DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Felipe Nasr piloted the No. 7 Penske Porsche to a third consecutive Rolex 24 win at Daytona International Speedway after a thrilling battle with the No. 31 Whelen Cadillac team.

Porsche Penske Motorsport dominated the majority of the 64^th annual running of the prestigious race, no matter if it was the No. 7 car with Felipe, Julien Andauler and Laurin Heinrich or the No. 6 car with Laurens Vanthoor, Kevin Estre and Matt Campbell.

Throughout the nighttime hours, the race was under a record-breaking caution that lasted for 6 hours and 33 minutes due to heavy fog. The lead changed occasionally, but daylight came, and it was the BMW M Team WRT teams leading the way. Nevertheless, Porsche Penske Motorsport’s No. 7 team made its way back to the lead and in the closing 25 minutes, held off a hard charging Aitken in the No. 31 Whelen Cadillac.

“Three in a row,” Nasr said. “It’s just – I don’t know. Emotions, you know. It’s just a very special day. I dreamt of that. You know, I knew we had a great car. I knew we had a great team, but it didn’t need to be that way, right? The last few laps – I’m still trying to catch my breath. We had the energy to do it, you know.”

With the victory, Nasr becomes only the third driver in history to win the Rolex 24 three consecutive times. He joins American, Peter Gregg (1973-1975) and fellow Brazilian, Helio Castroneves (2021-2023). Nasr’s journey to Porsche Penske Motorsport started five years ago when he secretly met team owner, Roger Penske in a mall parking lot. Since that conversation, Nasr has become one of Penske Porsche’s strongest competitors.

“Well, I think, I talked to him about this program back, and I remember, we were kind of undercover,” Penske said. “We walked over to Cindric’s shop, and he showed up in a blue suit. I said he’s my kind of guy. You know the driving he’s done for us and at the end there, probably was one of the best drives I’ve seen.”

In LMP2, Alex Quinn, driver of the 04 CrowdStrike Racing by APR car won by more than 42 seconds, topping Inter Europol Competition ORECA teams driven by Tom Dillman (No. 43) and Nick Cassidy (No. 343). The win is Quinn’s first in the Rolex 24 in four starts.

“I’m just so thankful to the team because the car was quick enough and you know, once we got out front, it was just managing it the whole time,” Quinn said. “It was so good. I’m so happy.”

Dan Harper piloted the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW to victory in GTD. He outran Maro Engel in the No. 75 Mercedes by more than two seconds.

“Amazing,” Harper said. “My second attempt. We had the possibility to do it last year, and unfortunate circumstances took both of the cars out of the running. So, we decided to combine the four best and we’ve done it this year. So, absolutely amazing.”

 The GTD class came down to the wire. With just over nine minutes remaining, the battle for the lead nearly turned to chaos. Philip Ellis was leading in the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes, when Nicki Thiim in the No. 4 Magnus Racing Aston Martin went to pass by on the high side in the trioval. Ellis moved up the track to stop the run, and when he did, the two drivers made contact and nearly crashed. Ellis kept the lead and continued to hold Thiim off to earn his 12^th IMSA class win.

“I have no idea,” Ellis said. “I actually don’t know. I thought we were both about to crash on the oval…I think there was no intent by both of us. I think we tried to side draft each other. I just tried to get on his corner and tried to stop the run. I misjudged just a little bit. I’m glad we both kept it on-track. It’s super unfortunate that we did touch. I’m speechless. I was starting sobbing like a little child on the in-lap, and I’m still lost for words.”

Up next for IMSA is the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, March 18 – 21 at Sebring International Raceway.

Photo Credit: Mitchell White/TheFourthTurn.com