Nasr Brings Home Third-Straight Rolex 24 for Porsche, Penske

The first suit Felipe Nasr wore for Roger Penske was a blue one. The occasion was the first time he met the legendary team owner and businessman to plead his case for driving one of the new Porsche 963s under development for IMSA’s hybrid era.

Employed by GM at the time, Nasr had waited in a nearby restaurant prior to a secret meeting in a neutral location. On a hot day, as Penske arrived in his vehicle he spotted a slightly sweaty Nasr walking in his suit. “My kind of guy,” thought the team owner.

On Sunday in Daytona, wearing a Porsche Penske Motorsport driving suit in Victory Lane on a hot day, a sweaty Nasr celebrated a third-straight victory in the Rolex 24 for “The Captain.”

Once again, the team’s designated closer was brilliant under pressure in the closing stages. In years past, a multitude of cautions has created the close finishes for the four-year-old GTP category. This time, a six-hour caution period for fog that lifted just before the 18-hour mark kept the field bunched.

“Just believing and trusting the process,” explained an emotional Nasr, whose co-drivers Julien Andlauer and Laurin Heinrich competed for the first time in the GTP class at the Rolex. “We were steady all weekend with the boys,” said the Brazilian. “I just told them, let’s just bring the car, lap by lap, stint by stint. Those guys did phenomenal.”

Endurance racing is about being fast enough to lead and last while pushing your competition into mechanical issues or errors. In an extraordinary 24-hour showing, the Penske cars pushed the pace from the beginning, but could never shake the opposition.

Jack Aitken closed his Action Express Racing Cadillac (which he shared with Earl Bamber, Frederik Vesti, and Connor Zilisch) to within striking distance at the 44-minute mark. That’s when Nasr emerged from the pits on cold tires after taking over from Andlauer.

The Brazilian was brilliant through traffic to keep Aitken at bay throughout the closing stint, combining risk with preservation of his historic opportunity. He won by 1.569 seconds to start the celebration of Team Penske’s 60th year in racing, a span that began with a Corvette Sting Ray and a class victory at the 24-hour in 1966.

“We had a really tough 24 hours,” said Aitken, whose team was penalized for jumping the initial start and later for running a red light on the pit road. There was at least one off-track excursion. “It was not straightforward at all. Had quite a few setbacks, and the guys all around from the team did a fantastic job to get us back into race-winning position at the end of the race.

“The Porsches were very strong all race. It was impressive. We came after them and tried to challenge as best we could. I got close a few times, but just didn't quite have enough to get the move done.”

The Penske Porsche 963s had the legs on the field when it came to launching off the corners, critical to the hybrid cars’ ability to use their 200-mph speed at the top end on Daytona’s banking. Riding on a new era of Michelin Vision tires, Penske’s drivers, including the crew on the No. 6 Porsche 963 of Laurens Vanthoor, Kevin Estre and Matt Campbell, maintained efficient tire wear, especially at the rear wheels. Despite pushing the pace and leading nearly 80% of the laps, the two factory Porsches were able to get the necessary fuel and hybrid energy mileage to close off any fuel strategies by the opposition.

The BMW M Hybrid V8s of WRT, a rookie Rolex team, came alive in the coolness of the morning after the fog, occasionally taking the lead due to pit stops. But the No. 24 car of Dries Vanthoor, Sheldon van der Linde, Robin Frijns, and Rene Rast faded in the 80-degree afternoon temperatures, finishing 21.3 seconds behind in third. Nine of the 11 GTPs finished on the lead lap, including the privateer Porsche of JDC-Miller Motorsports, which finished seventh without the aerodynamic “joker” updates employed by the factory team.

The aggressive pace caught out the Penske team when Estre ducked under a Ferrari that was preparing to enter the pits at the end of the second hour. The brief contact punched a hole in the right rear sidepod of the No. 6 entry. Although running in tandem with the leading No. 7, the taped-up hole hampered the car and eventually wore out the three-man driving crew, which finished fourth, ten seconds behind the BMW.

The Acuras of Meyer Shank Racing (fifth and ninth) suffered from rear tire degradation and an alternate pit strategy that backfired. Nasr made quick work of the pole-winning No. 93 of Renger van der Zande at the start of a long day for the Japanese/American contingent. They had been counting on making a push in the night, which turned into a parade behind the pace car once the fog rolled in for the fourth time since the first “FogBank 24” in 1989.

