Penske’s pair of Porsches dominate as The Captain wins Rolex 24 at Daytona for 2nd consecutive year

Roger Penske started his 59th season in motorsports the same way he closed last year — as a champion.

Porsche Penske Motorsport on Sunday won the Rolex 24 at Daytona for the second consecutive year, and third time overall, to continue the domination “The Captain” flexed all of last season.

Penske opened 2024 by winning the most prestigious sports car race in North America, added a 20th victory in the Indianapolis 500, won a third consecutive NASCAR championship and his pair of Porsches won both the World Endurance Championship title and the IMSA crown.

Now back at Daytona International Speedway for the Rolex, the same place and race where Team Penske debuted in 1966, Penske returned to victory lane. And, as he always does, the billionaire who turns 88 next month stayed awake and sat with the team on the timing stand for the entire 24 hours.

His two cars dominated the twice-round-the-clock endurance race and finished first and third. Once attrition hit other entries in the top prototype class, the Porsches ran first and second for large portions of the race. It was the No. 7 full-time IMSA entry that won, making it back-to-back victories for that car despite a different driver lineup.

“What an incredible day for the entire Porsche Penske Motorsport organization. Both of our Porsche 963s and the drivers showed great speed and reliability,” Penske said. “The crews performed flawlessly, which is a result of meticulous preparation by everyone on the team.

“2024 was an unmatched season of success starting with a win at the 24 Hours of Daytona and it’s great to repeat that success to start 2025 with the third overall win for Team Penske and the 20th victory for Porsche.”

Felipe Nasr won last year with Dane Cameron and Josef Newgarden, but Cameron was let go at the end of 2024 and Newgarden wasn’t part of this year’s Rolex lineup. So it was Nasr again, only this time he was paired with Nick Tandy, who will be his IMSA co-driver all season, and Laurens Vanthoor, Penske’s reigning WEC champion.

It was Nasr’s second overall victory, and he also won a Rolex watch for a class victory in 2022. Tandy also earned a Rolex with a 2014 class victory, but Sunday was his first overall win. It was the first watch for Vanthoor, who had finished in the top five of class in six of the last seven years.

All three drivers were in tears after the race.

Nasr said it is Penske who pushes the team to achieve the excellence he demands.

“The feeling is amazing, just to see how much energy he brings into the team. You get out of the car, he’s like: ‘How’s the car? How’s the handling?’ Like, he’s very interested in every detail,” Nasr said. “He doesn’t miss a pit stop when the cars are coming in, and he’s looking at it all and making comments. I just have a lot of admiration for everything he does, and it stands for the team. It’s a very, very unique opportunity to be driving for Porsche Penske Motorsport here.”

Even though the No. 7 was so dominant — especially after sunrise on Sunday — the drivers were still challenged until the checkered flag. Penske’s No. 6 car took the lead with just under an hour to go, but Nasr bested Matt Campbell in a drag race through traffic to cycle back to the front with about 22 minutes remaining.

“Obviously, these guys are racers, and fortunately, we didn’t get into trouble,” Penske said. “Terrific job by the whole team. When you think about all the drivers we had, they ran strong all day. And the cars, this Porsche car we have, has just been amazing, and to think we did it two years in a row. It’s a credit to all the people here, all the people that are here, that come from Germany … and from Porsche, and our team here. So we’ve got one organization, and now we’ve been able to say we did it again.”

BMW M Team RLL had a pair of competitive entries and one of its cars went wheel-to-wheel with Nasr for the lead with about 100 minutes remaining.

Getting the win Sunday meant beating 60 other cars in a field of 235 drivers representing 31 countries. The lineups included 14 former Formula 1 drivers, including Nasr.

Kevin Magnussen, who concluded his 10-year F1 career in December, has the most recent experience in motorsports’ elite global series and was a contender with BMW for overall victory.

Rahal’s two cars led and contended with the Porsches but had issues that prevented them from keeping consistent pace with the Penske entries. Same for Meyer Shank Racing, which had a suspension issue early Saturday that took one car out of contention, then its second car suffered front damage when Felix Rosenqvist was leading.

The team recovered and Tom Blomqvist passed the No. 6 in the final minutes to take second for Meyer Shank and drop Penske’s other Porsche to third.

All three Cadillacs in the prototype class had issues — one of Wayne Taylor Racing’s entries was knocked out of the race Saturday night not long after two-time Rolex winner Kamui Kobayashi had driven it to the lead.

___

This story has been corrected to show that Penske cars finished first and third, not second.

___

AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing