‘Star car’ captures Daytona 24 hours

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Chip Ganassi bristles when his No. 02 team is called the “star car.”

Truth is, the moniker couldn’t be more appropriate right now.

Ganassi’s all-star driver lineup of three-time IndyCar champion Scott Dixon, Daytona 500 winner Jamie McMurray, Indianapolis 500 winner Tony Kanaan and NASCAR’s reigning top rookie Kyle Larson won the prestigious Rolex 24 at Daytona on Sunday to give the team owner his record-setting sixth victory in 12 attempts.

Ganassi made it clear he doesn’t endorse the “star car” nickname, and he and team manager could pick their eight drivers names out of a hat to set the vaunted two-car lineup.

“I don’t know who named it, but I don’t approve of that name,” he said. “That’s like any other car on our team.”

It didn’t look like any other, team, though as Dixon drove a gritty and lengthy final leg Sunday as his three teammates confidently believed he’d pull out the win.

Dixon relieved Larson with 3 hours, 32 minutes remaining in the twice-round-the-clock endurance race, and set out to conserve fuel, make no mistakes and follow the Ganassi strategy down to the checkered flag.

The Iceman delivered, and made it look easy, too.

He totaled more than seven hours behind the wheel of the Target/Ford EcoBoost Riley Prototype and carried the heaviest load on the team.

“We had such a good group of guys driving, an awesome team,” McMurray said. “It’s about Scott Dixon to me. It’s really hard to appreciate the talent that guys have from other series until you race with them, and it’s crazy the pace that Scott is able to have in the car. It’s so much fun to sit up there and watch it.”

It was the second win for Dixon, who was part of the 2006 victory with Casey Mears and Dan Wheldon.

After picking up his second watch, the New Zealander downplayed his role.

“The car was very consistent, and I think we had good speed, but everybody pulled their weight,” he said. “Everybody did what they needed to do, and that’s what gets you through this 24 hours.”

It was the first Rolex win for McMurray, Kanaan and Larson, who felt he was so underwhelming in his debut last season that he let his team down and never wanted to return to the race. Instead, he drove his own impressive three-plus hour stint in the middle of the night, then put together a brief but error-free run Sunday morning to get the team into the time window to turn the car over to Dixon.