Speedway Digest Staff - Results from #30

After three runner-up finishes in his last four starts at North Florida Speedway, Lucas Lee is finally a Winternationals Feature winner.

It was one he wanted bad after being passed late while leading on two occasions in this event in the last three seasons. But after 25 trips playing defense around the sandy, 3/8-mile oval, Lee’s bridesmaid curse was broken Sunday night after holding off Justin Haley and Tyler Nicely to bag his first career victory at the track.

“It feels good – a win anywhere is good,” Lee said. “I don’t like seconds, whether it’s 10 years in-a-row or what. I just don’t like them. I’m expected to win, my dad expects me to win, and that’s what we try to do every time we come out.”

Lee, the second-generation racer from Paris, TN, said he and crew member Travis Nored prepared the car in a hurry before an early start time Sunday, which may have contributed to their sixth-quick time in Qualifying after setting Quick Time in the Speedweeks opener on Saturday. Regardless, Lee took the front-row starting spot in his Heat and won, besting NASCAR Cup Series regular Haley to claim P2 on the Feature starting grid.

The outside-lane starting spot played right into Lee’s hands, as he got the jump on polesitter Drake Troutman at the drop of the green and took off.

“It’s a lot easier to look at the flag stand on the outside,” Lee said. “You’re further out there, and you can see better. Down there, you’ve got to worry about hitting the big tires. You’ve gotta watch that and you’re trying to watch the flagman at the same time – it’s a lot more difficult.”

From that point, there was no slowing Lee down. Several caution flags dotted throughout the 25-lap event gave his competition plenty of chances to make a bid for the lead, but all were denied. The toughest of which came from Haley with 10 laps remaining.

Haley had worked his way through the top-five from fifth on the starting grid, using the restarts and high-momentum straightaways to make passes on the way to the head of the field. He cracked the whip and kept pace with Lee in the final laps, nearly getting under him in Turns 3-4 at one point but was unable to make the pass in the end.

“We were better on the long run, and we just kept having those cautions,” Haley said. “We’ll try to figure out how to heat up the right-rear a little quicker and go get ‘em at Volusia.”

Haley, competing in his first North Florida Winternationals, used the weekend test his new car/engine combination before heading to Volusia Speedway Park for the 52nd Federated Auto Parts DIRTcar Nationals, Feb. 6-18. A runner-up finish Sunday was great turnaround after spinning in Turn 4 coming to the checkered flag in Saturday’s Feature.

“We had really good dig in our car, good turn, and had a good piece all around,” Haley said. “Happy we came down here to shake it down, and we’ll go next week and see what we got.”

The win now puts Lee in command of the UMP Modified Florida Speedweeks points chase with 11 races still on the schedule. He takes a one-point advantage over Saturday winner Tyler Nicely into the upcoming five-race stretch at East Bay Raceway Park, Jan. 31-Feb. 4, though Lee said he’s not worried about the margin at this point.

“I don’t like points racing – it’ll be what it is at the end,” Lee said. “Tyler’s going to be really hard to beat all the way through. There’s going to be a bunch of us that will be tough to beat all the way through it.”

Lee knows Nicely, who came home third on Sunday, will be among his toughest competitors for the Speedweeks points title, which stretches through the end of the Modified portion of DIRTcar Nationals on February 11.

“Tyler’s going to be tough to beat, period,” Lee said. “Me being points ahead of him right now… I’m a realist; I don’t really think about it being a gap, to be honest.

“I don’t wish anything upon him. We’ve just gotta go out there and not have any DNFs. If he gets one or two, then we’ll capitalize on it. We’ve just gotta keep going.”

UP NEXT

DIRTcar UMP Modified Florida Speedweeks action continues with a trip to East Bay Raceway Park for the 47th annual Winternationals – Tuesday-Saturday, Jan. 31-Feb. 4. Follow DIRTcar Racing on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram for live updates throughout the program.

RESULTS

Feature (25 laps) – 1. 12-Lucas Lee [2]; 2. 99-Justin Haley [6]; 3. 25N-Tyler Nicely [4]; 4. 5-Drake Troutman [1]; 5. 8-Jimmy Lennex Jr. [9]; 6. 25W-Allen Weisser [8]; 7. 25A-Jason Altiers [12]; 8. 44-Jeff Parsons [11]; 9. 7-Brad DeYoung [22]; 10. 57-Fletcher Mason [14]; 11. 16c-John Clippinger [10]; 12. 41-Brad Goff [7]; 13. 60-Jim Manka [17]; 14. 96-Kyle Arvin [21]; 15. 4M-Timothy Monroe [20]; 16. 2A-Matt Altiers [5]; 17. 24-Zeke McKenzie [16]; 18. 9PG-Percy Gendreau [18]; 19. 141-Justin Galbreath [13]; 20. 23B-Ethan Boomsma [19]; 21. 97-Mitch Thomas [3]; 22. 2J-Troy Johnson [15]

DIRTcar Series PR

Sean Creech Motorsport (SCM) rode a roller coaster of circumstances in the 61st Rolex 24 At Daytona, coming from second position to two laps ahead of the entire LMP3 field mid-race, but an electrical issue cost the team the chance to take home the coveted Rolex for the race victory.

Rob Lowe only has one line to deliver on Sunday, Feb. 5, but it will be one for the record books.

NASCAR announced today that the world-renowned actor, author and podcaster will be the Grand Marshal for the Busch Light Clash at the Coliseum. He’ll say, “DRIVER’S START YOUR ENGINES!” before the first race of NASCAR’s 75^th anniversary season and set the stage for an evening to remember at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

The main event begins shortly after 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT, and all the action will be shown live on FOX, where Lowe currently stars in and produces the highly acclaimed 911: Lone Star. It has been consistently one of the top-rated shows in all of television, and Season 4 premieres this month.

“This is shaping up to be another incredible event in the heart of Los Angeles,” said Ben Kennedy, NASCAR’s senior vice president for racing development and strategy. “Rob Lowe’s body of work is nothing short of remarkable, and we can’t wait for him to begin the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season in style.”

Lowe’s presence adds to an already star-studded lineup that includes Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Caleb Williams as Honorary Starter, performances by Cypress Hill and Wiz Khalifa, and, of course, the stars and cars of the NASCAR Cup Series.  His iconic career spans four decades in film, television, and theater, making him one of the most recognizable artists on screen today.

To date, Lowe has been nominated for two Emmys, six Golden Globes, and four Screen Actors Guild awards in which he won two. He has starred in the ‘80s classics “St. Elmo’s Fire”, “About Last Night”, and “The Outsiders”, as well as television classics such as “The West Wing” and “Parks and Recreation.” His incredibly diverse career also includes scene-stealing work in “Behind the Candelabra,” “Austin Powers” and “Tommy Boy.” His two memoirs, Stories I Only Tell My Friends and Love Life are both New York Times Best Sellers. He took his first memoir and made it into a touring show called Stories I Only Tell My Friends: Live! which has received rave reviews throughout the country and sold out in London.

In 2020, Lowe launched his podcast “Literally! With Rob Lowe,” a podcast of irreverent yet thoughtful conversations with leaders in the world of business and entertainment like Oprah, Chris Pratt, Gwyneth Paltrow, Matthew McConaughey, Jennifer Aniston, Magic Johnson, and others. After a successful first year, it returned for a second season which premiered fall 2021 and a third season began summer 2022. Around the same time, Lowe launched another podcast, “Parks and Recollection.” Co-hosted with showrunner Alan Yang, the podcast is a behind the scenes look at each episode of the celebrated comedy classic “Parks and Recreation.”

He also wrapped production on Netflix comedy “Unstable” from Victor Fresco alongside his son, John Owen Lowe. Fresco along with both Lowes co-created the show and will all serve as executive producers. Rob & John Owen will also star. The series is inspired by their social media relationship where John Owen often hilariously trolls his dad.  Lowe has been married to jewelry designer, Sheryl Lowe, since 1991. They have two sons, Matthew and John Owen.  

Tickets for the 2023 Busch Light Clash at the Coliseum begin at $65, and kids 12-and-under are $10. Fans who want to take their race-day experience to the next level can upgrade to the Ally Pre-Race Party, which includes brunch, a drink ticket for Busch & Coca-Cola products, exclusive entertainment, a pre-race track walk and a special appearance from driver Alex Bowman.  Fans are encouraged to get their tickets now while supplies last by visiting www.nascarclash.com. It’s one of the many anticipated events taking place this year as a part of the Los Angles Memorial Coliseum’s centennial anniversary celebration – “Coliseum Forever.”

College students can experience the Busch Light Clash from The Coca-Cola Torch Party Porch for just $40. This standing-room-only general admission section, located on the Coliseum’s peristyle steps, provides college students with up-close access to all the musical entertainment, driver introductions and racing action. College students can take advantage of this exclusive offer by visiting www.nascarclash.com/student.

NASCAR PR

THE MODERATOR: We'll welcome to the stage drivers of the No. 27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3. This is their seventh -- this is the team's seventh career win, first in the Rolex 24.

Roman DeAngelis' sixth career win, first in IMSA, first Rolex 24 win. He's the defending GTD champion in the WeatherTech Championship.

Ian James, 11th career win, first Rolex 24 win.

Marco Sorensen, his first Rolex 24 win. He's also a 24 Hours Le Mans winner.

Darren Turner, sixth career win, first Rolex 24 win.

And this is Aston Martin's first win in the Rolex 24 at Daytona. First race here was in 1964.

Q. Ian, what does it mean to beat the GTD Pro winner in this race and to end up being the highest ranked GT car in the Rolex?

IAN JAMES: I think it's just an extra cherry on the cake. Obviously that's not the most important thing, but obviously having me part of the lineup, going against all those pro guys and still coming out on top, just is a testament to what these guys did and how hard and how well they drove and how well the team is.

I think basically to go up against -- I used to look up with admiration and I still do to the likes of Corvette Racing and all that, and to go toe to toe with them and beat them is a huge accomplishment.

Q. Other than the control-alt-delete that was late in the race, any other dramas this car had?

IAN JAMES: There wasn't really, and that actually gave me a little bit of comfort. Many years ago I won the Sebring 12-Hour and I had a control-alt-delete moment and we went on to win, and I thought maybe that's an omen.

At the time when it happened I was a little bit worried, but that was the only hiccup we had through the whole race. It was just tires and fuel the whole way, and there's not a scratch on the car, and I think that's what it takes to win.

Q. Darren, it completes a nice set, this one, doesn't it, another class win in another 24-hour race? How tough is this race to win compared to all the other big ones you've done through the years?

DARREN TURNER: I think they're all similar in terms of you have to -- lots of things have got to come together to be able to win a 24-hour race. This weekend has proven it, with no mistakes by anyone in the driver lineup, super pit stops by the team, and a great strategy. That's what brings a good win on a 24-hour.

I have to say, this one is such an enjoyable race as a 24-hour race just because you can never give up in terms of you might think you're in a good position, but then the wave-around will completely scupper any of those aspirations that you've got a big lead.

It means that you end up with some great racing right until the flag, which is ultimately what everyone who's watching would like. When you sit in the pit lane and you're wishing those minutes away with Marco in the car just to get to the flag and to get that victory, it's a really important victory for I guess all the drivers here.

To win at Daytona is a huge achievement for Heart of Racing, and it's fantastic. It shows all the hard work they've been doing over all these years, and for Aston Martin, it's the first win here at Daytona.

Yeah, it's a really special day. Loved it.

Q. Marco, you and Roman had, for much of the race, a buffer with some GTD Pro cars behind you; at one point, three GTD Pro cars knocking each other off the track. How important was having that buffer to this victory?

MARCO SORENSEN: Well, I actually think actually having that buffer helped us a little bit, but in the end when I had this power cycle that I had to do on track, we were kind of a little bit behind again.

It all kind of moved around during the race. We were definitely one of or the quickest car out there, I would say, and had the pace to be in the front.

Having the pro cars in between was kind of, in the end at least, I kind of just knew that we had to just stay in front of them, and that would help a lot. But yeah, still just an awesome, awesome victory to get under the belt.

Q. Roman, 21 years old, you've won the WeatherTech Championship GTD title, you won a Sprint Cup, I think you guys won at petite end of last year, now the Rolex 24 win. Could you have imagined this much success early?

ROMAN DE ANGELIS: Yeah, definitely not. I was just saying to Ian, the fact that this is my fifth 24 Hours at Daytona is crazy because this is the race I always grew up wanting to do, let alone thinking about winning.

Still kind of surreal to be sat here, I think especially for Ian. I think he said it's his 21st start, and to finally win it, I'm super fortunate to have won it with him, having done my first one with him, and that's kind of where our relationship started.

Yeah, like you said, it's just very emotional. I hope the pictures don't come out of my bawling my eyes out when we won because it's pretty embarrassing, but just super happy for the Heart of Racing.

Everybody I was co-driving with did an amazing job. My first race with Marco, obviously starting our full-season campaign. Not a bad way to start it.

Q. Ian, over the past two to three years there's been a lot of growth in the number of Aston Martins on the grid, both here in WeatherTech and in SRO America in both GT3 and GT4. What do you feel is the biggest draw for racing Aston Martins these days in those classes?

IAN JAMES: Well, I think when we decided to go with Aston, there wasn't really -- like you say, there wasn't really any around. We've provided a bit of a proof of concept to the car and how good it is, but also it's one of those halo brands, like a Ferrari or an Aston, that's kind of in my mind the two halo brands there are, and it's a real cool and unique brand to be associated with.

The GT4 car and the GT3 car, there's great DNA in it, and it does an awesome job out on the track.

THE MODERATOR: Gentlemen, congratulations. That will wrap up our interviews from the 61st Rolex 24 at Daytona.

IMSA PR

THE MODERATOR: We're joined now by the winner of the LMP3 class in the No. 17 AWA Duqueine, first class win for the organization, first Rolex 24 Daytona win for the organization; Thomas Merrill, second career win, first Daytona win in IMSA competition, second career IMSA win; Wayne Boyd, first career IMSA win, first Daytona win; Anthony Mantella, first career IMSA win, first Daytona win; and Nico Varrone, first career win, first Daytona win, first start here at Daytona for Nico. Congratulations.

Q. Wayne, you were in the car at the end. How did it feel to see that checkered flag at Daytona International Speedway?

WAYNE BOYD: Relief, I would have said. All the boys were laughing at me because every two minutes on the radio I was asking how long was left. We were just in such a fortunate position at the end with how many laps we were ahead, and it was just -- that's when everything can go wrong. It was just trying to position ourselves on the track to avoid any trouble at all and just avoid everybody.

But I can't describe the feeling of it. It was definitely relief is right up there.

Q. Anthony, can you speak about building a lead in the class and winning by 11 laps?

ANTHONY MANTELLA: Well, to be honest, it's my teammates. They're the key to building the lead. My job was just keep the car clean, stay out of trouble, hand the car off, and that was executed -- I'm not much of a nighttime driver, but it suited the team for me to drive at night and into the morning.

I got the job done. There was a little minor contact with some of the cars, but like I said, my job was just to hand it off to these guys and let them execute.

Q. Nico, you guys were in a battle royale three quarters of the race, and then all of a sudden you were out there by yourself. Building that big a lead, does the car get -- every little noise get you scared or anything like that, or are you just relieved that you have that big a lead?

NICO VARRONE: To be honest, I was at the RV when I saw the leading car pit, and I was like, okay, they are just pitting, but actually after a few minutes I double checked and I saw that they were still there and like three laps down, and I was like, what's happening. Then I see that we have a massive gap, and I think I was more nervous than before because I said, okay, now we just have to cruise around and try to finish because we were in a really good position.

But yeah, mostly I think it was more nervous than fighting the other car because at least when you are fighting, if you lose, okay, but if you lose with that so massive gap, it will hurt even more.

Q. Nico, in the near future you're going to be the latest driver for Corvette Racing. Does adding this Rolex win add even more pressure to you and you embark on this new endeavor, or does it make it even more exciting?

NICO VARRONE: Well, to be honest, I am really excited to be joining Corvette Racing in WEC. It's an honor for me and a dream, and actually, yeah, 2023 couldn't start better for me. It's really good news starting this year, and getting this fantastic win to start the season is just amazing.

I think it couldn't be better to -- I couldn't imagine it better to start the season like this, so yeah, hopefully we can keep the momentum and have some good results through the year.

THE MODERATOR: Gentlemen, congratulations, we'll get you off and running.

IMSA PR

THE MODERATOR: Ladies and gentlemen, we'll keep our post-race interviews rolling here. We have one of the co-owners of Meyer Shank Racing, the No. 60 Acura ARX 06, Mike Shank, his partner Jim Meyer will be along here momentarily, as well.

Team's third Rolex 24 at Daytona overall victory. Of course last year they won, as well, so back-to-back for them. The first one was back in 2012.

16th IMSA victory, first team to win in the modern IMSA GTP era, and this is the third consecutive Rolex 24 win for Acura, which I think I mentioned previously.

Mike, can you put it into words?

MICHAEL SHANK: I sat here, was it yesterday? I don't even remember now. I did that thing. The amount of -- David Salters I just saw was in here and his crew and the group of people that put this together, the odds of this happening I gave probably 5 or 10 percent.

It was just -- this thing, this has been such a huge job, and there's 200 people from every department that made this happen, and to have it come together, then have it come together, win the race and finish one-two with Wayne Taylor and Andretti and us, no, it's just amazing. I just don't really know what's going on.

I'm dead tired. I was so stressed. Our car had a gearbox problem all night. I mean, all night, and we could not fix it. We decided just to run it until it blew up. It didn't blow up.

We got super lucky.

We're grateful, especially for Acura. Jon Ikeda is here from Acura, and he's the one that really had a vision for performance at Acura really five or six years ago when I met him. These people believe in this program, and I needed to deliver.

So does Wayne. Wayne and I worked well together. We texted each other on that last restart, because God knows what was going to happen, but it was very respectful restart.

We'll reciprocate how we raced each other later with them for sure.

Q. As you noted, David Salters was just in here and I asked him what you meant to him and how you've got this complex about being underappreciated. He listed all your accomplishments, and he said, what else can the guy do in North American racing --

MICHAEL SHANK: He signed my contract. No, it's been great.

Q. He said, he does now. Are you finally accepting that you're a good team?

MICHAEL SHANK: Am I accepting of that? He lets me know every day that I need to do more, for less money. (Laughing).

Yes, listen, I get it, but like I told you the other day, the way I look at this thing is we win these, we're going to celebrate. We're going to have a big party in a couple weeks at my lake house in Columbus with all these guys properly, and then we go to Sebring and then we go to Palm Springs next week and then we go to the next thing.

I told you, I'm messed up, so that's how I think of things. It's great to have the accolades, and he'll tell you ever since he came in in '18 it's been like this.

JIM MEYER: It's been like that.

MICHAEL SHANK: It's great. It's really great.

THE MODERATOR: We also have Jim Meyer here.

Q. Early on in the race Colin, when he got out in the car, was very aggressive. That one move a couple hours in right up against the wall, from a team owner's perspective, how were you guys on the pit box? Were you sweating a little bit?

MICHAEL SHANK: Yeah, I clicked the radio button and said, stop.

Listen, Colin -- I didn't really do that, but we reiterated our position on this. We knew we had issues going on but we had a really fast car, but so did Wayne in the 10 car. We wanted to make sure we had something for the last hour you saw here, which was really difficult for our car because we had little things. If you watch the race we were in the pit lane probably more than anybody.

But we did it, I think, a smart way. We understood the strategy. We knew when we could get away with taking the car apart and fixing something and go back out there and not really hurt the effort overall.

When drivers get aggressive like that I'm tormented by it because we hire these guys to do that and we want them to be aggressive, and Colin has got an opportunity with a factory team now, and he needs to take advantage of it. That's the start of it right there.

Q. Mike, you said you were worried about the gearbox. When did that begin --

MICHAEL SHANK: Lap 200.

Q. How serious did it get?

MICHAEL SHANK: It was real serious. Someone taped -- the guy that really monitors that sits next to me and someone brought him a piece of racers tape that said 90 C on it, so we stopped -- we just knew it was 90 C. If it goes, it goes.

It just didn't. We kept maintaining the gearbox and fluid levels and trying to fix it literally the whole race.

Q. Then you had the oil flush in addition to deal with --

MICHAEL SHANK: Well, that's a different thing, and I noticed a lot of the manufacturers are doing that now, yeah, where we draw it out -- we essentially change the motor oil during the race. That wasn't that bad. We can deal with that all day. We have time to do that. I think that's a preventative thing with the new fuel we have and the new motors that we have.

I think that was just to make sure -- it looks like a little jet pack, and we built that at home, and one is vacuum and one gives back out pressure I assume.

Q. Was this race more nerve-racking than last year?

MICHAEL SHANK: What do you think, Jim, was it?

JIM MEYER: The gearbox didn't help. But boy, our guys have been so good from the first day they got down here last week. Every one of our guys was good. Our team was so focused. I actually think it was less nerve-racking than last year, but last year was my first year, so I was really surprised.

But I made this commitment to myself that I was going to -- like in racing, I was going to try to learn better to manage the highs and the lows, and I'm not doing that so good. I'm really high today. This is really, really such a great accomplishment for our team and for our guys and for Honda and for everyone.

It's just great. Oreca. Oreca, there was a lot of discussion about would the car be ready and all that. The car ran 24 hours. It's ready.

MICHAEL SHANK: Yeah, and fast.

Q. I have a couple questions for you about your drivers. The first, Simon Pagenaud. I believe he told us on NBC that he drove the stint of his life.

MICHAEL SHANK: Yeah. He did.

Q. Can you describe that, and also about the confidence he seems to have right now? It reminds us a little bit of where he was in 2019 when he won Indy.

MICHAEL SHANK: Yeah, that's where his head's at, and I said those words to him. I think that is the best thing I've ever seen you do, certainly with us, on either side of the aisle. He drove -- once we got new tires on, he did a triple stint there right there at the end, and if you look at his average numbers, I think he's third overall quickest drivers from the race.

He just put in qualifiers for I don't know how many laps in a row, and I love that. He is so mental about everything that he will take that to Palm Springs next week and will do two days with the INDYCAR, and I'm really anxious to see how that goes. But he deserves it.

Q. The guy who finished the race for you, I think where you're into the Tom Blomqvist era here at Meyer Shank Racing. Can you kind of explain or put into context how much he's done for this team over the past year? It seems like he kind of came a little bit out of nowhere and has become like a superstar. Can you describe all of that?

MICHAEL SHANK: So I've been asked that a couple times this week because of last year's performance. There's some really interesting things he did last year in our sports car.

He was with BMW and Formula E and the DTM for them and he did a lot of high level stuff, and then kind of, I don't know, fell out of favor or I don't know what happened, but he was a free agent. I started looking at his numbers and I'm like, we should test this guy. So I take him to Road Atlanta in the DPi car in the fall of '21, and he got in this car and just slayed it. I called him, I said, I've got our guy. This is our guy. There's no question about it.

Now what's happened, though, and I think if you look back at the Rolex here last year, what he did, he's a gold -- he's a nugget. He reminds me a little bit when Wickens came into INDYCAR out of DTM. He's just got this -- he truly believes he's the fastest guy out there, and he proved it tonight.

Even that first stint of his from the get-go yesterday. We believe in him.

JIM MEYER: Who can forget his qualifying run last week was incredible, just incredible story.

We're thrilled to be in the Tom Blomqvist business, yeah.

MICHAEL SHANK: I went after him. Now we've got him locked up. He isn't going anywhere.

JIM MEYER: Mike is absolutely right. He said, I'm going to test this guy. I go, I don't even know who this guy is. He goes, leave to me, and then literally one minute, he said, we're done. We have who we need. Our future in sports car racing, and it's great.

Q. We've heard all about the cooperation between the two Acura teams. Tell us a little bit about particularly those last laps and how close it all was.

MICHAEL SHANK: You know, I believe that we have a very good relationship considering we've raced against each other for a very long time and we're both super competitive people. We were texting, what can I do -- when he was three laps down, I think he thought he was done, which we knew he wasn't at the time, but he came over, what can we do to help you?

That's kind of the men -- it's probably hard to believe, but we text -- you can look at my phone. We texted for the last half hour on those restarts, how are we going to do this? What are we going to do? How are we not going to make a fool of Acura? That's my number one concern.

Wayne, how they raced us at the end, there's nothing better than that. Here come the boys.

THE MODERATOR: We'll have the drivers join us on stage, as well. We're joined by all four of our winning drivers, as well. Colin Braun, this is his third Rolex 24 at Daytona Class victory, fourth IMSA victory at Daytona, 23rd series class victory, first overall win in the Rolex 24.

Helio Castroneves, this is his third Rolex 24 overall victory. Third consecutive. He's the second driver to do that, joining Peter Gregg. Peter Gregg's wins were in 1973, 1975, and 1976. Before you stop me and say, hang on a second, that is not three in a row, it is because in 1974 the race did not run due to a fuel crisis.

But Helio is the first one to do it three straight years. This is his 10th victory here in IMSA. Also won the season finale at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.

Simon Pagenaud, second Rolex 24 Daytona victory; second consecutive; 12th IMSA class victory.

