Luis Felipe Derani turned in a dominant final driving stint on Sunday, delivering a Rolex 24 At Daytona championship to Tequila PatrÃ�n ESM Racing at Daytona International Speedway. Derani was joined in Gatorade Victory Lane by co-drivers Scott Sharp, Johannes van Overbeek and Ed Brown, who combined efforts in the #2 Honda Ligier JS P2 entry in the race’s headlining Prototype class. It marked the first victory in the Rolex 24 for a Honda-powered car. For Sharp, it was a second Rolex 24 triumph, following up on his 1996 championship. Derani crossed the finish line 26.166 seconds of the #10 Corvette DP of Wayne Taylor Racing driven by Max Angelelli. Brothers Jordan and Ricky Taylor of Apopka and Rubens Barrichello. Finishing third was the #90 Corvette DP of VisitFlorida Racing, co-driven by Ryan Dalziel of Orlando, Ryan Hunter-Reay and Marc Goossens. Over the 24 hour-span, the top-three finishing teams completed 736 laps around the 3.56-mile DIS road course – a total of 2,620.16 miles, the approximate distance from Daytona Beach to Bakersfield, California.
XFINITY Series driver Brendan Gaughan was NASCAR’s highest finisher this year, his #20 ORECA FLM09 finishing third in the PC class; nine laps behind the class winner and eight laps ahead of the next car in class; 43 laps down to the overall winner. Former NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Rookie of the Year (2011) Andy Lally claimed his fifth class win in the GTD classification. The defending overall Rolex race winning team of McMurray and co-drivers Kyle Larson, IndyCar champion Scott Dixon and former Indy 500 winner Tony Kanaan finished 13th overall, 28 laps down after a crash with approximately three hours remaining thwarted any chance of a podium finish. NASCAR driver AJ Allmendinger was scored 50th in the 54-car field. His #60 Honda prototype ‘ which won the 50th anniversary of this race four years ago ‘ suffered engine failure about nine and a half hours into the 24-hour affair.(DIS / ESPN / NASCAR.com)
