Pruett Makes Last Lap Pass to Win at Daytona International Speedway

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - Scott Pruett won the closest finish in Grand-Am Rolex Series history Thursday night at Daytona by 0.081-second with a pass of Alex Gurney coming out of the final turn. The move to win the race was made on the high side of the No.99 car and gave the No.01 TELMEX Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates (CGRFS) team its fifth visit to victory lane through the first eight races of the 2008 season.

Co-driver Memo Rojas’ fourth place starting position enabled him to maintain a hold in the top-four positions throughout the first 18 laps. The TELMEX team employed an off-sequence pit strategy to make a driver change and put Pruett in the car on lap 18 and continued to progress from 12th place to the top-three positions by lap 30 of the 70-lap event. Pruett gained the lead from laps 50-57 and trailed in second position behind the No.99 in the caution-marred final seven laps, until regaining the lead on the last corner.

Thursday’s record-breaking finish marked Chip Ganassi Racing Teams, Inc.’s 99th career win and 20th victory for CGRFS’ Rolex Series team. Pruett continues to extend his record Rolex Series career victories (19). The No.01 TELMEX team has now scored top-10 finishes and completed every lap for two straight seasons (since June 29, 2006).

Pruett and Rojas currently lead the Rolex Series driver and team championship race with their largest margin of the season with 260 points, 40 points over the No.99 Fogarty/Gurney car (220).

Next up for the team is the Porsche 250 on Sunday, July 20th at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Ala. (July 20th 3:00 PM ET, SPEED).

CGRFS Quoteboard:

Scott Pruett “Winning here tonight means so much. This is our first win at Daytona in July and it just feels great. I was battling a loose car yet we were still able to run times with the leader if we weren’t at the front. When it’s a green/white restart we had no other option than to give it all we had. I went to the high side of Gurney coming onto the front stretch (for the checkered) and chose that line because I figured he’d be protecting the bottom line. Lucky for the two of us he didn’t go high! But tonight was outstanding and it definitely holds true that it’s not over until it’s over. I can’t say enough about TELMEX, Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates and the Lexus engine.”

Memo Rojas “I am so proud of Scott right now. In my stint I just wanted to be smart with car and make good moves so when I handed the car over to Scott, he’d be in a position to be at the front. We started out running an off-sequence pit stop strategy than the leaders and by the end I think our strategy paid off because we were right there after our final stop. Scott did an amazing job – I am so excited for this win. Thank you to Chip and Felix, TELMEX and Lexus.”