Nasr Knew He’d Have “One Chance” to Make Pass for Win

Photo: Jordan Lenssen/Porsche

Felipe Nasr said he believed he only had only “one chance” to make a move on Louis Deletraz to take over the lead of the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen, following a late-race restart after the resumption of racing from a red flag period.

The Brazilian took the final restart with 16 minutes to go in second, behind the No. 40 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura ARX-06 of Deletraz, who claimed pole for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship enduro on Saturday.

However, just like the start of the race, Deletraz struggled with bringing his Michelin tires up to temperature, with Nasr taking full advantage of the opportunity in his No. 7 Penske Porsche 963, in making a bold move to the inside of the Swiss driver and into the lead.

“It was pretty wild out there, I have to say, with this mixed conditions,” said Nasr. “[It] always makes our life a lot harder to read the track grip.

“I knew I was going to have one chance. That one chance came right at the restart. All I did was to work my tires and brake as hard as I could just to get temperature and everything.

“I could see as soon as we got the get-go in the last corner, I could see the car ahead of me struggle. I said, ‘Man, I’m going for it.’

“I made the move. It was all about managing the traffic ahead because the difference of speed is so high between the cars and the classes, it’s just really having the right time and the right place, making the right smart moves.”

The win marked Nasr and co-driver Dane Cameron’s second of the WeatherTech Championship season after their triumph with Matt Campbell and Josef Newgarden at the season-opening Rolex 24 at Daytona.

It also saw the No. 7 Porsche crew extend their lead in the GTP drivers’ championship to 93 points over the No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing duo of Renger van der Zande and Sebastien Bourdais, who finished runner-up on Sunday.

“I’m very happy we did it,” said Nasr. “I’m very happy we made today an incredible day just because at points in the race we were back, then forward again. It was difficult to read what was the potential of the car.

“What I like was that everybody did an incredible work to keep us calm and wise decisions. Dane did amazing work, as well, when he stayed out on slicks when the track was still drying.

“Everything came together. [I’m] very pleased to get another victory here at Watkins Glen.”

Deletraz, meanwhile, was left questioning why his Acura was lacking performance on the restarts, which seemed to better suit the Porsches in particular.

“Obviously, the result is disappointing because we just really struggled on restarts,” he said. ‘I lost three spots on lap one of the start and three spots again on the final restart. I could hardly do better.

“But we still had a good race. We had pole position, great strategy and great pit stops.

“So, we know where to look to find that last bit of performance, and I think everyone is very motivated to find a solution and get on top of that, because I think if we fix this issue, we would have been very hard to beat this weekend.”

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John