Longshot Shank Racing Wins 50th Daytona 24 Hours

Just the Facts:

• Ford-powered Rileys swept the podium in the Rolex 24 at Daytona.
• The top finishers upstaged the favored teams in the 14-car DP field.
• Porsche captured the GT podium spots, with Magnus Racing taking its first win.

DAYTONA BEACH, Florida — Michael Shank Racing muscled the big boys aside figuratively, and a fellow dark horse literally, on Sunday to win the 50th anniversary edition of the Rolex 24 at Daytona.

NASCAR regular A.J. Allmendinger drove a triple stint, staying behind the wheel for nearly three hours, to take the No. 60 Ford-powered Riley to a 5-second victory over Ryan Dalziel of Starworks Motorsports in another Ford-Riley.

The winners covered a race-record 761 laps around the 3.56-mile Daytona International Speedway oval-road course.

Allmendinger engaged in a NASCAR-style fending-banging duel with the Starworks car, with Allan McNish at the wheel, in the 22nd hour of the race. The two were battling at the head of the field, with heavyweights such as Ganassi, SunTrust, Spirit of Daytona, Gainsco and other more heralded Daytona Prototype entries left in their wake.

Shank Racing grabbed the final podium spot with an older-version Riley chassis, giving Ford — which won the first 24-hour version of this race in 1966 — a sweep. It was the first Daytona win for Columbus, Ohio-based Shank in nine tries.

More heavily favored entries, including the four-time and defending champion Ganassi Riley-BMW and four teams racing the new Corvette entry in the Daytona Prototype category, suffered tribulations, including gearbox or gearshift problems for the two Ganassi cars and a variety of mechanical, electrical and other gremlins for the Corvettes.

In the end, it was the first victory in a major racing event in six years for Allmendinger, who came to NASCAR after the Champ Car open-wheel series merged with IndyCar. The breakthrough win came in Allmendinger's first race since he signed to drive for team owner Roger Penske in the Sprint Cup Series this year.

Co-drivers of the winning entry were John Pew, Oswaldo Negri Jr. and Justin Wilson. Porsche swept the GT podium, with Magnus Racing scoring its first-ever Rolex Series victory. Andy Lally, John Potter, Rene Rast and anchor leg driver Richard Lietz shared driving duties.

Inside Line says: The Grand Am Rolex Series is off to a roaring start, in terms of cars, competition and surprising results.