Auto Racing Capsules: Ganassi teams figure to be up front at Daytona
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Chip Ganassi hopes to improve on last year's 24-hour race at Daytona International Speedway.
It hardly seems possible. Ganassi's two-car team finished first and second in the twice-around-the-clock event, sweeping the prestigious endurance race at the hallowed track.
Two-time defending Grand-Am Series champions Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas, along with Joey Hand and Graham Rahal, ended up in Victory Lane after a one-lap sprint to the checkered flag. IndyCar stars Scott Dixon and Dario Franchitti and NASCAR drivers Juan Pablo Montoya and Jamie McMurray celebrated alongside them after settling for second.
Pruett's team will try to repeat when the 24-hour race begins Saturday afternoon. Dixon's crew will try to flip the script.
"We want to be at the very front again, no question," Ganassi said. "It's going to be tough to top last year, but we can certainly try. That's what we're here to do. It's as simple as that."
There's only one way for that to happen. The cars would have to avoid all the problems that threatened to derail the 1-2 finish.
The No. 01 BMW Riley, the one primarily driven by two-time defending series champions Pruett and Rojas, battled from two laps down to take the checkered flag. The No. 02 entry piloted by Dixon and Co. endured two flat tires early in the race.
Nonetheless, both Ganassi cars were at the forefront of the frantic finish. Pruett used a smooth restart to pull away from Dixon and win by the Daytona Prototype class by 2.42 seconds.
"That was a great finish last year, but it was not without mistakes," Ganassi said. "A smoother race would be a lot easier for sure."
Ganassi has a new tool that could help his star-studded teams.
The team owner created an electronic signal board that makes it clear to the driver of the No. 01 car when Montoya is in the other seat. Montoya's aggressive — albeit effective — style ruffled feathers and fenders in last year's race.
"We talked at length about that subject," Ganassi said. "All eight of them need to hand the car off to their teammates like they would like to have the car handed to them. You're racing for 24 hours, but the fact of the matter is all you can do is lose the race the first 22 hours if you do something to the car or you don't hand the car off in a good condition. We certainly don't want to do that."
Ganassi said Montoya "has some work to do" in that area.
Franchitti, the three-time defending IndyCar champ, joked that it might not happen overnight.
"That reputation was earned years ago," Franchitti said.
Montoya chimed in to defend himself.
"When I came to Chip and I was talking to some guy who was racing with us in the early years, he said, 'You don't come here to make friends. You're here to get the job done. If you want friends, bring your friends.' And I do," Montoya said.
Patience could be as important as ever in the in endurance event.
The race could have 45 cars in the Grand Touring class, possibly putting as many as 59 cars on the 3.56-mile road course and setting the stage for tight racing and hairy situations.
"Dealing with the traffic is going to be the single biggest factor in this year's race," Franchitti said.
Ricky Taylor, who is teaming with IndyCar regular Ryan Briscoe and former Grand-Am champion Max Angelelli, offered details about what to expect from the slower GT cars that sometimes have inexperienced drivers.
"That's the big variable," Taylor said. "If it was one driver in each car, you would know what to expect when you get behind each guy. But you don't know who's in the car, whether it's a good driver, a bad driver, what line they're going to take, where they're going to brake, if they even see you in their mirrors. That's the real challenge. You have to make high-percentage passes. You have to real conservative I guess."
Ganassi's group certainly has the most experience, with seven of eight drivers having won at least one 24-hour race at Daytona. They have a combined 12 victories in the endurance event. With a win, Pruett can tie Hurley Haywood's record of five victories at Daytona.
"You can't fault them anywhere," Taylor said. "That's the problem. They've got the good drivers, great team, great engineers, well-prepared equipment. You really have a near-perfect race to beat them. That's our goal — to have a perfect race."
Ganassi's guys have the same goal, especially after last year's troubles.
Although Pruett and Rojas are beginning their quest for a third consecutive series championship, the drivers in the No. 02 entry haven't forgotten the empty feeling they felt a year ago and want nothing more than to turn the tables on their teammates.
''No lying here, last year was good, but we felt like we should have won that race," Montoya said. "I think we're all here for a little bit of vengeance, to get that trophy."
-- Mark Long
Wilson back in a car after back injury
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Justin Wilson's wife had quite enough of the driver being home all the time during the six months he was sidelined with a broken bone in his back.
As Wilson readied for his return to the race car this week at Daytona International Speedway, wife Julia couldn't get him back to the track fast enough.
