Castroneves & Meyer Shank Win Rolex 24 At Daytona

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – At the end of a final 30-minute green flag run, the 60th running of the Rolex 24 at Daytona was won by Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb-Agajanian’s No. 60 Acura DPi with Helio Castroneves serving as the closing driver.

Castroneves, who led most of the final hour, triumphed ahead of Ricky Taylor in Wayne Taylor Racing’s No. 10 Acura DPi, ending that team’s stretch of consecutive Rolex 24 overall wins at three. Castroneves took the checkered flag three seconds ahead of Taylor.

It is the second consecutive Rolex 24 win for Castroneves, who was part of the Wayne Taylor Racing roster in 2021. It’s the second overall win for Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb-Agajanian. The first came in 2012.

Joining Castroneves on the winning team were Simon Pagenaud, Oliver Jarvis and Tom Blomqvist. It is the first Rolex 24 win for Blomqvist and Pagenaud and the second for Jarvis.

“He’s the man,” team co-owner Michael Shank told NBC of Castroneves as the celebration began, including Castroneves’ traditional climbing of the frontstretch catchfence.

“It was absolutely amazing,” Castroneves told NBC. “These guys kept pushing, kept pushing, gave me a great car. … I was joking with Ricky, ‘I taught you a lot of things over three years with Acura, but I didn’t teach you all of it!’ … I never thought I’d be climbing the fence in Daytona, but today I realized that dream.”

For Castroneves it’s another achievement in a two-year span that’s seen the 46-year-old driver win the 2020 IMSA title (his first racing championship in any series), his fourth Indianapolis 500 and two Rolex watches

“I love to race. This is me,” Castroneves said. “It’s been my entire life. And I admire respect. I know it’s not easy. I understand everyone has your specialty. And that’s why, when I moved to IMSA I believed I started getting better because you start exploring more of your race craft. And today the big win was because of that. I knew my competitors. I knew what I needed to do and I did.”

Only four DPi teams finished on the lead lap, with Loic Duval bringing the JDC Miller MotorSports’ No. 5 Cadillac DPi home third. Pipo Derani crossed the line fourth in the Whelen Engineering Racing No. 31 Cadillac DPi.

IndyCar driver Colton Herta delivered a victory for DragonSpeed USA’s No. 81 entry in the LMP2 class after a dramatic late-race battle. He was joined by fellow NTT IndyCar Series competitor’s Pato O’Ward and Devlin DeFrancesco as well as veteran Eric Lux. It’s the second Rolex win for Herta and O’Ward and first for DeFrancesco and Lux.

The LMP3 class was won by the Riley Motorsports’ No. 74 entry. Felipe Fraga piloted the car at the checkered flag. He was joined on the team by Gar Robinson, Kay van Berlo and Michael Cooper. The team led its class for essentially the entire race. It’s the third Daytona win and second-straight Rolex 24 win for the team.

Mathieu Jamient (9) and Laurens Vanthoor battled for the victory in the GTD PRO class until the bitter end. (Jason Reasin Photo)

The GTD PRO class won by the Pfaff Motorsports’ No. 9 Porsche 911 GT3R, which Mathieu Jamient drove across the finish line after a dramatic battle during the closing laps between Jaminet and Laurens Vanthoor that ended with last-lap contact between the two in the backstretch chicane that sent Vanthoor into a spin, giving the lead to Jaminet. Vanthoor placed the KCMG Porsche 911 GT3R third in the class after the incident.

“This was crazy,” said Jaminet, who shared the No. 9 with Felipe Nasr and Matt Campbell. “Still difficult to realize what happened in this last lap, actually these last two hours. It was just driving for my life in these two hours. Even when (Vanthoor) passed me, I was like ‘I’m not going to give (away) this thing.’ It was to much hard work for one hour and 55 (minutes) to let it go now in the last two, three, four laps.”

The GTD class was won by Jan Heylen in Wright Motorsports’ Porsche 911, along with Ryan Hardwick, Zacharie Robichon and Richard Lietz. It was the team’s first Rolex 24 win.

The race went caution free for nearly five hours Sunday morning until a mechanical problem caused the No. 13 LMP3 car of Matthew Bell to stall on the backstretch with one hour and 57 minutes left.

Taylor and Meyer Shank Racing’s Blomqvist were first and second when the green flag waved with 94 minutes left.

The 17th caution waved with 51 minutes left for the stalled No. 13 Lamborghini driven by Giacomo Altoe.

Castroneves had the lead at the time, having inherited it during scheduled green flag stops, and kept it following a pit stop. The green flag returned with a half hour left in the race.