And Tom, second Rolex 24 win, second consecutive third class victory. He's the 2022 IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship DPi champion, and he also won the finale at Michelin Raceway.

Q. Talking to all you guys throughout the weekend, the vibe has been incredibly fun, casual, as compared to some of the more buttoned up teams who are serious about this. I know you're serious but you've been joking around. How important is that vibe?

HELIO CASTRONEVES: Look, he just said it. Look, we have an incredible group of guys here, but most important is actually an incredible -- it starts from the top, Mike and Jim basically able to put it together, these really committed people that wants to succeed, and not only they are doing it but with passion.

Sometimes people have different perspectives when you see -- you don't need to wear a suit and tie or follow some of the whatever other people do just to achieve success. As long as you're surrounded by good people, you're able to put a great program together, and that's exactly what it is.

Mike is actually a passion person. I relate quite a lot sometimes. I have to stay --

MICHAEL SHANK: In the last half hour, we can't do that --

HELIO CASTRONEVES: I was actually more than him. I was actually downstairs. I didn't want to interfere. That's the thing. The way I see it, it comes from the top, and the results is coming.

This is just the beginning -- it's not a beginning anymore. It's already a proving point. Mike has already proved a point that his system works. The people that he hired works. Yeah, this is just a continuation of what we started last year and in years past.

TOM BLOMQVIST: I think what's so special about this team is we are a small team compared to some of our opponents, but the atmosphere, the way we work, enables people to get the best out of themselves, and I think that's why we're such high achievers.

I think there's no egos. It's a very open book, and that just enables each and every one of us to reach our potential. I think that's why we've achieved so much success in really a short time at this level of competition, I think.

Q. Specifically for Helio, initially after the race ended, you seemed emotional. You even kind of waved a camera away, which we don't see you do often (laughter) --

SIMON PAGENAUD: That must have been a misunderstanding.

Q. What's going on? Was that a show, or were you feeling something?

HELIO CASTRONEVES: Look, to do three in a row, he just said, it's not -- look, it's a very tough sport. You lose more than win some. All of a sudden when you win like this and the way it was, the expectation, you saw Mike talking about Acura, everyone was not knowing, and all of a sudden you're right there and about to achieve this amazing dream.

Yes, I am an emotional guy. I have my family here. My daughter was here. My wife wasn't but my dad was here. That's how we started.

So yeah, it did touch me in a way that that's why I love so much this sport, because it's very hard, and when you get it, you've got to celebrate.

Q. Tom, how did it feel from the drop of the green? You seemed to just set the tone and say, we've got the fastest car, and then you finished it out this year, which you didn't get to do last year. How did it feel to do both of those things?

TOM BLOMQVIST: Yeah, obviously the team for putting the faith in me for both those parts. You know, my life was made easier with the car that I had under me today and all week really this car has been -- I can't really thank everyone at HPD and Acura, even Oreca, MSI, and even WTR really, because this has kind of been a joint effort from the early days.

The first time we hit the ground running with this car for the very first time, it was, wow, I think we've got something here. Every time we drove we were like, this is -- we're quick. We obviously thought everyone was playing big huge games because we were always quick, but I think it proves just how good our car is.

And that's just such a congratulations really to everyone who's been a part of this project. Yeah, I was confident that I had the edge over the Cadillacs, to be honest. We were good at the restarts, so I was confident with them behind that I could manage the situation better.

But once the team got also a little bit more nervous because I knew they were probably the second fastest car on track, and I have enough experience with Filipe to know he's going for it if he sees an opportunity.

But I said, just keep it cool. Just trust what I had, and basically just try and get every little bit of performance out of the car, and thankfully I was able to do that. My life was made a lot easier this week by every single one of us at this team.

Q. You drove the stint of your life, and he said you're in a really good head space and now you're going to take that to Thermal for the preseason test this week. Can you talk about that stint and how good you obviously felt today, and are you in a good place now heading into the INDYCAR season because it feels like to us you've got that confidence that you had maybe in 2019 after winning in Indy.

SIMON PAGENAUD: Yeah, I feel great. It's like Helio kind of said, it's the environment that I'm in, the teammates that I had this weekend. Mike, Jim, and how they make me feel about myself really. Personally I've worked on myself this winter to improve and keep pushing.

Every driver in the world is doing that. We're all doing it. But it's about finding what works for you. I've found a few things that I'm feeling really good, but the car is suiting me well. Acura built something that I really enjoy driving, and I felt really great for the whole 24. Never got tired when the team needed me to do more stints, I stayed in --

TOM BLOMQVIST: I've got to thank you for that, mate, because it saved me an hour in the car.

SIMON PAGENAUD: That's why I go to the gym for you.

TOM BLOMQVIST: You keep it up, mate.

SIMON PAGENAUD: But yeah, I just had a really good 24 hours. A lot of fun, felt in a zone for sure. On that last stint I was definitely the most in the zone of the whole race.

Q. Mike, I saw you on pit road before the race on Saturday morning and we had a conversation about how it was going to go down. As we look at the drivers and what you've done, how does it feel in terms of coming from such a rather humble beginning of putting it all together maybe in comparison to some of the other teams you're competing against in these ranks and in INDYCAR? I have to imagine this is just overwhelming at times.

MICHAEL SHANK: It is. I grew up -- that stage we were up here the other day, those are people I grew up with. I didn't think I ever deserved to be on a stage with them.

Our business really took off when Jim and I got together. We were doing fine, but when Jim and I got together in 2018, a lot of things changed in a positive way. It allowed us to take it to another level.

I think it's a great story. It's like, imagine winning the Kentucky Derby or having something at Augusta, but I got to do it, which is incredible from where I came from. I'm very appreciative of it. Jim and I just keep growing the thing.

JIM MEYER: I want to clarify. We get this question, and I guess I was okay with it in 2018. We've won this race now twice. We've won the Indianapolis 500 -- people need to be aware, we're just as good as anybody out there.

We're prepared to go get the best drivers and the best talent and the best equipment in the world. We run our operation very sensibly. But it's not acceptable to us to just do okay. We're here to be able to beat, whether it's Penske or Andretti or Ganassi or Zak Brown's team every day. That's what we're here for.

Q. Just to follow on that, Jim and Mike, when do we see Acura Meyer Shank at Le Mans?

SIMON PAGENAUD: That's a great question. I love it.

MICHAEL SHANK: This is an easy answer. It's not up to Jim and I. It's up to the mothership Honda and Acura. When they decide it's time for us to go, that's when we'll go. And we would love to do it, of course. I did it before Jim came into my life in P2, but to be able to go over there and go for the overall win is a thing we would love to do, but not until Honda, HPD, and Acura --

JIM MEYER: Just for the record, I think the race ended at like 1:38. I asked him at 1:46, okay, because we had congratulations -- by the way, HPD Acura could not have had a better day with both of their cars finishing one-two, very competitive, and really proud to be their partner.

When Mike and I got together, we kind of -- I kind of said, for me, I want to win the Indianapolis 500, I want to win the Rolex 24. I never thought we would win them this quickly, to be honest with you. But once you win them, it gets really hard to get the taste out of your system.

But Le Mans was the third one on our list, and we certainly -- it is what we want to do.

Q. Before the drivers came in, Mike was telling us that there was a gearbox problem from about lap 200. Were you all aware of that fact, and did you do anything to adjust for that?

HELIO CASTRONEVES: I wasn't until they mentioned about we're losing time on the pits and we mentioned about there was something in the gearbox. But never -- I never asked because I didn't want to know the answer and it put something in my head while I was driving. What they did was perfect. I never felt anything inside the car.

TOM BLOMQVIST: Luckily it wasn't anything that affected when we were out on track driving, so that was good. We also had a small battery issue towards the end. We couldn't stop the car in the pits the way we needed to, so we had to keep the engine running, and that was always a little bit more stressful.

Yeah, it's just been -- what HPD has done, this is the first race. We've all got the same regulation. We all had to reach the same targets. We're all driving under the same power, the same weights, and we've done the best job.

Yeah, that is hats off to everyone who's been a part of this project.

Q. Helio, you've been there for three of the team's -- well, all three of the team's last victories. How much credit are you taking for them? And how big of a raise are you asking for?

HELIO CASTRONEVES: Hey, you want to be my manager? I like that.

Look, I've been very happy with everyone here, and we are going towards a great future. Yeah, I can't thank them enough to give me the opportunity. We all fulfilling our dreams at the moment, and when everything is working, we want to keep it going.

