DAYTONA 24 HRS
Wayne Taylor Racing won its third consecutive Rolex 24 at Daytona, tying the record held by Chip Ganassi Racing, its chief challenger for the victory Sunday.
Filipe Albuquerque brought the No. 10 Acura of WTR to the checkered flag ahead of Kamui Kobayashi in the No. 48 Ally Cadillac, followed by Harry Tincknell in the No. 55 Mazda and Juan Pablo Montoya in the No. 60 Acura of Meyer Shank Racing.
It was the fourth Rolex 24 victory in five years and fifth overall for Wayne Taylor Racing which is one shy of Ganassi’s record of six overall victories. Ganassi was the first team to win three consecutive in 2006-08. It also was Acura’s first Rolex 24 victory.
After mounting a serious challenge on Albuquerque for the victory during the final stint, Renger van der Zande finished fifth in the No. 01 Ganassi Cadillac because of a blown right-rear tire with 8 minutes remaining, the second tire failure for the car in the last three hours on the 3.56-mile road course.
Cadillac Racing; Daytona Roar; Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida; January 22-24, 2021; Cadillac Dpi-V.R teams AXR Whelen Engineering (#31), AXR Ally (#48), JDC Motorsports (#5), and Chip Ganassi Racing (#01); (Richard Prince/Cadillac Photo).
Albuquerque took over the wheel with about 90 minutes remaining from Ricky Taylor. Indianapolis 500 winners Helio Castroneves and Alexander Rossi were the other co-drivers.
Kobayahsi, who was teamed with seven-time NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson, was trying to become the first driver in Rolex 24 history to win the overall title in each of his first three starts in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season opener.
It was the third runner-up overall finish in the Rolex 24 for Johnson, who also finished second in 2005 and ’08.
The race turned into a dogfight with two and a half hours remaining when Scott Dixon had a right-rear tire failure exiting Turn 6 (but was fortunate to avoid any damage). The yellow flag stacked up the field for a frenzied restart with the top four cars still running within a second for five laps after the green.
The lead changed hands several times over the final two hours as Albuquerque and van der Zande took turns at the front with Tincknell and Kobayashi in hot pursuit.
In his Rolex 24 debut, defending Cup Series champion Chase Elliott finished ninth overall (sixth in the DPi class) as part of the No. 31 team, which lost 22 laps after suffering a broken gear with about five hours remaining.
Elliott figured he was done at that point after taking taken two turns in the car, but he got back in after the repairs were made. He was pleased to finish strong after a disappointing opening run Saturday night