Porsche, Penske 3-Peat in Rolex 24

Michael L. Levitt/Lumen Digital Agency/IMSA

By Dennis Krause

Team Penske kicked off its 60th season with a third consecutive win in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s season-opening Rolex 24 at Daytona International Speedway Sunday.

In front of a record crowd for the 64th running of the twice-around-the-clock classic, Brazilian Felipe Nasr, driving the No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963, finished 1.569 seconds ahead of Jack Aitken’s No. 31 Cadillac Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R after a spirited battle in the last hour of the race.

“Well, it's not the first time, is it?” commented Nasr. “I think it was '24 that we all had that battle all the way to the end with the 31, and once again, it was all happening again.

“I was just trying everything I could because I knew when it comes to those final hours, everybody is giving everything they have inside the car, and the Cadillac was always a strong car all race long.

“That was pure racing. I used everything I had. I'm just pleased it happened and went our way.”

While it was a third straight Rolex 24 win for Nasr, each victory has come with a different driver lineup. For Nasr’s co-drivers, Julian Andlauer and Laurin Heinrich, it was their first trip to Daytona’s winner circle. According to Nasr, it proves the strength of the Porsche Penske program.

“I think we got pretty good drivers. The roster is really good. Everybody has their own backgrounds, different skills, and to join Porsche as a works driver, I could tell everyone that comes on board, it's really high level.

“All I could do was just pass on my experience as a driver, having won this race before,” Nasr continued. “That’s all I kept saying to these two. During the 20 hours, this is the race we're looking for. If we get there, then we think about the next four hours, just being calm, decisive, paying attention, like your pit entry, every information you can give us as a driver, keeping the car clean, staying away from the curbs and any contact.

“All I could do was pass on that type of experience. But to drive -- those guys, they know how to drive. I don't have to teach them anything. It's pretty amazing to have done it again.”

Nasr joins Peter Gregg and Helio Castroneves as the only drivers with three consecutive Rolex 24 wins. With a GTD PRO (Grand Touring Daytona PRO) class victory in 2022, Nasr now has four wins in the Rolex 24.

“I thought one was good but two was better and three is going to be hard to beat. There's one in class, (too) that's right. So four Daytona wins, wow.”

Brandon Badraoui/Lumen Digital Agency/IMSA

While Nasr was collecting yet another Rolex Daytona watch, driver George Kurtz was thrilled to finally win one of his own in the LMP2 (Le Mans Prototype 2) class after a close runner-up finish a couple years ago. Kurtz was proud of how the No. 04 CrowdStrike ORECA-07 LMP2 team and co-drivers Malthe Jakobsen, Alex Quinn and Toby Sowery never gave up after a multi-car crash in the first turn on the race’s opening lap.

“We finally got the monkey off our back after losing in '23 by, I think, 16 thousandths of a second,” said Kurtz. “It's been something we've been working towards for the last couple years. We've been very close.

“I couldn't be prouder of the team and the drivers, all-star lineup here, and the CrowdStrike APR guys gave us a fantastic car. It was great at the end. 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, and really this has been a life-long dream and we finally got it done.”

Driven by Connor De Phillippi, Neil Verhagen, Dan Harper and Max Heese, the No.1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO took top honors in GTD PRO.

Despite having to start at the tail end of the class because of a post-qualifying technical infraction after winning the pole, Verhagen said is was obvious the BMW had the pace for the whole race.

“Yeah, for sure. I think as we saw, the short run pace, we were able to dial it in. It took us a while to get there, but we had mainly focused on the long run pace. That's where 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 it paid off at the end. We were able to -- even without radio for Dan at the end, able to still make it at the end, which obviously is amazing for us. The three of us first Rolex win here, Connor for his second one year. It's an awesome feeling.

“Yeah, I think if we were going to get disqualified from one, this one would be the best one to get it done for. Obviously we were a bit discouraged about losing the points in the qualifying, but in terms of the race itself, I think we saw through all the classes adversity, and then they were able to come back up, as well, too.

“I don't think that we really felt that we were starting off on the wrong note or something like that by this. I think we just knew that we needed to work like a team, and that's what we did, and we pulled off a flawless race.”

In GTD (Grand Touring Daytona), it was a third Rolex 24 win for the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes AMG GT3, having previously won in 2021 and 2024.

Co-driver Philip Ellis survived a door-to-door battle with the No. 44 Magnus Racing Aston Martin GT3 EVO driven by Nick Thiim that saw both drivers able to control their cars after slight contact sent their cars into lurid 45-degree slides through Daytona’s famous ti-oval with just ten minutes remaining in the contest.

Ellis admitted that moment was a little stressful.

“Yeah, not ideal when you look at your teammates and team crew on the oval.

“No, it was a super hard fight with Nickyi. And to be fair I think I just misjudged it a little bit. Wanted to stop his run, get the side draft off of him, and to be fair, I didn't even know that he was so close up to the wall. A bit on my part, obviously, but I'm happy that we both continued and nothing bigger happened and that we continued on a good file and a good show.

“And obviously I'm super stoked that we came out on top. It was super rough. It changed as well 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 the team put us in a great spot as well with good strategy calls, so that was the basis of all of it.

“And then yeah, can't thank my teammates (Russell Ward, Indy Dontje and Lucas Auer) enough. They've done an outstanding job this entire week and in the race, and the team of course gave us a sort of rocket ship. Yeah, couldn't be happier.”

The IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship resumes March 18-21 with the 74th annual Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring at Sebring International Raceway.

Dennis Krause has spent decades covering all forms of motorsports, including over 40 Indianapolis 500s, with stints at WIBA Radio, PIT PASS - Radio’s Premier Motorsports Magazine and Motorsports Minute. Follow him on X @DennisKrause500 or motorsportsminute.bluesky.social or motorsportsminute on Threads or MotorsportsMinute+ on Facebook.

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