, Jack Aitken gave winner Felipe Nasr fits during the final laps of the 24-hour enduro, and finished a scant 1.569 seconds behind the Porsche, both of them – and the seven GTP cars following this duo – on the lead lap, having completed 705 laps of the 3.56-mile Daytona International Speedway road/oval circuit.
Third place overall went to the No. 24 BMW M Hybrid V8 from Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, making the podium of this race a three-manufacturer feast. The No. 6 Porsche Penske 963 finished fourth, followed by the No. 93 Acura ARX-06 from Meyer Shank Racing, Wayne Taylor Racing’s No. 40 Cadillac, the independent No. 85 Porsche 963, the second BMW and the second Acura completing the top GTP order. Also-rans in this class were the No. 23 THOR Aston Martin Valkyrie in 31st, 44 laps off the lead and the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac, which completed only 629 laps in 50th place.
For Felipe Nasr and Porsche Penske Motorsport, this third consecutive victory puts them in heady racing as only they, Wayne Taylor Racing and Chip Ganassi Racing have scored “natural” Rolex 24 hat tricks. By earning this victory, the No. 7 963 Porsche brought Roger Penske’s squad its fifth class win and comes 60 years after Team Penske’ first class win and its first as an organization in any series. Nasr became only the third driver to win three straight Rolex 24 overall victories, joining the late Peter Gregg and four-time Indianapolis 500 winner Helio Castroneves.
Nasr said the team worked over the winter on the evolution of their GTP machine and, for himself, “There were times in the race that I felt like, okay, we’ve got pretty good pace, but there were other times, as well, that the 31 was always quick out there, when you look at their times. But, for sure,” he said, “the Penske was in a good form from beginning to end.” At the close of the race, with sunny skies and warm temperatures, “The track itself just felt like super slck very low grip, which we didn’t experience anything like that over the practice sessions. It was a big test just to keep the car on the track! You could see the Bus Stop,” he stated, “the car was just sliding everywhere – and not only us, but you could see the Cadillac as well.”
The all-ORECA LMP2 07 LMP2 class found the No. 04 CrowdStrike car in first place, followed by the No. 43 and No. 343 cars. Alex Quinn brought the winning car to the checkered flags 5.590 ahead of the second place ORECA, while the third-place car was a lap in arrears. LMP2 had the largest gap between first and second of all four categories. As a follow-up, a week later CrowdStrike took the overall Asian Le Mans Series win in both races held at Dubai!
Earning its first Rolex 24 victory for CrowdStrike, George Kurtz noted, “We finally got the monkey off our back after losing in ’23 by, I think, 16 thousandths of a second. It’s been something we’ve been working towards for the last couple of years. We’ve been very close,” he said. “The CrowdStrike APR guys gave us a fantastic car. It was great at the end,” which allowed the team some breathing space going to the checkered flags. “We had some adversity in the beginning, the first turn, I would say. We were innocent bystanders and got cleaned out a bit, but the team got us back on track and we never gave up. Really, this has been a lifelong dream and we finally got it done.”
Action in the GTDPRO class saw the lead swapped regularly. While the No. 3 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R from Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports took pole position over the No. 1 BMW M4 GT3 EVO from Paul Miller Racing (with four GTD racecar between them in the qualifying order), by the time 24 hours of racing were completed, it was the No. 1 atop the standings, with the 75 Express team’s No. 75 Mercedes-AMG GT3 and the similar Mercedes AMG GT3 of Winward Racing’s No. 48 completing that class’ podium.
As with the GTP class, the No. 1 BMW was relegated to the rear of the GTP PRO field after qualifying, yet came away with the win. Focusing on their long-run pace, yet able to dial in for shorter runs between cautions, Neil Verhagen, one of our drivers in this car revealed, “We knew we were going to be able to make the difference on energy numbers as well as saving the tires. That’s what we focused on, and I think it paid off at the end. We were able to – even without radio for Dan (Harper) at end end, able to still make it at the end, which obviously is amazing for us. The three of us first Rolex win here! Connor (De Phillippi) for his second. It’s an awesome feeling.”
The big GTD continent, largest in the race, saw Winward Racing’s Mercedes-AMG #57 GT3 atop the standings, with a 1.367-second advantage on longtime IMSA supporter Magnus Racing’s No. 44 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 EVO and the #27 Aston-Martin Vantage GT3 EVO of the Heart of Racing team, which also competes in both GTD classes. It was less than 11 seconds behind the GTD winner. in earning its third Rolex 24 class win – others came in 2021 and 2024 in this class – Winward earned their 12th IMSA victory.
Despite a near-spin on the front straight with just a few minutes to go, winning driver Philip Ellis remarked, “Yeah, a little stressful. Not ideal when you look at your teammates and team crew on the oval! Obviously I’m super stoked that we came out on top. It was super rough and it changed as the race went on. Sometimes other cars had the upper hand when it was a bit colder, and then it looked like we got the upper hand when it was a bit warmer towards the end. Of course,” he stated, “the team put us in a great spot as well with good strategy calls; they gave us a sort of rocket ship!”
In the three manufacturer classes, GTP, GTD PRO and GTD, three German marques claimed their Rolex wins: Porsche, BMW and Mercedes, but the results of this race are still provisional and will be for another few weeks, which is not unusual for IMSA. While IMSA’s at-track technical inspection was completed a day following the race and the winning cars from all four categories passed tech, IMSA officials stated, “As part of ongoing due diligence, results will remain provisional until additional inspections are completed, a process that could last up to two weeks.”
The 36 hours of Florida continue March 18-21 when IMSA takes on the Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring on that former airfield track. In addition to being the second race of the season, it’s also the second – of five – IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup races, a race within a race. The other contests in this championship take place at Watkins Glen, Road America and Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.