Porsche Continues to Lead As Sun Rises Over Daytona

Photo: Mike Levitt/IMSA

Porsche Penske Motorsport continued to lead the Rolex 24 as the sun rose over Daytona International Speedway with six hours remaining.

Nick Tandy in the No. 7 Porsche 963 held a 5.6-second advantage over teammate Matt Campbell, which saw the two factory GTP entries swap the lead multiple times through recent pit stop sequences.

Tandy retook the lead from Campbell midway through the 18th hour, in what has largely been an all-Porsche affair since the overnight hours.

Philipp Eng ran third in the No. 24 Team RLL BMW M Hybrid, although more than 40 second behind the Porsches, with Scott Dixon in the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06 in fourth.

There was drama for the MSR entry of Felix Rosenqvist in the 16th hour when the Swede reportedly brushed the tire barriers in Turn 6, damaging the left-front of the car.

Rosenqvist, who was running third at the time, underwent a nose change on the car’s subsequent stop and lost some ground as a result.

The lone-remaining Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac V-Series.R of Brendon Hartley completed the top-five.

LMP2 was led by the No. 99 AO Racing Oreca 07 Gibson of Christian Rasmussen, ahead of Job van Uitert in the No. 8 Tower Motorsports entry.

Madison Snow muscled his way past Klaus Bachler to lead the GTD Pro class at the three-quarter mark in the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO.

Dennis Olsen ran third in the No. 65 Multimatic Motorsports Ford Mustang GT3 in third.

The No. 13 AWA Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R of Matt Bell was out front in GTD after the then class-leading No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo was handed a drive-through penalty for a pit lane infringement in the previous hour.