Rolex 24: A Long Time Coming
Written by Hopper, Sunday January 25 2009
The 2009 Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona came down to the wire. Through a record 25 caution flags, a record-breaking 4 cars finished on the lead lap. And after 24 hours, the race came down to a mere 2 seconds.
In the end, the #58 Brumos racing team with David Donahue, son of former Rolex 24 champion Mark Donahue, as well as 2004 Indy 500 champ Buddy Rice, Antonio Garcia, and Darren Law, earned Brumos Racing its first win since 1978. The #01 Ganassi team with Juan Montoya, Memo Rojas, and Scott Pruett finished second, just 2 seconds behind the Brumos team.
The #59 Brumos team earned a podium spot in third. The #10 Suntrust team was 4th, and the last car on the lead lap, and the #02 Ganassi Team with Scott Dixon and Dario Franchitti was 5th.
On the GT side, TRG earned its first 24 Hours win with Andy Lally, Justin Marks, RJ Valentine, and Patrick Long in the #67. TRG also finished 2nd with the #66 car.
So, how did the big-names fair? Well, AJ Allmendinger was leading 5 hours in to the race when an electrical problem struck. The #6 Shank racing team finished 45th. The other Shank Racing car, the #60 with Colin Braun, had issues overnight and finshed outside the top 40.
Jimmie Johnson and the Gainsco team finished 7th, 24 laps down, after issues Saturday night. Casey Mears and Danica Patrick rebounded from early issues Saturday night to finish in 8th place. Kyle Petty and Bill Lester's #45 had problems early, and never rebounded. After 2 early spins, the team fell behind before retiring during the night.
And for the ladies, Dr. McDreamy, Patrick Dempsey and his Dempsey Racing team had a wreck early Saturday evening, and finished deep in the field.
It was a great race for sure. A history making Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona did not disappoint in 2009. The drivers set the excitment bar high for the rest of the 2009 season, as well as the 2010 Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona.
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4 comments
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Russ, I understand that all the sites say that Donahue beat Montoya by 4 car lengths. But I too have evidence that such was not the case. www.youtube.com/kusmsb0yvhs . Hopefully that comes up. I watched the finish and by no means was that 4 car lengths. Thanks for your insight. Hope you keep reading. :)
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Actually Hopper.... From ESPN.com >> I very rarely correct anyone, and usually have facts to back it up. RWR
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Actually Russ, by the time the 2 cars got to the stripe, the distance was much more spread out than four car lengths. The race itself seemed closer, but by the time they got to the stripe, the Brumos Porsche had pulled ahead by about two seconds.
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Hopper....The race to the stripe was closer than you spoke of. You mentioned two seconds behind when in reality, it was a mere two-tenths or to be more exact, .167 sec.or four car lengths. RWR