DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Roger Penske begins his 59th season in motorsports racing the same way he did last year – as champion.
Porsche Penske continued its dominance from last season by winning the Rolex 24 at Daytona on Sunday for the second consecutive year and third time overall.
Penske won North America’s most prestigious sports car race, opening the 2024 season with his 20th Indianapolis 500 victory and second consecutive NASCAR championship with a pair of Porsches Won the World Endurance Championship and IMSA Championship.
Now back at Daytona International Speedway for Rolex, the same location and race where Penske debuted in 1966, Penske returns to Victory Lane. And, as usual with him, the billionaire, who turns 88 next month, stayed awake and sat with the team on the timing rack for the entire 24 hours.
Both of his cars dominated the two all-weather endurance races, finishing first and third. Once the wear and tear hit the other entries in the top prototype class, Porsche ran most of the race first. Earning the seventh-place full-time IMSA entry, the car scored back-to-back wins despite a different driver lineup.
“This was an incredible day for the entire Porsche Penske Racing organization,” Penske said. “Both of our Porsche 963ers and the driver performed brilliantly. The crew performed flawlessly and that’s a credit to everyone on the team. All carefully prepared results.”
Felipe Nasr won last year with Dane Cameron and Josef Newgarden, but Cameron was let go at the end of 2024 and Newgarden was Not part of this year’s Rolex lineup. So, it’s Nasr again, only this time he’s paired with Nick Tandy, who will be the IMSA co-driver all season long, and WEC champion Laurens Vanthoor, whom Penske dominates.
This is Nasr’s second overall victory, and he also won the 2022 Rolex Commemorative Event. Tandy also won a Rolex in 2014, but Sunday was his first overall win. This is the first watch for Vanthoor, who has finished in the top five in his class in six of the last seven years.
All three riders were in tears after the race.
Nasr said it was Penske who pushed the team to achieve the excellence he demanded.
“It’s great, just seeing how much energy he brings to the team. You get out of the car and he’s like: ‘How’s the car? How’s the handling?’ Like, he’s so interested in every detail.” Sir said. “He doesn’t miss a pit stop when the car comes in, he’s watching it all and making comments. I admire everything he does and it represents the team. It’s a unique opportunity to drive for Porsche Penske Motorsport here. “
Even though seventh place was so dominant – especially after Sunrise Sunday – the driver was still challenged before the checkered flag. Penske’s sixth car took the lead with less than an hour to go, but Nasr beat Matt Campbell in traffic with about 22 minutes left in traffic. Riding inside, he returned to the front line.
“Obviously, these guys are racers and luckily we didn’t get in trouble,” Penske said. “The whole team did a great job. When you think about all the drivers we have, they ran all day long Gotta be strong. This car, this Porsche, it’s amazing what we have and think we’ve done it two years in a row.”
BMW M Team RLL has a pair of competitive entries, with one car taking the wheel with Nasr with around 100 minutes of racing remaining.
Earning Sunday’s victory meant beating 60 other cars in a field of 235 drivers representing 31 countries. The line-up includes 14 former Formula 1 drivers, including NASR.
Kevin Magnussen, who ended his 10-year F1 career in December, has most recent experience in Motorsports’ Elite Global series and is a BMW contender.
Rahal’s two cars led and battled with the Porsche, but ran into issues that kept them in line with the Penske entry. Meyer Shank Racing also had a suspension issue early on Saturday that kept one car out of contention and then suffered front damage to its second car when Felix Rosenqvist took the lead. .
The team recovered and Tom Blomqvist passed for sixth in the final minutes, taking Meyer Shank for second and passing Penske )’s other Porsche finished third.
All three Cadillacs in the prototype class had issues. One of Wayne Taylor Racing’s entries was eliminated shortly after being led by two-time Rolex champion Kamui Kobayashi.
