Lally: Daytona Has Been “Centerpiece” of Career

Photo: Magnus Racing

Andy Lally says Daytona International Speedway has been the “centerpiece” of his racing career, which is set to end, at least on a full-time basis, with this weekend’s Rolex 24 at Daytona.

The veteran racer, who has five class victories in the Florida endurance classic, recently announced his retirement from driving to focus on his new duties as President of the Trans Am Series presented by Pirelli.

His final scheduled race is in Magnus Racing’s Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo alongside longtime co-driver John Potter, as well as Spencer Pumpelly and Nicki Thiim.

Speaking with Sportscar365, Lally reflected on his storied career, particularly at Daytona, that has stretched from sports cars to stock cars and a number of other platforms.

“Daytona is almost the centerpiece for some of those highlights,” he said. “There’s five [Rolex 24] wins, six second place finishes and a third, so 12 podiums in 24 years of running here is neat.

“But then also, I’ve done the Goody’s Dash Series race here. I’ve done the Truck race here. I’ve raced the Daytona 500. I’ve driven an ARCA car here. I won the Paul Revere here. I got KIA’s first pole in their touring car division here.

“There’s a lot of stuff in a lot of series that has happened here, and the fact that it is Daytona is a special thing for me.

“Having this culminate to be the last one, even if there was other options, I didn’t even look.”

Lally, a three-time IMSA champion, has spent the majority of his sports car racing career with Magnus, which will be pausing its program following this weekend’s race due to increased business commitments from team owner/driver Potter.

“Potter and I got to talking and I said I wanted my last one to be with this [effort],” said Lally.

“I joked with John in 2012, at the end of the season when we were doing contract negotiations to go on. I said, ‘I’ve had a blast. If you want, I’ll sign a ten-year contract and finish out my career here.’

“That was 13 seasons ago! Even in the one season he didn’t do IMSA, I still was with him on the SRO side helping him with strategy and coaching and stuff like that, just not behind the wheel.

“I’ve been together for so many years, it’d be silly for me to do anything with anybody else.

“And honestly, it’s super rare that you get a boss that’s become a really good friend. John’s one of my best friends and it’s cool to see that out with him.”

Lally said the timing was the main reason to hang up his helmet now, although stressed that it likely won’t be the end of his driving career altogether.

“To be honest, I think I probably could have done another one, two, three years here, maybe Daytona, and maybe even longer than that if I get downgraded to Silver and get options like that,” he said.

“I’m not ruling out never coming back to Daytona. I’m just done full-time as a driver.

“That, coupled with the opportunity that Trans Am gave me to move over and take that role was exciting enough that I was, ‘OK, if I’m going to do that, it’s got to be all in.’

“I know that is going to 100 hours a week of working with people, digesting a new role and trying to figure out the cadence of how things work over there.

“I’m not ruling out hopping into a NASCAR Xfinity car for a road race or something like that, or coming back once a year to do [the Rolex 24], but I think I can tell once I’m not ultra competitive with it, I’m not going to come back for fun.

“I expect that if I take a year off, I’m going to get rusty and I’m going to hate that.”

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