Penske Duo Shows Dominance At Halfway In Rolex 24

The No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport Grand Touring Prototype works through nighttime traffic during the Rolex 24. (IMSA photo)

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Flexing their muscle as the clock crossed past midnight, the pair of Penske Porsche Motorsport prototypes held down the top two spots overall in the 63rd Rolex 24 at Daytona at the halfway point of the legendary endurance race.

Driving the defending race-winning No. 7 entry, Felipe Nasr took the lead at the three-quarter mark of the 11th hour and maintained control out front through the 12-hour benchmark, when the crossed flags were displayed over Daytona Int’l Speedway.

At that juncture, Nasr led the sister No. 6 Porsche 963 of Matt Campbell by 6.421 seconds with 388 laps completed around the 3.56-mile, 12-turn road course.

Six-time NTT IndyCar Series champion Scott Dixon had the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura prototype third overall at halfway, albeit nearly 13 seconds adrift of the race lead.

The No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac (Will Stevens) and the No. 24 Team RLL BMW (Kevin Magnussen) closed out the overall top five with 12 hours down and 12 hours remaining.

Two full-course cautions slowed the action between the eight-hour and 12-hour yardposts, with the most notable waving early in the 11th hour when a suspension failure sent the No. 31 Whelen Cadillac hard into the outside SAFER Barrier in speedway turn four.

It dropped Frederik Vesti 53 laps behind the overall lead while the car was being repaired, but the eam was able to return to the race just before halfway with Felipe Drugovich at the controls.

Rasmus Lindh led for United Autosports in LMP2 at halfway, ahead of the No. 43 Inter Europol Competition entry of Tom Dillmann and the No. 99 AO Racing machine of Dane Cameron.

In GTD Pro, it was the Paul Miller Racing No. 1 BMW of Neil Verhagen ahead of the No. 77 AO Racing Porsche of Klaus Bachler by 32.8 seconds due to pit strategy, with the No. 65 Multimatic Motorsports Ford Mustang of Dennis Olsen in podium contention in third.

After pulling the Trackhouse by TF Sport Corvette up as high as second during the 12th hour, New Zealand’s Shane van Gisbergen ranked sixth in GTD Pro as the race began its second half.

GTD’s varied field saw Inception Racing’s No. 70 Ferrari of Frederik Schandorff out front by a scant .431-second margin over the No. 120 Wright Motorsports Porsche of Ayhancan Guven. Third in class at hour 12 went to Turner Motorsport’s o. 96 BMW of Jens Klingmann.

Five minutes after the halfway mark, the race’s eighth full-course caution occurred for the No. 36 DXDT Racing Corvette driven by Charlie Eastwood, which caught fire exiting turn two and stopped on the inside apron.

Eastwood was able to climb out unharmed.

Every lap of the Rolex 24 can be streamed live on Peacock, with television coverage resuming at noon ET Sunday on NBC and going to the checkered flag.