Chip Ganassi claims the podium in Rolex24 Daytona – Grand-Am Rolex Series
The 49th annual Rolex 24 held at Daytona International Speedway marked the season start. The event was a real nostalgic experience for fans. This season was also due to introduce new points system, which was accepted with a huge criticism.
It claimed to be a new system but it failed to appeal. It was rather a simpler version of its ancestor with some parts totally unchanged.
In the second, tenth and final hour some cars caught in the accident and cost them to run out of the competition. These incidents held some laps in yellow flag.
This year’s Rolex 24 had 23 cautions for 141 laps. The lead toggled between 53 cars.
Chip Ganassi Racing team made its fourth glorious victory in the historic event of Rolex 24 at Daytona International Speedway. Scott Dixon hit the final lap on Sunday after his teammate Scott Pruett. The team ran for 2,566.76 miles, doing 721 laps.
Chip Ganassi Racing had a great team of drivers including defender of Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series champion Scott Pruett, Joey Hand and Memo Rojas, highly experienced in Grand-Am and the IndyCar Competitor Graham Rahal. They drove Chip Ganassi’s
No. 01 BMW Riley Daytona Prototype.
During a pit stop, Joey Hand hit a tyre on exiting, while his teammate was in pit ahead him. It cost him to pay a penalty drive-through, falling Ganassi’s No. 1 entry to a fourth place for the moment.
The two times IndyCar champion, Scott Dixon stepped up the Ganassi’s No. 02 car into the lead followed by the Joey Hand’s penalty. Joey Hand struck the lead and held the car to Scott Pruett. The Ganassi’s No. 02 was driven by the Scott Dixon, IndyCar
title holder Dario Franchitti and challengers of NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Jamie Mc Murray and Juan Pablo Montoya.
Scott Pruett who only fuelled his car, headed the lead by beating Scott Dixon from pit stop. It was the final pit stop just set within the last hour of 24-hours endurance race.
“There are lots of people and lots of great competitors that it takes to make up a team, and I'm just the guy that gets to stand up here and talk about it,” Ganassi said.
Chip Ganassi has now bagged his fourth victory in major auto events in USA, within a year’s time. Daytona 500 and Brickyard 400 were won by Jamie Mc Murray for Chip Ganassi in last season. Dario Franchitti held the throne of Indianapolis 500 last year.
TRG Race Team held the victory in Grand Touring class earned by Andy Lally in No. 63 Porsche GT3. He finished a lap ahead of Paul Miller Racing entry No. 48 driven by Bryce Miller the closest challenger in GT class.
Gray’s Anatomy star Patrick Dempsey’s team closed on the third position in GT class. This proved his hard-earned victory at Grand-Am. Dempsey’s No. 40 Mazda was leading until final six hours of Rolex 24 Daytona.
“I'm retiring from Grey's Anatomy as of today,” Dempsey jokingly said. “I'll be racing full-time from here on in. There's a headline for you.”
Jimmie Johnson, wants to reassure his sixth consecutive victory in this season and will be hitting the track coming month. Johnson, the five time consecutive winner of Sprint Cup Series finished in an overall 15th place at Daytona.
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