DAYTONA BEACH, Florida - New Zealander Scott Dixon has today won the biggest endurance race in the United States, the Rolex 24-hour event.
His Ganassi-led IRL team had not won a race since Dixon won in 2003 on the way to an IRL championship.
But this morning, Dixon and newteammate Dan Wheldon joined Ganassi Nascar driver Casey Mears in co-driving a Lexus Riley to a hard-earned victory in the Rolex 24, America's most prestigious endurance race.
"Let's hope this is just the start of a lot of good things for this team," Wheldon, the reigning IRL champion and Indianapolis 500 winner, told the Associated Press (AP) today.
For Wheldon, it was a win in his first start since leaving Andretti Green Racing.
All three drivers contributed to the Daytona win, but it appeared Dixon and Wheldon took the lead and were particularly comfortable as teammates.
"I can hardly believe we won it," AP reported Dixon as saying.
The twice-around-the-clock battle had seven different leaders from the 66-car field.
RESULTS
Leading final results from the Rolex 24-hour endurance race at Daytona International Speedway today: 1. SCOTT DIXON (NEW ZEALAND), Dan Wheldon (England), Casey Mears (US), Target, DP, 734 laps, 175.101kmh. 2. Oswaldo Negri, Mark Patterson, AJ Allmendinger (US), Justin Wilson (England), Flight Options, DP, 733. 3. Lucas Luhr (Monaco), Patrick Long (US), Mike Rockenfeller (Monaco), Shred-it/XM Satellite Radio, DP, 731. 4. David Donohue, Darren Law (US), Sascha Maassen (Belgium), Red Bull/Brumos Porsche, DP, 730.
