Chip Ganassi hopes to improve on last year's 24-hour race at Daytona International Speedway.
It hardly seems possible. Ganassi's two-car team finished first and second in the race.
Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas, along with Joey Hand and Graham Rahal, ended up in Victory Lane after a one-lap sprint to the checkered flag.
IndyCar stars Scott Dixon and Dario Franchitti and NASCAR drivers Juan Pablo Montoya and Jamie McMurray celebrated alongside them after settling for second.
Pruett's team will try to repeat when the 24-hour race begins this afternoon. Dixon's crew will try to flip the script.
"We want to be at the very front again, no question," Ganassi said. "It's going to be tough to top last year, but we can certainly try. That's what we're here to do. It's as simple as that."
There's only one way for that to happen. The cars would have to avoid all the problems that threatened to derail the 1-2 finish.
The No. 01 BMW Riley — the one primarily driven by Pruett and Rojas, the two-time defending Grand-Am Series champions — battled from two laps down to take the checkered flag. The No. 02 entry piloted by Dixon and Co. endured two flat tires early in the race.
Nonetheless, both Ganassi cars were at the forefront of the frantic finish. Pruett used a smooth restart to pull away from Dixon and win by the Daytona Prototype class by 2.42 seconds.
"That was a great finish last year, but it was not without mistakes," Ganassi said. "A smoother race would be a lot easier for sure."
Ganassi has a new tool that could help his star-studded teams. He created an electronic signal board that makes it clear to the driver of the No. 01 car when Montoya is in the other seat. Montoya's aggressive — albeit effective — style ruffled feathers and fenders in last year's race.
"We talked at length about that subject," Ganassi said. "All eight of them need to hand the car off to their teammates like they would like to have the car handed to them. You're racing for 24 hours, but the fact of the matter is all you can do is lose the race the first 22 hours if you do something to the car or you don't hand the car off in a good condition. We certainly don't want to do that."
Ganassi said Montoya "has some work to do" in that area.
Franchitti, the three-time defending IndyCar champ, joked that it might not happen overnight.
"That reputation was earned years ago," Franchitti said.
Montoya chimed in to defend himself.
"When I came to Chip and I was talking to some guy who was racing with us in the early years, he said, 'You don't come here to make friends. You're here to get the job done. If you want friends, bring your friends.' And I do," Montoya said.
Patience could be as important as ever in the in endurance race. The race could have 45 cars in the Grand Touring class, possibly putting as many as 59 cars on the 3.56-mile road course and setting the stage for tight racing and hairy situations.
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