ICYMI: Rolex 24 at Daytona Recap

The No. 7 Porsche Penske drivers celebrate overall win in the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona International Speedway (Photo by: USA Today)

This years Rolex 24 at Daytona was a record attendance race weekend filled with Chaos from start to finish. As the green flag flew at the start of the race, as the GTP class got underway, just behind them in the LMP2 class, chaos ensued. Multiple vehicles involved in the first corner of the first lap.

Multiple LMP2 cars crash at the first corner of the first lap (Screenshot by: BryanBateman3 via YouTube)

Due to the amount of Debris, the yellow flag flew on the opening lap but shortly got underway only a couple of minutes later.

Not long later another crash occured, this time with the GTD #28 RS1 Porsche of Eric Zitza hitting the tire barrier of the pit wall in turn 1.

In addition, a couple of hours later, the #83 LMP2 of Dylan Murry has a massive incident in the infield spinning in the grass and collecting the #120 GTD Porsche of Adam Adelson in the process bringing out another caution.

Fast Forward to the overnight stint, the full course caution comes out for fog which put a bizzare twist on this years Rolex 24. This caution ending up becoming the longest in the events history at a record 6 hours and 33 minutes, 250 laps under yellow flag conditions.

Heading back into the day stint, the intensity picks up. With 2 and a half hours left, the #64 Mustang GTD Pro of Mike Rockenfeller came to a stop in the oval turn 3 with leaking fluids and not much later the #10 GTP Cadillac of Ricky Taylor goes into the pits with an engine failure, ending his race.

As time winds down, the battle for the overall win heats up in GTP with Felipe Nasr in the #7 Porsche Penske, and Jack Aitken in the #31 Cadillac. Going down the front stretch, Aitken goes for a risky move into turn 1 but Nasr blocks him off and holds the lead. While that was going on, in the GTD class, the #57 Mercedes of Philip Ellis and the #44 Aston Martin of Nicki Thiim make contact racing for the win but keep it straight.

GTD Pro Rolex 24 winner Dan Harper in the #1 BMW (Photo by Jake Galstad/IMSA)

LMP2 Rolex 24 winner Alex Quinn in the #04 Crowdstrike (Photo by: Brandon Badraoui/IMSA)

GTD Rolex 24 Winner Philip Ellis in the #57 Mercedes Winward Racing (Photo by: IMSA)

GTP Rolex 24 Winner Felipe Nasr in the #7 Porsche Penske (Photo by: IMSA)

Coming to the checkered flag, it was Felipe Nasr and the #7 Porsche Penske on top at Daytona winning 3 Rolex 24's in a row.

In GTD Pro, it was the #1 BMW of Dan Harper taking victory. In the GTD class, after recieving a qualifying penalty, it was not enough to deny victory from the #57 Mercedes of Philip Ellis. Lastly, in the LMP2 class it was Alex Quinn in the #04 Crowdstrike who took victory as he was the last class leader to take the checkered flag.