JIM MEYER: I'll tell you a funny story. When Mike and I got together with Helio, you remember our first season we only did six races, so we were discussing with Helio how we wanted to do that, and Helio said, I could do the Rolex for you if you want.

Mike said, Helio, we've already got our slate full. I think it took him five minutes after he won the Rolex to send me a picture of his watch. So you know, there was a little bit of pushing on all sides, let's put it that way.

Q. Colin, your first overall win. I guess you were a little aggressive at times out there. Did you have to regulate -- was that the pressure of driving for a factory team?

COLIN BRAUN: Yeah, I mean, I guess for me I didn't think it was crazily aggressive. I think with this car you get in situations where the closing speed is so much faster on the straightaways when you've got to go somewhere with the momentum, and I think oftentimes it's more dangerous just to stop and jam on the brakes. I knew there was guys coming behind me.

I felt like I was in a position where I had to go somewhere with it, and so yeah, went to the top and scraped by. It was fine.

SIMON PAGENAUD: So you do remember that moment?

COLIN BRAUN: I do too. I was like, we're good, we're good.

Q. You've had this career that's gone up and down, this arc. Did you ever picture yourself climbing the fence?

COLIN BRAUN: No. I would say I definitely pictured myself winning the race I would say, but I never thought I would be climbing the fence with Helio for sure. He's got good style when it comes down to that.

But no, super proud of all these guys. I think we haven't touched on it too much, but hats off to Ryan McCarthy and Vincent up on the box. Those guys managed this race the entire day, throughout all the little issues we had, little things here and there.

Those guys just did such a good job at staying cool, staying calm, and managing the whole program for us. Yeah, couldn't do it without them.

JIM MEYER: For the record, we're Colin fans, and between Colin and Tom and many, many races and then different combinations at Sebring and then finally at Road Atlanta between the four of us, we expect to win a lot of races, and we expect Colin to play a big role in that.

THE MODERATOR: We'll let you guys get going. 

IMSA PR

GM PR

THE MODERATOR: We'll welcome to the stage our winners in the No. 55 Fred Poordad, Francesco Pizzi, James Allen, Gimmi Bruni.

This is James Allen's first Rolex 24 win, just his third start here. Previous best was third in the 2019 Rolex 24. Gimmi's first Rolex 24 win fourth class win in 34 starts last one Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta in 2011.

Fred Poordad, first Rolex 24 win, first class win, third start. Last start at Rolex 24 was in 2012 in GT.

And also Francesco's first win here, as well.

With that, we'll get questions back open again.

Q. If you could just talk a little bit more about the effort that the team had to go through to get this car back ready for the race.

CHRISTIAN REED: You mean after Sunday qualifying or during the week?

Q. After Thursday's incident.

CHRISTIAN REED: Yeah, you know, it was quite a big hit in the barrier, and actually we need four new corners and a new gearbox and some body work, and we asked IMSA to get approved for working a little bit longer than 10:00, which IMSA is always super kind to help.

The guys worked until midnight and started in the morning at 6:00, and finally the car was not in perfect condition for the next session, but at least we could do a shakedown.

Q. I talked with James already, but for the other three drivers, what were you thinking as you were watching at the end? Did you think you could pull it off? Any one of you can answer?

FRANCESCO PIZZI: I was there the whole time. I couldn't drive by night, so when it was by day I stayed beside them, always in the box, be ready. The only time I wasn't in the box I got called because there was a full course yellow to change driver, and then I finished my hour stint and then James got back in.

I mean, from the first time we were on the lead lap, because I think three hours to the end we were still three laps back. I got out and we just gained a lap on the full course yellow, and we were on the lead lap and we left the car to James.

I think James did an amazing job to hold it up. I mean, at the end, the overtake at the last finish -- I wasn't watching TV. I just got on the main straight waiting for them to pass, and when I saw him winning I couldn't understand anything anymore, because I never drove endurance before, and today to be in such a difficult race and end that way, it's an amazing feeling.

Q. James, take us through that last couple of laps. That was quite the finish.

JAMES ALLEN: Yeah, I mean, honestly, I didn't really think we were in with much of a shot. I was behind the AF Corse car for quite a while, and I could see the Crowdstrike car was building a gap more and more and more and so by the time I did get past the AF Corse car, there was quite a distance. Honestly, was not at all thinking am I going to catch this guy up.

But slowly but surely the gap sort of kept coming down and I could see even from like the penultimate lap I was getting a good run going to the start-finish line. I actually got in front before the start-finish line, so I thought, no point in trying to force an issue or take any crazy risk. I've got the straight-line speed. I can do it still.

I did come out of the Bus Stop thinking, have I done this properly? Do I have enough time? Have I got an exit good enough? And luckily I did, and just got him right below the line. I don't think I was breathing coming out of speedway 4 up to the start line. It was such a crazy moment for me. I don't think I've ever had anything like that, and I'm probably not sure I will ever again. It was really such an amazing feeling.

Q. In about 10 days' time you could be driving an LMP2 car again with the team you just beat.

JAMES ALLEN: Yeah, I think I'm going to see them after this, go talk to them. I'm sure they'll be happy for me.

Q. This team was originally pitched as possibly going to run one of the cuts for Porsche 963s, but those won't be ready until sometime in the late spring at least. What's going to be the grand plan for this 55 team here in IMSA? Is this going to be a one-off for you guys or are you going to do some more LMP2 starts or wait?

CHRISTIAN REED: Yeah, for sure we'll wait for the customer car, but just waiting is a little bit too boring for us, so we decided to do Daytona as a one-off in IMSA, and we'll do ELMS of the car.

IMSA PR

THE MODERATOR: We have one of our GTD pro winners in the No. 79 WeatherTech Racing Mercedes AMG GT3, Cooper MacNeil.

This is his 12th career victory in IMSA competition, first Rolex 24 victory coming in his 13th attempt. We also will have Maro Engel in a moment.

Cooper, what does it mean?

COOPER MacNEIL: Well, I actually did the whole 24 hours by myself. That's why I'm the only one up here. No.

I mean, it's hard to describe. Like you said, first win in 13 tries here at Daytona. So this is my last IMSA race that I'm doing, so honestly couldn't be happier with winning here with Mercedes and WeatherTech and Proton.

It was a difficult race. Obviously the IMSA WeatherTech Championship is one of, if not the most competitive, endurance sports car championships in the world, certainly in America, and then you come here at Daytona and everybody talks about the watch. Everybody strives to put everything together to win the watch.

That's exactly what we've done for 13 years in a row. Came close in '15 finishing second, but this year our Mercedes was in contention basically the whole time, top 3-ish the whole time.

That's just a testament to the hard work from not only the team, the crew, WeatherTech, Proton, all those guys and girls, but Mercedes. They built one hell of a car. And not only that, but they give us tremendous support, both on and off track, and they give us some of, if not their best drivers that they have, with Maro, Danny, and Jules.

Obviously we want to win the race and we want the best people there possible, and having Maro, Danny and Jules in the car, Maro has won this race before, won other big races; Danny and Jules won Spa last year. Danny used to drive Formula 1. So the pedigree of these guys is quite special if you really look into it.

For me, winning the race, my last IMSA race, is tremendous.

THE MODERATOR: We do have Maro, second Rolex 24 win. Both have been in the last three years.

To note, Jules Gounon and Daniel Juncadella this is their first win for both of them. They are en route to Bathurst for the 12 hours, so unfortunately will not be able to join us. We'll keep the questions going.

Q. Cooper, as you mentioned, 13 times trying to win this thing, and you went into it knowing that it's your last chance or at least within reason; what kind of emotions did that stir? Extra pressure, extra anything deep down in you?

COOPER MacNEIL: That's a good question. Actually pretty funny. I did one double stint. Spent two and a half hours in the car and then got out and let these guys finish the race.

In my latter half of the stint I was thinking, I'm not having very much fun. This is a lot of pressure. This is hard. My body hurts. I'm 6'5". It's not easy. I was quite happy to get out of the car at that point in time.

But with it being my last race, no, not really any added pressure. We've got a couple hundred WeatherTech employees here, as well, which for me doesn't really add any extra pressure. We just try to do our job and execute and keep the car clean on the lead lap and in contention for these guys -- at least that's my job -- for these guys to take it to the end and fight for the win, as you saw Maro do there.

Yeah, it's not easy, but you just -- once the helmet goes on, the rest of that nonsense goes out the window and you try and focus on the job at hand and try not to hit anything.

Q. Maro, can you talk about the closing stint? It seemed pretty physical between some cars knocking you off track and other things going on.