"She said two days ago, 'I can't wait for you to go away again,' " Wilson said. "She wanted me out of the house. I think the offseason has been as tough on her as it has on me."
Wilson suffered a compression fracture of the fifth vertebra in an August accident during the IndyCar race at Mid-Ohio. He was forced to wear a back brace — fellow IndyCar driver Dario Franchitti jokingly referred to the brace as a "turtle shell" — for more than two months and was restricted from any physical activity.
He's back in a car this weekend for the Rolex 24 at Daytona, driving for Michael Shank Racing with NASCAR driver AJ Allmendinger and Grand-Am regulars Ozz Negri and John Pew in the twice-round-the-clock race that begins Saturday. The open test earlier this month gave him his first laps since his injury.
"The first lap felt strange, which I don't really get," Wilson said, "but the first lap driving again and feeling the G-forces and your body moving — it just took a little, like, two laps to get used to it and then after that it all felt normal."
The Englishman's official return to racing falls the same week he announced a new deal to drive for Dale Coyne Racing in the upcoming IndyCar season. He drove the past two years for Dreyer & Reinbold Racing, but missed the final six races of the season.
That included the season finale at Las Vegas, where countryman Dan Wheldon was killed in an early 15-car accident.
Wilson had raced with Wheldon since he was 8 years old, and a conversation he had with Wheldon the night before the Oct. 16 race haunts him. Wilson was in Las Vegas as a spectator, and ran into Wheldon at their hotel.
Wheldon, Wilson said, told him he was "lucky" to not be racing the next day in what Wheldon predicted would be a wild event.
"I remember that conversation very well. Still," he said.
But Wilson came to terms long ago with the harsh realities of racing. He broke his ankle, wrist and cut his leg open in a wreck in England when he was 16.
"At 16, you are in the hospital that first night thinking 'Why does anyone drive race cars? This is stupid,'" he said. "And then the next morning, you think, 'OK, maybe I'll do it again.' The day after that it's 'When can I get out of here? I need to get back out there.' Going through that process and understanding that you can get hurt doing this, at 16, was, I think, part of who I am.
"I respect the sport. And it's going to bite and it could be really bad. As we all know."
Wilson has been an active participant in meetings with IndyCar officials to discuss safety issues with both the car and tracks. His own injury and Wheldon's death have done nothing to change his perspective or make him question his career choice.
"I've had the conversation with Julia — this is what we do, and you try to make the best plans if that ever happens," he said. "You've got to know the risks and work out if those risks are acceptable. To me, it's acceptable. But I'm not going to stop trying to improve it.
"All the drivers, this IndyCar, we're always trying to make it safer, but at the end of the day, it's a race car. We're racing hard, we're racing IndyCars and it's fast. When it goes wrong, it can get messy."
But Wilson is a staunch believer in living his life with no regrets, and he's eager to continue his IndyCar career. He'll test for the first time the new Dallara DW12 at Sebring with his new team.
Wilson actually drove for Coyne in 2009, and gave the team its first IndyCar victory that season at Watkins Glen. He'll be paired again with Bill Pappas, the engineer he worked with during his first stint with Coyne.
The team has also signed with Honda for its engines, which was the main selling point for Wilson when he decided to leave Dreyer & Reinbold. His old team signed Oriol Servia this month to replace Wilson, and has an engine deal with Lotus.
"I'm not saying (Honda) is going to be better than the Lotus, but right now it's the safer bet," Wilson said. "I felt that that's what I needed, the safer bet. Maybe in 12 months time, it will look like I made the wrong call. But I live and try to do my career and my life with no regrets. If I go this way, and the Lotus is better, then oh well.
''But if I go the either way, then I could regret not taking that opportunity and having a chance to win races with a Honda. That's just how I look at it, and how I justify which path to take."
-- Jenna Fryer
IndyCar
Foyt hospitalized for infection
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — A.J. Foyt has been hospitalized in Houston for complications from knee surgery and will skip the 50th anniversary of the Rolex 24 at Daytona.
The 77-year-old Foyt had knee surgery two weeks ago, and an infection sent him to the hospital Wednesday.
A spokeswoman for the four-time Indianapolis 500 winner said Friday that Foyt may stay in the hospital through the weekend. She said he had been up and walking since the surgery but developed an infection this week.
Foyt is the only driver to win the Indianapolis 500, the Daytona 500, the 24 Hours of Daytona and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Foyt was scheduled to be the grand marshal Saturday at Daytona International Speedway.
