It wasn’t easy, but Felipe Nasr delivered a historic win for Team Penske at the Rolex 24 at Daytona. Looking like he might be relegated to a runner-up position, Nasr, in a Porsche 963, was able to hold off last years winner Tom Blomqvist, in the Whelen Engineering Cadillac, by 2.1112 seconds in the 62nd annual event.
There seemed to be confusion regarding the finish of the race as the checkered flag seemed to be thrown at the last second. TV graphics showed two laps to go, and there was no white flag thrown which indicates that there is one lap left in the race. Even fellow Team Penske drivers, Dane Cameron, Matt Cambell and Josef Newgarden seemed confused. They even held off celebrating because they were either confused or just didn’t know the checkered flag was thrown. Official IMSA results show the time of the race being 23:58:24.723. In fact, it seems that only the GTD and GTD Pro divisions completed the full 24 hours of racing. The error and discrepancy didn’t seem to hurt the outcome of the race, but anything can happen with two laps to go.
There was record crowd temperatures in the 80’s when green flag flew at 1:45 Saturday afternoon. It was Blomqvists teammate Pipo Deroni who took the immediate lead from the pole position. The Cadillac proved strong in the heat of the day. The lead traded off between Porsche and Cadallic teams throughout the early evening.
The first major GTP team with problems was Wayne Taylor racing. The Acura ARX-06 shared by Ricky Taylor, Ben Hartley, Filipe Albuquerque & Marcus Ericcson experienced an electrical fire close to the nine hour mark. They did get back into the race and finish 43rd 190 laps down. The Chip Ganassi Cadillac, which ran among the leaders, fell out with mehcanical issues in the 13th hour. The entry driven by Sebastien Bourdais, Scott Dixon, Alex Palou & Regar van der Zande & added up to 12 Indycar Championhips would end the race in 47th position.
The Penske Porsche held a comfortable lead througout the early morning portion of the event. That’s when things would begin to change. After scheduled pit stops in the 22nd hour, the lead was eight seconds. The second Wayne Taylor entry was running third at this point. They just didn’t seem to have the pace of the Porsche or the Cadillac.
The track temps started to heat up and Blomqvist was able to cut the lead down to 1.3 seconds with 90 minutes left. It would be down to less than a second when the Whelan entry made another pit stop five minutes later. Nasr, in the Penske Porsche would pit just a few laps later. With one hour and 18 minutes left in the race, Blomqvist made a daring pass for the lead on the front stretch. He and Nasr would split a GTD Pro racer forcing Blomqvist to cut down in front of both of them as they entered the first turn. It looked like it would be the Cadallacs race to lose as Blomqvist opened up a 1.1 second lead immediately.
That’s when the final caution came out with 50 minutes remaining. Parker Thompson, in the Vasser/Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 entry would catch fire leaving the pits. The leaders would pit with 42 mintues remaining. It would be Nasr who won the race in the pits as he barely beat out Blomqvist to the blend line. Blomqvists final stop went longer due to needing more of a recharge for the hybrid motor.
The green would fall with 32 minutes remaining. Blomqvist was able to get the lead down to half a second at times, but just didn’t have enough. Blomqvist was looking for his third overall Rolex victory in a row. He just couldn’t keep the pace. Felipe Nasr delivered a historic win at the Rolex 24 at Daytona for Team Penske. It would be Team Penskes second overall victory. The first happened in 1969. That was 55 years ago with the legendary Mark Donohue and Chuck Parson in a Lola/Chevrolet 1’70 Mk 3B.
This was the first overall Rolex 24 victory for all four Penske Drivers. Nasr, Cambell and Cameron have all seen success in sports cars. Newgarden was different. He only had two previous starts in sports cars. He now has a Rolex to go with his Baby Borg that he just received. That came after winning the Indianapolis 500 just eight months ago.