MARO ENGEL: Yeah, it was definitely a dogfight, and it always is a crazy, exciting finish to this race, especially in the GT categories. I think the situation you're referring to in the kink in Turn 4 was a bit unnecessary. Yeah, uncalled for, I think.

But anyway, we survived that scare and had a pretty big jump through the air and sideways all crossed up, but was able to gather it together, not slam into anyone coming back on track.

Yeah, then it was just a big fight between the Lexus, the Corvette, and us. I was so happy to deliver this result all together for the WeatherTech Racing family. As Cooper said, they've been trying for 13 years. You can't force these wins; they either come your way, happen, it comes together, or they don't, and today everything came together, came our way.

It was really hard at times fighting for position with GTD pro cars and GTD cars. The nature of the way it is that you're racing the same cars, no one wants to let anyone by, because even if you're not fighting the person in the same class, you're exposing yourself to the next car in line.

So yeah, it was challenging, tough, but we did it, and all I can say is a huge thank you to my teammates. They did an awesome job. Cooper was stellar. I mean, I think he was unlucky with the yellow that came out that he wasn't able to pit when he was supposed to pit, but he was 20 seconds off the lead at that point.

He did an awesome job, and even if he's saying he might not have enjoyed it, it was cool to watch. And lap times were great. Yeah, Danny and Jules are absolutely amazing. I knew the pressure was on. I woke up yesterday and said to the guys, I'm feeling it.

Usually I don't necessarily have that, that you feel things, but I woke up yesterday and just kind of felt it, and in the end it came our way. Just really happy to deliver the win for WeatherTech, for Proton Competition, and for Mercedes AMG.

Q. Expanding on the GTD Pro-GTD intermingling, do you feel that there should be a separation between the two classes? In the last few races in the series we've seen more of these battles like this, and just wanted to get your thoughts on that.

MARO ENGEL: Well, for you guys I guess it adds to the excitement. For us, obviously when you're fighting a GTD car for track position and you get run off the road like I did, it's pretty frustrating because it's just unnecessary.

But at the end of the day, I think if you look at the show, of this race and of this series, it always delivers. I guess that's the bottom line. And if it's good for the show, then we have to run it that way.

COOPER MacNEIL: To Maro's point about waking up and feeling it yesterday morning, it was pretty interesting because we had originally had the plan for Jules to finish the race, but we called for a last-minute meeting with the drivers and the engineer and Christian Reed, and Maro was just adamant that he woke up in the morning on Saturday morning, yesterday morning and said, you know, guys, I don't know what it is, but I'm feeling it, and I'd like to change plans last minute. Two hours before the start of the race, and I'd like to finish. I'm feeling it.

With two hours and 40 minutes to go is when he got in the car, and fast forward to just before the end of the race, I looked at the other two and I was like, well, this is what Maro wanted. He asked for it. He wanted to finish the race. Let's see what he can do. He delivered and executed and did a stellar job. Big thanks to him.

Q. Maro, those last series of restarts were a dogfight between you and the Corvette and the Lexus. But the final restart, it looked like smooth sailing. It was relatively calm. What made the difference?

MARO ENGEL: I guess you can't really plan these restarts. It just depends on how they fall, when the fuel gets going, and it also depends on what the guys behind are doing. In the second-to-last restart some guys got a really good run, so we ended up four or five wide into Turn 1. We were also compressed with the prototypes, with the P3s, which is tough, because obviously they don't have ABS, and on the free start lap they really struggle, so they're kind of in our way, and at the same time you're trying to defend.

It's crazy. It's definitely not what you want to see when you're out leading in front. You're like, please, no yellows. But it was exciting. It was definitely exciting from the car. I dread to think how it was watching because you're always more nervous when you're watching on.

Yeah, the last one was luckily pretty straightforward, I would say. We all got into a good rhythm and we weren't held up too much by the P3s, and therefore we could kind of settle into a rhythm and space out.

THE MODERATOR: I also wanted to introduce Christian Reed, owner of Proton Competition, which fielded not only the No. 79 winning GTD Pro entry, but also the LMP2 winning No. 55 Oreca.

Christian is here for questions, as well.

Q. Cooper, it's the end of your driving career with the IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship. What about the brand? What about the team? What about your future in the sport? And what about the brand's future as a partner of this championship?

COOPER MacNEIL: Well, as you already know, as far as the title sponsorship goes of IMSA, that's through the end of 2025. Obviously we're extremely happy with the partnership with IMSA. I mean, this is the best -- some of the best racing in the world, if not the best. Best drivers, best teams, manufacturers, new cars. It's amazing.

To be part of it with IMSA and to have this level of competition and this level of show on national television is special and cherished by us from WeatherTech.

As you said, this is my last IMSA race, and as you already know, we're fielding the 79 car with Jules and Danny for the season, hopefully going for a championship, and that's what the future beholds for the team and the brand.

And past that, in racing it's never a multiyear deal as far as running a car goes. It's always year by year, as you've seen my career with Alex Job, Scuderia Corsa, Riley, Proton, running Mercedes, Porsche, Ferrari. Every year is different.

It's not to say something will or won't be different in 2024, but as far as me being in the driver's seat goes, I'm happy with this. I'm done. I got a nice, new shiny watch to wear, so I'm happy.

As far as the corporate side of things goes, 2025 and beyond, I don't have an answer for that now. Those conversations have yet to begin. Obviously, like I said, we are very happy with the relationship we have with IMSA, and the future is bright for both our brand and IMSA and sports car racing in America, and that's all I can say.

Q. Chris, we've already heard before you arrived about how tough this race is to win. You've won it twice, and you've done it with the team's debut in a new class for you in a week that was not easy. Tell us how your day has been.

CHRISTIAN REED: Yeah, you know, actually I'm super happy and super proud of the whole team, to all the mechanics; engineers did a great job. We started the program quite late, so we decided in December to run a car, to run an LMP2 in ELMS and maybe Daytona. So we got the car in December, shipped it here, and did more or less the first outing, so unfortunately we had an incident in the qualifying. We had one more during the week. So it was really not a lot of time for the guys to rest, and even more important, what they achieved today with the GTD and LMP2 victory is just a great day.

THE MODERATOR: Gentlemen, congratulations.

IMSA PR

THE MODERATOR: Ladies and gentlemen, we'll keep our post-race interviews rolling here. We have one of the co-owners of Meyer Shank Racing, the No. 60 Acura ARX 06, Mike Shank, his partner Jim Meyer will be along here momentarily, as well.

Team's third Rolex 24 at Daytona overall victory. Of course last year they won, as well, so back-to-back for them. The first one was back in 2012.

16th IMSA victory, first team to win in the modern IMSA GTP era, and this is the third consecutive Rolex 24 win for Acura, which I think I mentioned previously.

Mike, can you put it into words?

MICHAEL SHANK: I sat here, was it yesterday? I don't even remember now. I did that thing. The amount of -- David Salters I just saw was in here and his crew and the group of people that put this together, the odds of this happening I gave probably 5 or 10 percent.

It was just -- this thing, this has been such a huge job, and there's 200 people from every department that made this happen, and to have it come together, then have it come together, win the race and finish one-two with Wayne Taylor and Andretti and us, no, it's just amazing. I just don't really know what's going on.

I'm dead tired. I was so stressed. Our car had a gearbox problem all night. I mean, all night, and we could not fix it. We decided just to run it until it blew up. It didn't blow up.

We got super lucky.

We're grateful, especially for Acura. Jon Ikeda is here from Acura, and he's the one that really had a vision for performance at Acura really five or six years ago when I met him. These people believe in this program, and I needed to deliver.

So does Wayne. Wayne and I worked well together. We texted each other on that last restart, because God knows what was going to happen, but it was very respectful restart.

We'll reciprocate how we raced each other later with them for sure.

Q. As you noted, David Salters was just in here and I asked him what you meant to him and how you've got this complex about being underappreciated. He listed all your accomplishments, and he said, what else can the guy do in North American racing --

MICHAEL SHANK: He signed my contract. No, it's been great.

Q. He said, he does now. Are you finally accepting that you're a good team?

MICHAEL SHANK: Am I accepting of that? He lets me know every day that I need to do more, for less money. (Laughing).

Yes, listen, I get it, but like I told you the other day, the way I look at this thing is we win these, we're going to celebrate. We're going to have a big party in a couple weeks at my lake house in Columbus with all these guys properly, and then we go to Sebring and then we go to Palm Springs next week and then we go to the next thing.

