Porsche Penske Dominates, Takes Rolex 24 Three-Peat

Photo: Mike Levitt/IMSA

Porsche Penske Motorsport claimed a commanding third consecutive victory in a record-breaking 64th Rolex 24 at Daytona, which saw more than a quarter of the race run under a single full-course caution.

Felipe Nasr became only the third driver to score an overall three-peat, joining Peter Gregg and Helio Castroneves, while Porsche Penske has joined Chip Ganassi Racing and Meyer Shank Racing with three overall wins in a row at Daytona.

The Brazilian ace took his No. 7 Porsche 963 to a 1.569-second win over the No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac V-Series.R of Jack Aitken, who made a late-race challenge to the 2024 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTP title-winner.

It came at the start of Porsche Motorsport’s 75th anniversary and the 60th year of Team Penske.

Nasr shared top honors with Julien Andlauer and Laurin Heinrich, with the German in only his second LMDh race start. Both claimed their first Rolex 24 wins.

The race, marred by a six-hour and 33-minute caution period overnight due to fog, the longest in event history, ultimately set up a six-hour sprint to the finish.

Both factory Porsches, which used the long safety car period for repairs to the turning vane (No. 7) and right-rear floor (No. 6), the latter which was damaged in an early race clash with a LMP2 car, were the dominant force for much of the race.

The No. 7 Porsche of Andlauer took the lead after a call to leave leader Laurens Vanthoor out for one additional lap while under the race’s ninth and final full-course caution with just over two hours to go.

It ultimately reversed the order between the two Porsche Penske entries, although the No. 6 entry of the newly-installed Kevin Estre dropped behind both Aitken and Dries Vanthoor.

Vanthoor got around Estre in the final 30 minutes to give the Belgian squad a podium finish in its top-class series debut, alongside co-drivers Sheldon van der Linde, Robin Frijns and Rene Rast.

Estre, Laurens Vanthoor and Matt Campbell ended up fourth, benefitting from a late-race stop for Marco Wittmann in the No. 24 BMW, who initially passed the Frenchman.

Both of the Meyer Shank Racing’s Acura ARX-06 entries were unable to match the pace of the Porsches, or even BMWs, in the warmer day-time hours and came home fifth and sixth, respectively.

The No. 93 Acura was the closest to the Porsches just prior to the halfway mark of the race when Kaku Ohta lost a lap when the left-front wheel fell off.

Nick Yelloly brought the No. 93 car home in fifth after the sister No. 60 car of Tom Blomqvist also made a late-race stop.

Wayne Taylor Racing’s No. 40 Cadillac was promoted to sixth, ahead of the lone GTP privateer entry from JDC-Miller Motorsports Porsche, which showed pace early on but not in the closing stages.

Wittmann dropped to eighth as a result of his stop, ahead of Blomqvist.

Heart of Racing Team endured a challenging Rolex 24 debut with its Aston Martin Valkyrie, which battled numerous electrical-related issues before suffering rear suspension failure with Roman De Angelis at the wheel.

It returned to action in the closing moments but finished more than 45 laps behind.

The No. 10 WTR Cadillac’s day ended with just over two hours ago with a suspected engine failure that turned into a fire at the rear of the Ricky Taylor-driven car.

Taylor drove the car into the pit lane and escaped injury.

RESULTS: Rolex 24 at Daytona

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