24 Hours of Daytona

The 24 Hours of Daytona was held the weekend I started this post. Even though it seems separate from NASCAR, there's a connection. NASCAR Grand Am's  the link. It merged with American Le Mans and what series they became puts on this race.  Some NASCAR drivers were in it: Jamie McMurray, Kyle Larson, Brendan Gaughan, Kenny Habul and previous road race ringer Boris Said. Denny Hamlin was going to be in this race, but due to knee surgery, withdrew. I was unable to watch it this year, since I can't watch cable TV at home, but I followed it online.


The race was held over January 30th and 31st. Tequila Patron ESM, with drivers Scott Sharp, Johannes van Overbeek, Ed Braun and Pipo Derani was the winning team, with 179 laps led, followed by Wayne Taylor Racing with Ricky Taylor, Jordan Taylor, Max Angelelli and Rubens Barrichello with 152 laps led, VisitFlorida Racing with Ryan Dalziel, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Marc Goosens and John Falb  with 30 laps led, Action Express Racing with Joao Barbosa, Christian Fittipaldi, Filipe Albuquerque and Scott Pruett with 100 laps led and Ford Chip Ganassi Racing with Landon Stroll, Brendon Hartley, Alexander Wurz and Andy Priaulx with 9 laps led. Rounding out the top-10 were Action Express Racing with Dane Cameron,  Eric Curran, Simon Pagenaud and Johnny Adam with 60 laps led, Corvette Racing, Scuderia Corsa with Alessando Pier Guidi, Daniel Serra, Alexandre Premat and Memo Rojas. Ford Chip Ganassi Racing with Scott Dixon, Jamie McMurray, Tony Kanaan and Kyle Larson was 13th with 69 laps led. Pole-sitter Porsche North America with Patrick Pilet, Nick Tandy and Kevin Estre was 33rd. SMP Racing with Viktor Shaytar, Gianmaria Bruni, Andrea Bertolini and James Calado had an engine issue after 557 laps and was 40th.  Flying Lizard Motorsports with Christopher Hasse, Niclas Johnson, Pierre Kaffer and Tracy Krone had a transmission issue on lap 513 and was 43rd. TRG-AMR with Santiago Creel, Antonio Perez, James Davison, Ricardo Perez De Lara and Lars Viljoen crashed out on lap 390 and was 44th.  Performance Tech Motorsports with James French, Jim Norman, John Norman, Brandon Gdovic and Kyle Marcelli had an electrical problem on lap 385 and was 45th.   BMW Team RLL with John Edwards, Lucas Luhr, Kuno Wittmer and Graham Rahal crashed out on lap 360 and was 46th. Konrad Motorsports with Emanuele Busnelli, Jim Michaelian, Joe Toussaint and Lance Willsey had a crash on lap 356 and was 47th. Mazda Motorsports with Johnathan Bomarito, Tristan Nunez and Spencer Pigot had  a valve problem on lap 327 after leading 9 laps and was 49th. Michael Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanjan with Oswaldo Negri, Jr. John Pew, A.J. Allmendinger and Oliver Pla had an engine issue on lap 285 after 99 laps led and was 50th. Starworks Motorsports with Mark Kvamme, Sean Johnson, Maro Engel and Felix Rosenqvist crashed out on lap 179 and was 51st. CORE Autosport with John Bennett, Colin Braun, Mark Wilkins and Martin Plowman had an engine issue on lap 160 and was 52nd.   Panoz Delta Wing Racing with Sean Rayhall, Katherine Legge,  Andy Meyrick and Andreas Wirth crashed out on lap 119 after 29 laps led and was 53rd. Mazda Motorsports with Joel Miller, Ben Devlin and Tom Long had a flywheel issue on lap 11 and was 54th.



Come back for my post about motorsports and autism.