I told you, I'm messed up, so that's how I think of things. It's great to have the accolades, and he'll tell you ever since he came in in '18 it's been like this.

JIM MEYER: It's been like that.

MICHAEL SHANK: It's great. It's really great.

THE MODERATOR: We also have Jim Meyer here.

Q. Early on in the race Colin, when he got out in the car, was very aggressive. That one move a couple hours in right up against the wall, from a team owner's perspective, how were you guys on the pit box? Were you sweating a little bit?

MICHAEL SHANK: Yeah, I clicked the radio button and said, stop.

Listen, Colin -- I didn't really do that, but we reiterated our position on this. We knew we had issues going on but we had a really fast car, but so did Wayne in the 10 car. We wanted to make sure we had something for the last hour you saw here, which was really difficult for our car because we had little things. If you watch the race we were in the pit lane probably more than anybody.

But we did it, I think, a smart way. We understood the strategy. We knew when we could get away with taking the car apart and fixing something and go back out there and not really hurt the effort overall.

When drivers get aggressive like that I'm tormented by it because we hire these guys to do that and we want them to be aggressive, and Colin has got an opportunity with a factory team now, and he needs to take advantage of it. That's the start of it right there.

Q. Mike, you said you were worried about the gearbox. When did that begin --

MICHAEL SHANK: Lap 200.

Q. How serious did it get?

MICHAEL SHANK: It was real serious. Someone taped -- the guy that really monitors that sits next to me and someone brought him a piece of racers tape that said 90 C on it, so we stopped -- we just knew it was 90 C. If it goes, it goes.

It just didn't. We kept maintaining the gearbox and fluid levels and trying to fix it literally the whole race.

Q. Then you had the oil flush in addition to deal with --

MICHAEL SHANK: Well, that's a different thing, and I noticed a lot of the manufacturers are doing that now, yeah, where we draw it out -- we essentially change the motor oil during the race. That wasn't that bad. We can deal with that all day. We have time to do that. I think that's a preventative thing with the new fuel we have and the new motors that we have.

I think that was just to make sure -- it looks like a little jet pack, and we built that at home, and one is vacuum and one gives back out pressure I assume.

Q. Was this race more nerve-racking than last year?

MICHAEL SHANK: What do you think, Jim, was it?

JIM MEYER: The gearbox didn't help. But boy, our guys have been so good from the first day they got down here last week. Every one of our guys was good. Our team was so focused. I actually think it was less nerve-racking than last year, but last year was my first year, so I was really surprised.

But I made this commitment to myself that I was going to -- like in racing, I was going to try to learn better to manage the highs and the lows, and I'm not doing that so good. I'm really high today. This is really, really such a great accomplishment for our team and for our guys and for Honda and for everyone.

It's just great. Oreca. Oreca, there was a lot of discussion about would the car be ready and all that. The car ran 24 hours. It's ready.

MICHAEL SHANK: Yeah, and fast.

Q. I have a couple questions for you about your drivers. The first, Simon Pagenaud. I believe he told us on NBC that he drove the stint of his life.

MICHAEL SHANK: Yeah. He did.

Q. Can you describe that, and also about the confidence he seems to have right now? It reminds us a little bit of where he was in 2019 when he won Indy.

MICHAEL SHANK: Yeah, that's where his head's at, and I said those words to him. I think that is the best thing I've ever seen you do, certainly with us, on either side of the aisle. He drove -- once we got new tires on, he did a triple stint there right there at the end, and if you look at his average numbers, I think he's third overall quickest drivers from the race.

He just put in qualifiers for I don't know how many laps in a row, and I love that. He is so mental about everything that he will take that to Palm Springs next week and will do two days with the INDYCAR, and I'm really anxious to see how that goes. But he deserves it.

Q. The guy who finished the race for you, I think where you're into the Tom Blomqvist era here at Meyer Shank Racing. Can you kind of explain or put into context how much he's done for this team over the past year? It seems like he kind of came a little bit out of nowhere and has become like a superstar. Can you describe all of that?

MICHAEL SHANK: So I've been asked that a couple times this week because of last year's performance. There's some really interesting things he did last year in our sports car.

He was with BMW and Formula E and the DTM for them and he did a lot of high level stuff, and then kind of, I don't know, fell out of favor or I don't know what happened, but he was a free agent. I started looking at his numbers and I'm like, we should test this guy. So I take him to Road Atlanta in the DPi car in the fall of '21, and he got in this car and just slayed it. I called him, I said, I've got our guy. This is our guy. There's no question about it.

Now what's happened, though, and I think if you look back at the Rolex here last year, what he did, he's a gold -- he's a nugget. He reminds me a little bit when Wickens came into INDYCAR out of DTM. He's just got this -- he truly believes he's the fastest guy out there, and he proved it tonight.

Even that first stint of his from the get-go yesterday. We believe in him.

JIM MEYER: Who can forget his qualifying run last week was incredible, just incredible story.

We're thrilled to be in the Tom Blomqvist business, yeah.

MICHAEL SHANK: I went after him. Now we've got him locked up. He isn't going anywhere.

JIM MEYER: Mike is absolutely right. He said, I'm going to test this guy. I go, I don't even know who this guy is. He goes, leave to me, and then literally one minute, he said, we're done. We have who we need. Our future in sports car racing, and it's great.

Q. We've heard all about the cooperation between the two Acura teams. Tell us a little bit about particularly those last laps and how close it all was.

MICHAEL SHANK: You know, I believe that we have a very good relationship considering we've raced against each other for a very long time and we're both super competitive people. We were texting, what can I do -- when he was three laps down, I think he thought he was done, which we knew he wasn't at the time, but he came over, what can we do to help you?

That's kind of the men -- it's probably hard to believe, but we text -- you can look at my phone. We texted for the last half hour on those restarts, how are we going to do this? What are we going to do? How are we not going to make a fool of Acura? That's my number one concern.

Wayne, how they raced us at the end, there's nothing better than that. Here come the boys.

THE MODERATOR: We'll have the drivers join us on stage, as well. We're joined by all four of our winning drivers, as well. Colin Braun, this is his third Rolex 24 at Daytona Class victory, fourth IMSA victory at Daytona, 23rd series class victory, first overall win in the Rolex 24.

Helio Castroneves, this is his third Rolex 24 overall victory. Third consecutive. He's the second driver to do that, joining Peter Gregg. Peter Gregg's wins were in 1973, 1975, and 1976. Before you stop me and say, hang on a second, that is not three in a row, it is because in 1974 the race did not run due to a fuel crisis.

But Helio is the first one to do it three straight years. This is his 10th victory here in IMSA. Also won the season finale at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.

Simon Pagenaud, second Rolex 24 Daytona victory; second consecutive; 12th IMSA class victory.

And Tom, second Rolex 24 win, second consecutive third class victory. He's the 2022 IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship DPi champion, and he also won the finale at Michelin Raceway.

Q. Talking to all you guys throughout the weekend, the vibe has been incredibly fun, casual, as compared to some of the more buttoned up teams who are serious about this. I know you're serious but you've been joking around. How important is that vibe?

HELIO CASTRONEVES: Look, he just said it. Look, we have an incredible group of guys here, but most important is actually an incredible -- it starts from the top, Mike and Jim basically able to put it together, these really committed people that wants to succeed, and not only they are doing it but with passion.

Sometimes people have different perspectives when you see -- you don't need to wear a suit and tie or follow some of the whatever other people do just to achieve success. As long as you're surrounded by good people, you're able to put a great program together, and that's exactly what it is.

Mike is actually a passion person. I relate quite a lot sometimes. I have to stay --

MICHAEL SHANK: In the last half hour, we can't do that --

HELIO CASTRONEVES: I was actually more than him. I was actually downstairs. I didn't want to interfere. That's the thing. The way I see it, it comes from the top, and the results is coming.

This is just the beginning -- it's not a beginning anymore. It's already a proving point. Mike has already proved a point that his system works. The people that he hired works. Yeah, this is just a continuation of what we started last year and in years past.

TOM BLOMQVIST: I think what's so special about this team is we are a small team compared to some of our opponents, but the atmosphere, the way we work, enables people to get the best out of themselves, and I think that's why we're such high achievers.

I think there's no egos. It's a very open book, and that just enables each and every one of us to reach our potential. I think that's why we've achieved so much success in really a short time at this level of competition, I think.

Q. Specifically for Helio, initially after the race ended, you seemed emotional. You even kind of waved a camera away, which we don't see you do often (laughter) --

SIMON PAGENAUD: That must have been a misunderstanding.

