The #81 DragonSpeed LMP2 car works it's way through GTD traffic. Tom Blomqvist leads in DPi and overall. The two Acura's from Meyer Shank Racing and Wayne Taylor Racing, have been scrapping for the lead all night so far. Meyer Shank Racing won the 2021 Indianapolis 500 with Helio Castroneves. Meyer Shank Racing has been around since 2004 and they won it in 2012, a decade ago. Blomqvist sharing with Helio Castroneves, Simon Pagenaud, and Oliver Jarvis. Three of those drivers stood on the podium last year. Helio won, Simon was second, and Oliver Jarvis was third. Castroneves was the first driver to win the Indianapolis 500 and the Rolex 24 in the same year.
Jose Maria Lopez has brought the #48 Ally Cadillac for Action Express back up to fourth place. Chase Elliott who raced with Action Express last year, understands the effort it will take to do the Rolex 24 the right way. So, he will be back in the future once the new next generation NASCAR cars are in the sweet spot. You have to be able to apply yourself and step up to racing at this level. We might just see more NASCAR drivers come to IMSA once they get comfortable. Mike Skeen is now in the #32 Gilbert Korthoff Motorsports Mercedes AMG GT3 and he has been running very well. Guy Cosmo was one of the four drivers, James Davison was drafted in. A week ago, he was on a beach in Australia, and then, came to Daytona and was thrown into the fire.
The #10 Acura pits for tires and fuel, and an energy bomb through a carbohydrate gel in a meat syringe. Don't risk what you eat. A lot of drivers won't eat a lot before doing a stint. This is a very long race even if you have a four-driver lineup. The #10 Acura is indeed missing the left front dive plane, but, the pace is still in the car, apparently, even though they have lost 100 pounds of downforce. Tristan Vautier has gone into the turn in the International Horseshoe a little too hot, on cold tires. Richard Westbrook, his co-driver said that it is very hard to get that race car turned properly. Jeepers creepers! These tires are still cold. They could not tear the tearoff, off of the windscreen either. They have that thing sandblasted and full of tire clag.
Tristan Vautier wants those tear off strips off the car so he can see properly in the darkness. Alex Palou is now back in the lead as the #60 Meyer Shank Acura is in the lane. Tom Blomqvist out and Helio Castroneves back in, with four sticker Michelin tires, cold tires. Pit work too for the lapped #02 Ganassi Racing Cadillac. Mike Rockenfeller is currently in third place in the #48 Ally Cadillac. He has actually dropped back to fourth spot. Into the hroseshoe, he is earlier into the turn is Helio Castroneves. Alex Palou is into the lane in the #01 Ganassi Racing Cadillac. They have a wounded Aston Martin ahead. Fuel only. No tires. They are clear out of the lane.
He will double stint the tires. At night, the teams are going to double stint these tires in this freezing cold. Alex Palou lived in Austin, Texas, during the pandemic, and then, in 2021 he went out with Chip Ganassi Racing and he won a championship in IndyCar. A massive lockup by the G-Drive LMP2 car. We will hear from Leigh Diffey, Calvin Fish, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the morning, and we welcome back to the broadcast, Dave Burns and Kevin Lee for what will be the graveyard shift.
One of the cars has spun and has two flat tires and no rear wing. That is the #20 LMP2 leading High Class Racing entry of Fabio Scherer! Turn left at the International Horseshoe, don't stay on the track. This is the ninth Full Course Yellow. The #20 entry is now a padiddle, a car with one working headlight since the whole right front corner has been lopped off of it. Jeepers creepers! He has a square tire on that right front corner, look. This is the ninth Full Course Yellow of the motor race. It is a real surprise that the High Class Racing team did not tell Fabio Scherer to motor that car back to the garage.
Steve Letarte is going to keep staying up, and we have Parker Kligerman and Dillon Welch joining the broadcast again as well. We have about six more hours before this race really begins. About 5:00-5:30 A.M. on Sunday, that is going to be when the race begins as we still have this freezing cold night. Tristan Nunez did not pit and now he is in the lead. Pit stop tme for GTD Pro as the #97 Mercedes is in for fuel, tires, and a driver change and back out again. The #63 TR3 Lamborghini also pits. A brake change for Risi Competizione doing pads at the very least. We are almost at the halfway mark of this race. Tristan Nunez will be due to the lane in 10-15 minutes.
Steven Thomas has now taken the LMP2 lead after the repairs needed for the #20 High Class car. Fabio Scherer is not in the car, likely. He is being admonished by the stewards. Ferdinand Habsburg leads the LMP2 class in the #8 Tower Motorsports entry. Race Control has asked if the team changed the driver. Pit stop time now for the #48 Ally Cadillac. Mike Rockenfeller still in the car. Someone is retrieving an errant tire from the apron of the speedway. Under yellow, it's 36 degrees Fahrenheit. Two ways to keep the heat in the tires, either weaving back and forth, to flex the sidewall and create friction on the tires. Heat builds pressure.
Also, they will tap the brake pedal to build heat in the brakes that circulates to the wheel and the tire to expand the air in the tire. More debris on the road and we will restart momentarily, chaps. Hang on here. The #99 Team Hardpoint Porsche has looped it on the backstretch and is now back pointed in the right direction again. Not sure who is driving that automobile. It is being shared by Rob Ferriol, Katherine Legge, Stefan Wilson, and Nick Boulle. We are coming back to the green flag. It is a restart on this cold Florida night. Castroneves tries for the lead and cannot hang on. Here comes Alexander Rossi. A scrap betwen two Indianapolis 500 winners!
Tristan Nunez stays in front. Nunez up by just a tenth. Alex Palou and Earl Bamber move past Rossi. Nunez has eked out a gap on Castroneves. Vautier is closing up on Castroneves. Tristan Nunez was a Mazda factory driver and lost his ride full-time but still tested for the team. He ran LMP2 last year and got the call to race with the championship winning team at Action Express. Nunez sses redemption and says he is being treated as a member of the Action Express family. Don't pressure yourself. Do what we hired you to do and drive the car.
Jack Hawksworth in the #14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus is chasing Patrick Pilet in the #2 KCMG Porsche. Pilet has to deal with LMP3 traffic. The #14 is recovering from a three-and-a-half-minute penalty at Vasser Sullivan. The classic Porsche 911 is very slippery while the Lexus has a massive frontal area to push a hole through the air on the NASCAR banking. Lexus has a lot of heat from that big V8 and they can get heat into their tires on this chilly night. The Lexus is very good on corner entry. A deep class in GTD Pro and seven of the 13 cars, half the field, on the lead lap. GT Le Mans was not very deep last year with just three cars running for most of the year, save for the endurance races.
Mike Skeen leads the GT Daytona class in the #32 Gilbert Korthoff Mercedes AMG GT3.
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