What a year for Castroneves, the ageless Spider-Man of motorsports.
Castroneves climbed the fence for the third time in a calendar year on Sunday, this time after winning the Daytona 24. The team that helped him win his fourth Indianapolis 500 in May closed the race for the Brazilian.
Castroneves held off Ricky Taylor in the final hour of the race. Castroneves won his first watch as a teammate of Taylor.
Castroneves climbed the fence with his team after denying Wayne Taylor Racing a fourth consecutive win. Taylor went to the victory lane to wish Castroneves a happy birthday.
On the 10th anniversary of his first victory in the prestigious race, Michael Shank won again. The win in the 50th running of the Rolex with the late Justin Wilson and NASCAR driver AJ Allmendinger gave the program credibility, and Castroneves since May has helped show the team is a legitimate force.
Castroneves will drive the full season in a two-car effort that also includes Simon Pagenaud. Castroneves and Pagenaud were grabbed by Shank to help his full-time IMSA sports car drivers win the 60th running of the Rolex.
The race came down to the final minutes in four of the five classes. It was a big day for the series, with five drivers claiming watches.
The DragonSpeed USA trio of Herta, O&Ward and DeFrancesco came back from several laps down to win the LMP2 class, with Herta going door-to-door in the final minutes. Louis Deletraz went off course when the two cars almost touched.
The new GTD Pro class was decided by a battle between a pair of Porsches and a team with Felipe Nasr as its endurance driver.
Wright Motorsports won the GT Daytona class.
The field featured 61 cars, the most since 2014, and was run in record-low temperatures. When Castroneves climbed another fence the weather was nice and the temperature was 53 degrees.
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