Q. What's going on? Was that a show, or were you feeling something?

HELIO CASTRONEVES: Look, to do three in a row, he just said, it's not -- look, it's a very tough sport. You lose more than win some. All of a sudden when you win like this and the way it was, the expectation, you saw Mike talking about Acura, everyone was not knowing, and all of a sudden you're right there and about to achieve this amazing dream.

Yes, I am an emotional guy. I have my family here. My daughter was here. My wife wasn't but my dad was here. That's how we started.

So yeah, it did touch me in a way that that's why I love so much this sport, because it's very hard, and when you get it, you've got to celebrate.

Q. Tom, how did it feel from the drop of the green? You seemed to just set the tone and say, we've got the fastest car, and then you finished it out this year, which you didn't get to do last year. How did it feel to do both of those things?

TOM BLOMQVIST: Yeah, obviously the team for putting the faith in me for both those parts. You know, my life was made easier with the car that I had under me today and all week really this car has been -- I can't really thank everyone at HPD and Acura, even Oreca, MSI, and even WTR really, because this has kind of been a joint effort from the early days.

The first time we hit the ground running with this car for the very first time, it was, wow, I think we've got something here. Every time we drove we were like, this is -- we're quick. We obviously thought everyone was playing big huge games because we were always quick, but I think it proves just how good our car is.

And that's just such a congratulations really to everyone who's been a part of this project. Yeah, I was confident that I had the edge over the Cadillacs, to be honest. We were good at the restarts, so I was confident with them behind that I could manage the situation better.

But once the team got also a little bit more nervous because I knew they were probably the second fastest car on track, and I have enough experience with Filipe to know he's going for it if he sees an opportunity.

But I said, just keep it cool. Just trust what I had, and basically just try and get every little bit of performance out of the car, and thankfully I was able to do that. My life was made a lot easier this week by every single one of us at this team.

Q. You drove the stint of your life, and he said you're in a really good head space and now you're going to take that to Thermal for the preseason test this week. Can you talk about that stint and how good you obviously felt today, and are you in a good place now heading into the INDYCAR season because it feels like to us you've got that confidence that you had maybe in 2019 after winning in Indy.

SIMON PAGENAUD: Yeah, I feel great. It's like Helio kind of said, it's the environment that I'm in, the teammates that I had this weekend. Mike, Jim, and how they make me feel about myself really. Personally I've worked on myself this winter to improve and keep pushing.

Every driver in the world is doing that. We're all doing it. But it's about finding what works for you. I've found a few things that I'm feeling really good, but the car is suiting me well. Acura built something that I really enjoy driving, and I felt really great for the whole 24. Never got tired when the team needed me to do more stints, I stayed in --

TOM BLOMQVIST: I've got to thank you for that, mate, because it saved me an hour in the car.

SIMON PAGENAUD: That's why I go to the gym for you.

TOM BLOMQVIST: You keep it up, mate.

SIMON PAGENAUD: But yeah, I just had a really good 24 hours. A lot of fun, felt in a zone for sure. On that last stint I was definitely the most in the zone of the whole race.

Q. Mike, I saw you on pit road before the race on Saturday morning and we had a conversation about how it was going to go down. As we look at the drivers and what you've done, how does it feel in terms of coming from such a rather humble beginning of putting it all together maybe in comparison to some of the other teams you're competing against in these ranks and in INDYCAR? I have to imagine this is just overwhelming at times.

MICHAEL SHANK: It is. I grew up -- that stage we were up here the other day, those are people I grew up with. I didn't think I ever deserved to be on a stage with them.

Our business really took off when Jim and I got together. We were doing fine, but when Jim and I got together in 2018, a lot of things changed in a positive way. It allowed us to take it to another level.

I think it's a great story. It's like, imagine winning the Kentucky Derby or having something at Augusta, but I got to do it, which is incredible from where I came from. I'm very appreciative of it. Jim and I just keep growing the thing.

JIM MEYER: I want to clarify. We get this question, and I guess I was okay with it in 2018. We've won this race now twice. We've won the Indianapolis 500 -- people need to be aware, we're just as good as anybody out there.

We're prepared to go get the best drivers and the best talent and the best equipment in the world. We run our operation very sensibly. But it's not acceptable to us to just do okay. We're here to be able to beat, whether it's Penske or Andretti or Ganassi or Zak Brown's team every day. That's what we're here for.

Q. Just to follow on that, Jim and Mike, when do we see Acura Meyer Shank at Le Mans?

SIMON PAGENAUD: That's a great question. I love it.

MICHAEL SHANK: This is an easy answer. It's not up to Jim and I. It's up to the mothership Honda and Acura. When they decide it's time for us to go, that's when we'll go. And we would love to do it, of course. I did it before Jim came into my life in P2, but to be able to go over there and go for the overall win is a thing we would love to do, but not until Honda, HPD, and Acura --

JIM MEYER: Just for the record, I think the race ended at like 1:38. I asked him at 1:46, okay, because we had congratulations -- by the way, HPD Acura could not have had a better day with both of their cars finishing one-two, very competitive, and really proud to be their partner.

When Mike and I got together, we kind of -- I kind of said, for me, I want to win the Indianapolis 500, I want to win the Rolex 24. I never thought we would win them this quickly, to be honest with you. But once you win them, it gets really hard to get the taste out of your system.

But Le Mans was the third one on our list, and we certainly -- it is what we want to do.

Q. Before the drivers came in, Mike was telling us that there was a gearbox problem from about lap 200. Were you all aware of that fact, and did you do anything to adjust for that?

HELIO CASTRONEVES: I wasn't until they mentioned about we're losing time on the pits and we mentioned about there was something in the gearbox. But never -- I never asked because I didn't want to know the answer and it put something in my head while I was driving. What they did was perfect. I never felt anything inside the car.

TOM BLOMQVIST: Luckily it wasn't anything that affected when we were out on track driving, so that was good. We also had a small battery issue towards the end. We couldn't stop the car in the pits the way we needed to, so we had to keep the engine running, and that was always a little bit more stressful.

Yeah, it's just been -- what HPD has done, this is the first race. We've all got the same regulation. We all had to reach the same targets. We're all driving under the same power, the same weights, and we've done the best job.

Yeah, that is hats off to everyone who's been a part of this project.

Q. Helio, you've been there for three of the team's -- well, all three of the team's last victories. How much credit are you taking for them? And how big of a raise are you asking for?

HELIO CASTRONEVES: Hey, you want to be my manager? I like that.

Look, I've been very happy with everyone here, and we are going towards a great future. Yeah, I can't thank them enough to give me the opportunity. We all fulfilling our dreams at the moment, and when everything is working, we want to keep it going.

JIM MEYER: I'll tell you a funny story. When Mike and I got together with Helio, you remember our first season we only did six races, so we were discussing with Helio how we wanted to do that, and Helio said, I could do the Rolex for you if you want.

Mike said, Helio, we've already got our slate full. I think it took him five minutes after he won the Rolex to send me a picture of his watch. So you know, there was a little bit of pushing on all sides, let's put it that way.

Q. Colin, your first overall win. I guess you were a little aggressive at times out there. Did you have to regulate -- was that the pressure of driving for a factory team?

COLIN BRAUN: Yeah, I mean, I guess for me I didn't think it was crazily aggressive. I think with this car you get in situations where the closing speed is so much faster on the straightaways when you've got to go somewhere with the momentum, and I think oftentimes it's more dangerous just to stop and jam on the brakes. I knew there was guys coming behind me.

I felt like I was in a position where I had to go somewhere with it, and so yeah, went to the top and scraped by. It was fine.

SIMON PAGENAUD: So you do remember that moment?

COLIN BRAUN: I do too. I was like, we're good, we're good.

Q. You've had this career that's gone up and down, this arc. Did you ever picture yourself climbing the fence?

COLIN BRAUN: No. I would say I definitely pictured myself winning the race I would say, but I never thought I would be climbing the fence with Helio for sure. He's got good style when it comes down to that.

But no, super proud of all these guys. I think we haven't touched on it too much, but hats off to Ryan McCarthy and Vincent up on the box. Those guys managed this race the entire day, throughout all the little issues we had, little things here and there.

Those guys just did such a good job at staying cool, staying calm, and managing the whole program for us. Yeah, couldn't do it without them.

JIM MEYER: For the record, we're Colin fans, and between Colin and Tom and many, many races and then different combinations at Sebring and then finally at Road Atlanta between the four of us, we expect to win a lot of races, and we expect Colin to play a big role in that.

THE MODERATOR: We'll let you guys get going.

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