Team principal Chip Ganassi was back in Victory Lane on Sunday at America's most prestigious road race.
Defending Grand-Am Series champion Scott Pruett drove the last leg of the Rolex 24 at Daytona and held off Ganassi team mate Scott Dixon on a final restart.
Yes, the longest endurance race on the US calendar came down to a one-lap sprint.
Pruett pulled away from Dixon and third-place finisher Joao Barbosa after the green-white restart and won the Daytona Prototype class by 2.42sec. Pruett and co-drivers Memo Rojas, Graham Rahal and Joey Hand celebrated with Ganassi in Victory Lane. They received electric guitars and Rolex watches.
"This was unbelievable," Pruett said. "Our car ran and ran and ran. This is just awesome, truly awesome, to have a 1-2 finish is just incredible."
It was Ganassi's fourth victory in the 24-hour race. This one fills the small void created in 2010 when Ganassi's primary car finished second in the twice-around-the-clock endurance race. That failure became glaring after Ganassi drivers won the Daytona 500, the Indianapolis 500 and the Brickyard 400.
Ganassi now is the only car owner to win the four biggest races in the United States during a 12-month period.
Pruett used pit strategy to get ahead of the other Ganassi entry in the final hour and stayed out front down the stretch. He ended up racing 721 laps and more than 4090km, and overcame several setbacks.
The last one looked like it might doom the car.
Hand, who consistently put down the fastest laps of the event, drove to the front of the field. But he received a drive-through penalty that included a 30-second stop after hitting a tire on pit road. He dropped 51 seconds behind the lead pack, but made up 30 seconds under green-flag conditions.
He turned the wheel over to Pruett for the final 110 minutes, and Pruett made up the rest of the ground by pitting a little earlier than the other Ganassi car and taking advantage of new tires.
The No.2 squad, Ganassi's star-studded team of Dixon, Dario Franchitti, Juan Pablo Montoya and Jamie McMurray, finished second. Action Express, the 2010 race winners, finished third with Joao Barbosa behind the wheel.
The final few hours of the Rolex 24 at Daytona were shaping up to be a showdown between the two cars from Chip Ganassi Racing.
Each overcame early issues to put themselves at the top of the leaderboard on Sunday afternoon. Joey Hand, driving the No.1 BMW Riley, claimed the lead when the No.2 went into the pits for a switch between NasCar drivers Juan Pablo Montoya and Jamie McMurray.
It ended an aggressive run for Montoya, who bulldozed the No.2 to the front during his driving stints. He had contact with at least three other cars during his Saturday sessions and he hit debris entering the pits during an overnight leg that sent the car to the garage for a new nose.
"Like Jamie said, Juan had an eventful night: Two front ends and eight bent wheels," Ganassi smiled.
But isn't that what you get from the Colombian considered one of the best drivers in the world?
"Hey, you don't hear me complaining," Ganassi said.
As McMurray waited in the pit for his NasCar team mate to finish his stint, he joked he wanted to place a "Not JPM" sticker on the back of the car so that rival drivers wouldn't mistake him for Montoya and try to exact revenge.
"Juan, like him or not, he's a really good race car driver," said McMurray, who has had a strictly work relationship with Montoya since they became team mates in 2010.
Montoya made no apologies for his driving style when he finished his stint about noon on Sunday.
"Me? I am never aggressive. Never. I don't even know what you are talking about," he said, before finally conceding, "over the night, you have to be aggressive. There are some guys, you get beside them, and they just throw it in like you are not there."
And with team mate Hand closing in on his rear bumper, Montoya showed patience in not moving the slower car of Nic Jonsson, who was trying desperately to keep the Krohn Racing entry on the lead lap. Turned out it was team orders that kept Montoya in line, but he was annoyed when Jonsson didn't give Hand the same trouble.
Montoya said: "They came on the radio and said 'Whatever you do, do not touch him.' When they say that, you say 'Yes sir.’
“It makes it really hard when the leader comes, they give you a lot harder time than the other guys. I spent 10 laps, 15 laps, trying to pass the green car and I finally pass him and he lets the other car go and it's like 'Oh My God.'
"I was so hoping he was going to hold him and I was going to open it up, but it's pretty exciting."
Ganassi didn't care which of his two cars won the twice around-the-clock race, just so long as one of them picked up the Rolex watches.
"No team orders," he said. "It doesn't matter, as long as one of them wins."
Andy Lally led TRG Racing to a victory in the Grand Touring class, beating the Paul Miller Racing entry by two laps. Lally claimed pole position but started in the back of the pack after failing post-qualifying inspection. The team, with Steven Bertheau, Brendan Gaughan, Wolf Henzler and Spencer Pumpelly sharing the seat, drove the final 17 hours without a clutch.
Patrick Dempsey's team finished third in the GT class, giving the "Grey's Anatomy" star one of his more memorable weekends.
Dempsey drove the No.40 Mazda into the lead on Sunday morning but co-driver Tom Long spun with just under six hours remaining in the race. Long was unable to get the car restarted after a pit stop, and the Dempsey Racing car fell four laps down.
It was the first time "McDreamy" had led a race at this level and Dempsey was in tears talking about his third-place finish. -Sapa-AP