Ganassi’s team works hard for Rolex 24-Hour victory

The Lexus Riley Daytona Prototype was virtually
perfect.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Chip Ganassi’s drivers weren’t racing to make money. They wanted to make history.

They succeeded Sunday when Juan Pablo Montoya teamed with Dario Franchitti, Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas to give Ganassi an unprecedented third victory in the Rolex 24-Hour race in as many years.

“None of these guys is getting one extra dime for this,” Ganassi said before the start of the race. “They all just want to be here and be part of it.”

Montoya agreed.

“It’s all about the win and the watches,” the former open-wheel star and last year’s top NASCAR rookie said in referring to the Rolex Daytona watches that go to each of the winners.

Ganassi had more on his mind after the hard-fought victory.

“My favorite win is always the most recent one,” said Ganassi, whose NASCAR team will be back at Daytona International Speedway in two weeks hoping to win its first Daytona 500 with Montoya, stock car rookie Franchitti and Reed Sorenson. “Obviously, this is a huge accomplishment, but I’m not retiring any time soon. I’m still trying to climb the mountain. There’s still a lot of peaks to conquer.”

Other than a minor handling problem for Pruett at the start of the race Saturday afternoon, the team’s No. 01 Lexus Riley Daytona Prototype was virtually perfect, racing at or near the lead in the race, which up until its waning hours was the most competitive in the event’s 46-year history.

At dawn Sunday, with about six hours to go, there were five other prototypes on the lead lap. But, as often happens in endurance events, attrition suddenly took its toll.

The Ganassi car had been swapping leads with the Ford Riley shared by NASCAR’s A.J. Allmendinger, Ian James, Burt Frisselle and John Pew. That car, driven by Frisselle, was just seconds behind the leader when a tire blew, damaging the suspension midway through the 21st hour and knocking it out of contention.

“Last year I felt we had a stronger car,” said Montoya, who combined with Pruett and Salvador Duran to win here in 2007, leading 468 of 668 laps on the 3.56-mile road circuit. “That was a car that you thought, whatever happens, we were fast enough to win. This year, if it came down to it, I think it would have been a lot harder.

“I pushed really hard every stint that I was in the car to make sure that whichever car that was fast and tried to stay with us had to work as hard as well. In a way it worked, because other cars had problems.”

Montoya, who had taken the wheel near the end of the 18th hour, suddenly found himself with a comfortable five-lap lead. His team was able to cruise the rest of the way in a race that saw scattered rain and a treacherous track through the evening and night-time hours and ended in dry conditions on a warm, sunny Sunday afternoon.

“At that point, with that kind of lead, you just have to make sure you don’t touch anything or run over curbs too hard,” he said. “You just roll.”