Humbled a year ago when both their cars failed to make the podium, Chip Ganassi Racing made amends by winning the Daytona 24 hour on Sunday for their fifth victory in 10 years.
A line-up change involving Juan Pablo Montoya showed just how serious the team were about winning the prestigious sports car race. The victory was the fifth for lead driver Scott Pruett, tying Hurley Haywood’s record for wins at Daytona International Speedway.
“Having gotten to know Hurley real well over the years by racing with him and just as a friend, and to have him there at the end was pretty special,” Pruett said.
The winning team of three-time defending Grand-Am drivers Pruett and Memo Rojas, along with Montoya and IndyCar driver Charlie Kimball, making his debut, beat the Max Angelelli-led VelocityWW team by almost 22 seconds.
It was Montoya who closed out the win, driving the final stint and waging a strong battle in the final hour with defending champion AJ Allmendinger. Ganassi’s No.01 BMW Riley had a clear horsepower advantage and, once Montoya managed to get past Allmendinger, the win was his for the taking.
Montoya’s other two wins were with Pruett on the No.01 car in 2007 and 2008, but he spent the past three years driving for the No.02 Ganassi “star car” and came away empty-handed each time.
The No.02 car, driven by Indy 500 winners Dario Franchitti and Scott Dixon, Daytona 500 winner Jamie McMurray and sports car ace Joey Hand, was strong until McMurray hit the wall exiting pit road following an early morning driver change. Steering damage might have contributed to the mechanical failure that knocked the car out of the race with four hours remaining.
The Chevrolet team of Angelelli, defending IndyCar champion Ryan Hunter-Reay and Jordan Taylor finished second for team owner Wayne Taylor – redemption after failure last year.
Defending race winner Michael Shank Racing twice came back from seven laps down to finish third in a Ford. It was a disappointing finish for team owner Shank, but a moral victory considering the hole the team clawed out of to make it to the podium.
Allmendinger, racing at Daytona for the first time since NASCAR suspended him for failing a random drug test hours before the July race here, teamed with fellow NASCAR driver Australian Marcos Ambrose, IndyCar driver Justin Wilson and Grand-Am regulars John Pew and Ozz Negri for the finish.
Ambrose was added to last year’s winning line-up after Negri broke his leg a month ago during off-season training, but Negri was able to return to the car this weekend for limited driving duties a mere six days after his cast was removed.