“It’s not the result that we came for,” said van der Zande. “We wanted to win so bad, but the pace was just not there. I think we have a lot to improve on the pit stand and on the car.”

A Rolex Watch for Kurtz at Last

George Kurtz, who funds the CrowdStrike entries, has been a perennial LMP2 bridesmaid in the Rolex. His team was the runner-up in 2023, when the Rolex watches awarded the winners went elsewhere in a photo finish, and again in 2024.

This year, it appeared Kurtz might not even get started when a multi-car melee broke out at Turn 1 on the start. “It looked like bowling pins over there,” said Kurtz, one of several cars collected in the incident featuring fellow bronze-rated drivers.

The AO Racing entry of PJ Hyett led much of the first 18 hours thanks, in part, to the first-lap incident and the extended caution for fog. But it was CrowdStrike and driver Alex Quin in front after the day’s ninth and final caution. Joined by co-drivers Toby Sowery and Malthe Jakobsen after Kurtz completed his mandatory seat time, Quin held off Tom Dillmann and the Euro Interpol Competition to the finish, winning by 5.590 seconds.

Speed Did Not Pay Dividends

Sometimes the fastest cars don’t win, especially at Daytona. Despite using no major “evo” changes since the debut of the Z06 GT3.R, the Corvettes dominated a bumper crop of the GTD Pro runners, which this year included the evo versions of the Ferrari 296 GT3, Mustang GT3 and Porsche 911 GT3 R.

But it was not meant to be for the Corvettes of Pratt Miller Motorsports, which ran much of the first half of the race in tandem at the front. A broken rear suspension took out the No. 3 Vette with five hours to go, and Nico Varrone got pushed off at the exit of Turn 5 by the Ferrari of James Calado on the day’s final restart with a little more than two hours left. The latter was penalized for not leaving enough room for the Corvette, although it was a risky maneuver to attempt a pass on the outside.

Varrone could not recover the lost ground after dropping to seventh in class, which left the door open for Paul Miller Racing’s BMW M4 GT3 EVO, driven by Connor De Phillippi, Neil Verhagen, Max Hesse, and Dan Harper. Harper held off Maro Engel and his 75 Express team’s Mercedes-AMG GT3 by 2.223 seconds.

Among the race’s few casualties on day of generally clean running was the Risi Ferrari, which was nudged off at Turn 2 and into retirement by one of the Triarsi Ferraris. Despite the evo updates, the Ford Racing Mustangs were rarely at the front under green, and the No. 64 car retired with an apparent blown engine to bring out the final caution. The McLaren 720S GT3 of RLL, said Bobby Rahal, had an electrical problem caused by the car’s mandatory tire pressure gauge system and finished 20 laps behind the class winner.

GTD

Did he or didn’t he?

With less than 10 minutes remaining, Philip Ellis and his Mercedes-AMG GT3 nearly caused a huge crash on the high-speed banking at the start-finish line when he tagged the left rear of the Aston Martin Vantage of Nicki Thiim, which had a head of steam on the outside.

Fighting for the GTD win, Ellis had wedged his Windward Racing Merc inside the Aston at Turn 6 coming onto the banking to gain the lead. But the ensuing high-speed contact in the tri-oval was far more than a nudge and forced Ellis himself to make a “Hail Mary” save of his sideways car.

The contact with the advancing car of Thiim slowed it just enough for Ellis to regain the lead. Thiim could only get to his adversary’s rear bumper at the entrance to Turn 1 in the final laps and could have been forgiven had he tapped the Mercedes driver’s bumper to get by.

Was the contact from Ellis intentional?

“I thought we’re both about to crash on the oval,” said Ellis. “It was super dicey. I think it was no intent by both of us. I think we just tried to side draft each other. I just tried to get, like, on his corner, try to stop the run, just a little bit. I’m glad we both stayed on track. It was unfortunate that we touched.”

The “margin of loss” for the veteran Magnus Racing crew, including John Potter, Spencer Pumpelly, and Madison Snow, was 1.367 seconds. Winward, where Russell Ward, Indy Dontje, and Lucas Auer co-drove with Ellis, won its third Rolex in six seasons.