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Porsche Penske Motorsport drivers Felipe Nasr, Laurens Vanthoor and Nick Tandy celebrate their victory in the Rolex 24 at Daytona, 1/26/2025 (Photo: Courtesy of IMSA)
(Photo: Courtesy of IMSA)

Thinkin’ Out Loud at the Rolex 24: IMSA Proves Pure Racing is Still Exciting

by

What Happened?

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla — The Porsche Penske No. 7 and its endurance racing all-star lineup of Felipe Nasr, Nick Tandy and Laurens Vanthoor crossed the start/finish line at Daytona International Speedway after 24 hours of racing on Sunday, Jan. 26 to win the team’s second-consecutive Rolex 24 overall victory.

Tower Motorsports and its four drivers Sebastien Bourdais, John Farano, Sebastian Alvarez and Job Van Uitert won the LMP2 class.

The No. 65 Multimatic Motorsports Ford Mustang of Dennis Olsen, Frederic Vervisch and Christopher Mies won the GTD Pro class.

The No. 13 AWA Corvette of Matthew Bell, Lars Kern, Orey Fidani and Marvin Kirchhofer earned the GTD class victory.

What Really Happened?

For almost all of my racing coverage, I’ve attended nothing but NASCAR events, and attending my first WeatherTech Sports Car Championship in reporting mode was something of a breath of fresh air.

As I gazed at the computer monitors in the very early hours of the Sunday morning and the constant buzzing of mid-engined race cars combined with the British accent of IMSA Radio‘s John Hindhaugh numbed my brain, I began to notice something.

This was pure racing. And yes, it was still fun.

There were no stages or overtime finishes to worry about. No playoff points or any playoffs at all for that matter. This was racing from the drop of the green flag in the beginning of hour one to the checkered at the end of hour 24. The fastest and most durable car wins. That’s the way it should be. It had been so long since I had seen something like it, I had almost forgotten what it looked like.

But certainly, a lack of stages and playoff points makes for a dull race, right? After all, 24 straight hours of racing would have to certainly create a spread-out field with no exciting finish to look forward to.

Yet an exciting climax it still had. The final pass for the overall lead was made with around only 22 minutes to go, and the classes below it changed leaders even closer to the end. The GTD Pro class even saw Corvettes and BMWs dumping each other for only a spot on the podium much less the lead, which could have possibly birthed a new rivalry.

A media center that was mostly quiet at two in the morning was suddenly alive in the final few hours with excitement. Slowly, the dull “whoa”s and “oh”s from reporters watching sports cars race side by side for position became more frequent as laps dwindled down – no multiple overtime restarts required.

The Rolex 24 this year reminded me of what pure non-gimmick racing can produce. It was a reminder of why we love auto racing in the first place.

We watch motorsports because fast cars racing to be ahead of one another is just freaking cool to watch. You don’t need anything extra to make it exciting. It already is exciting.

Who Stood Out?

It should come as no surprise. The Roger Penske empire is very much alive and well.

On top of winning the last two Indianapolis 500s, the last three NASCAR Cup Series Championships and the 2024 WEC Championship, “The Captain” now has won the last two Rolex 24 overall victories.

It was no fluke, either. The combined duo of the Porsche Penske prototypes of the Nos. 6 and 7 led a combined 517 of the total 781 laps. That’s 66.2% of the entire 24 hours with a Penske driver out front.

In fact, in the last 30 minutes or so, it all came down to a duel between Nasr and Campbell out front for the lead. If it weren’t for that meddling Meyer Shank Acura and its Tom Blomqvist too, the Porsches would have finished first and second in the event.

That’s near perfect – Penske perfect.

Who Fell Flat?

The only ones that could seem to challenge the Porsches throughout the first half of the race was a lone Cadillac – a chrome one.

But a mistake by the No. 40 late in the evening cost it any chance it had.

Louis Deletraz was running sixth after a restart from a full course yellow at around the eight-hour mark. The Swiss driver entered the esses with the rest of the GTP field when his car quickly made a sharp right and into the infield tire barriers.

It would have possibly survived to continue the race if it hadn’t veered back onto the racing surface and collected many other cars in what was the worst crash of the entire event.

Deletraz was distraught with himself.

The incident had come only minutes after one of the team’s drivers Kamui Kobayashi, a two-time winner of the event, had gotten out of the car and left the media center.

Kobayashi had greatly impressed the media and the field alike with his stint, as the Japanese racer put on a blinding performance moving the No. 40 Cadillac from the rear of the GTP field and into the lead in only a short amount of time.

If it weren’t for the incident, it isn’t certain where the No. 40 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac would have ended up in the field. However, if it could have survived the whole 24 hours, it would have undoubtedly challenged the Penske Porsches for the win.

Paint Scheme of the Race

There is no other car or any other team that is as easily recognizable in the world of sports cars than AO Racing’s green Porsche GTD Pro entry.

Or as they call it – Rexy.

Even if you aren’t an avid fan of sports car racing or IMSA, you have certainly seen the branding somewhere on social media at some point.

The beloved reptile-based paint scheme has inspired stickers, dinosaur hats and even plushies to be sold at AO’s merchandise tents. The brand is so popular, that you have to wonder if AO even needs sponsor or prize money to help fund its IMSA efforts anymore.

Especially after the team’s merchandise stores sold out of Rexy and Spike gear not once, but twice over the course of the last four days.

What’s Next?

For IMSA at least, teams can rest and recover after what was a grueling 24 hours for nearly two months until the next endurance event at the 12 Hours of Sebring at Sebring International Raceway on Saturday, March 15 at 10 a.m. ET on Peacock.

For us NASCAR folk, the highly anticipated Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium is finally upon us. Heat races for the short track exhibition will be live on FOX Sports 1 at 8:30 p.m. ET on Saturday, Feb. 1. The last chance qualifying race will be presented live the following day (Sunday, Feb. 2) on FOX at 6 p.m. ET with the main event at 8 p.m. ET.

Dalton Hopkins began writing for Frontstretch in April 2021. Currently, he is the lead writer for the weekly Thinkin' Out Loudcolumn, co-host of the Happy Hour podcast, and one of our lead reporters. Beforehand, he wrote for IMSA shortly after graduating from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in 2019. Simultaneously, he also serves as a Captain in the US Army.

Follow Dalton on Twitter @PitLaneCPT

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