IMSA Explains Why The Rolex 24 At Daytona Didn’t Go The Full 24 Hours

The Rolex 24 at Daytona had an exciting finish, but it left everyone a little confused.

The Porsche Penske Motorsports Porsche 963 No. 7 GTP car driven by Filipe Nasr was just head of Tom Blomqvist’s Whelen Engineering Cadillac Racing Cadillac V-Series.R on lap 791 with 23:58:24.732 on the clock when the checkered flag flew.

The race typically ends on the first lap completed after 24 hours has been completed.

The series has now issued a statement explaining that it was a simple error. Although the teams and broadcast crew didn’t seem to notice, IMSA said the white flag had been incorrectly displayed at the start of lap 719, even though there was more than enough time for two more laps.

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The next time around the checkered flag was waved with 1 minute 33.277 seconds left on the clock. Despite the error, Article 49 of the IMSA Sporting Regulations and Standard Supplementary Regulations states:

“Should the checkered flag be inadvertently or otherwise displayed before the leading car completes the scheduled number of laps or before the prescribed time has been completed, the race is nevertheless deemed ended when the flag is displayed.”

No teams have protested the results, which stand with the No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsports car declared the winner. The Cadillac was within a second of the Porsche in the closing moments, but hit traffic at the start of 791 and was scored 2.112 seconds adrift at the finish. It would not likely have been able to make up the difference even if one more lap had been run, assuming the Porsche didn’t run into any trouble.

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The victory was Porsche’s first overall win since 2003, Penske’s first since 1969, and the first for all four of its drivers, including Josef Newgarden, who won the Indy 500 with Team Penske last year.

“You gotta keep on the throttle until you know it’s over, right,” Nasr told Motorsport.com on Sunday prior to the situation being cleared up.

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