Dixon leads Ganassi's car of stars to win at Rolex 24 at Daytona

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — One team's miscalculation was another team's triumph.

Scott Dixon took full advantage of another team's mistake when Jordan Taylor was forced from his car with 10 minutes left in the 53rd running of the Rolex 24, the annual 24-hour sports car race at Daytona International Speedway.

With Dixon leading Taylor and the cars idling under caution while preparing for a restart in the final minutes of the race, Taylor was forced to stop and get out of the car because of a rule preventing drivers from driving more than four hours during a six-hour period.

Dixon, who had taken the lead from Taylor with 40 minutes left in the endurace event, went on to beat Sebastien Bourdais to the finish line after a restart with 7 minutes remaining. Afterward, Dixon celebrated with his star teammates: IndyCar driver Tony Kanaan and NASCAR drivers Kyle Larson and Jamie McMurray.

"Everybody pulled their weight," Dixon said. "Everybody did what they needed to do, and that's what gets you through those 24 hours. Everybody kept the car in one piece. You have to be there at the end, and you have to look after the car. I can't emphasize what a team effort this is. It's not one person that wins this race. It's everybody involved."

The victory was Dixon's second in the Rolex 24 and a record sixth for team owner Chip Ganassi. "These things take a team," Ganassi said. "We were watching Dixon for the last three hours, but it took a team of great drivers. I wish I could explain how close this race was in the last three hours. The concentration by the entire team was amazing."

While Ganassi's team celebrated, Wayne Taylor Racing's teammates — Jordan Taylor, Ricky Taylor and Max Angelelli — struggled with the team's third consecutive heartbreaking result in the race. WTR finished second in 2013 and 2014 before its third-place finish Sunday.

"It was a miscalculation," said Taylor, whose brother Ricky finished the race in third. "We just can't seem to win it."

Dixon, the three-time Verizon IndyCar Series champion and 2008 Indianapolis 500 winner, stalked Taylor during the late hours of the race. With 38 minutes left, he put the No. 02 Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates Ford-powered Riley back in front of Taylor's No. 10 Corvette DP after both drivers made their final pit stops.

By the time it had ended, Dixon had put together one of his most memorable drives -- a 3½-hour final stint in which he made few mistakes under maximum presssure.

"Pressure is what you make of it," Dixon said. "As long as you get out of the car and know that you've done the best you could, you should be happy with that. For all of us here, the best we could do was good enough to get the victory."

The win was the first overall for Kanaan, the 2013 Indy 500 winner, and Larson, the 2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup rookie of the year. McMurray, who won the Daytona 500 in 2010, joined A.J. Foyt and Mario Andretti as just the third driver to win Daytona 500 and the overall title at the Rolex 24.

"This race is really unique," McMurray said. "Kyle is my teammate every weekend (in Sprint Cup), but I still want to beat him, and he wants to beat me. This is the one race that I get to run that when you get out of the car, you know that everyone is being 100 percent honest with you. That's part of what makes this so special."

Just three cars — the Ganassi No. 02, the No. 5 Action Express Racing Corvette DP driven by Bourdais, Joao Barbosa and Christian Fittipaldi, and the WTR No. 10 — were on the lead lap at the end of the race.

"I did the best I could, but I wasn't too hopeful that I could get the job done at the end against the 10 or the 02," Bourdais said. "They were just plain quicker. We were just hoping that mistakes would be made and we would somehow get the lead, but you can't be that lucky all the time."

The No. 90 VisitFlorida.com Racing Corvette DP driven by Richard Westbrook, Michael Valiante and Mike Rockenfeller finished fourth, six laps behind.

The late-race drama in the prototype class overshadowed one of the most impressive drives. The No. 3 Corvette Racing entry driven by Ryan Briscoe, Jan Magnussen and Antonio Garcia won the GT Le Mans class — generally considered the third-fastest of the four classes in the race — and was scored fifth overall.

"I've been coming here since 2005, but I wasn't a such big fan of this place until now," said Briscoe, who posted his first Rolex 24 class victory. "It was the first time I've ever done this race without having to go back to the garage at some point .That was a huge part of us winning — staying out of trouble. There was so much action all race long."

Colin Braun was leading the Prototype Challenge class and running ninth overall when his No. 54 CORE autosport Chevy-powered ORECA FLM09 spun, hit the wall and burst into flames, causing the final caution period in which Taylor was forced to surrender his seat.

"I got it back going (after he was spun out) and thought I could get it back to the pits," Braun said. "But then I think the suspension collapsed at the exit of the bus stop and I obviously hit the wall pretty hard. I'm gutted for all the guys. They worked really hard."

Braun escaped the flaming wreckage and was not injured, but Tom Kimber-Smith went on to win the PC class and finish ninth overall in the No. 52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA FLM09 with teammates Michael Guasch, Andrew Novich and Andrew Palmer.

The No. 93 Riley Motorsports Dodge Viper SRT driven by Ben Keating, Dominik Farnbacher, Al Carter, Kuno Wittmer and Cameron Lawrence won the GT Daytona class and finished 13th overall.

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