Grand American Rolex

In addition to the two Ganassi team cars, Southard Motorsports’ Shane Lewis will start the #3 Southard Motorsports Lexus 18th in the 67-car field on Saturday.

While the Ganassi drivers hoped to be higher in the field, neither driver was too concerned about their starting position for the 24-hour event.

"The car was pretty good, we just didn’t have quite enough speed," relayed Pruett. "We gave up a little by not using the new body work and the Ford may have been a little bit quicker. Qualifying really doesn’t mean much in regard to the race, though. You just have to keep your nose clean and run strong."

Dixon’s thoughts were similar.

"Qualifying wasn’t too bad, truthfully we hoped to do a little bit better," said Dixon. "There were a few cars out there that were definitely quicker and I’m not sure we had that in the car. I think I could have been up with the (#)01, who was about four-tenths faster. We had a pretty good lap going when the (#)12 car came up on us and crossed right in front of me, so I lost that lap. I should have been up higher, it just never really came together. I don’t think it really matters in regard to the race. Tenth isn’t where we really want to be, but as long as we stay out of the traffic it shouldn’t be too bad."

Pruett, who will co-drive with Juan Montoya, Dario Franchitti and Memo Rojas, actually qualified six spots higher than he did in winning the event a year ago.

SPEED and FOX Sports will combine to offer a record 17 hours of television coverage from the 46th Rolex 24 at Daytona Jan. 26-27, beginning with 90 minutes of coverage on the national FOX network beginning at 1 p.m. ET on Saturday, Jan. 26.

#01 - Pruett/Montoya/Franchitti/Rojas - 6th
#02 - Dixon/Wheldon/Duran/Lloyd - 10th
#3 - Lewis/Lester/Barron/Christoper - 18th

Lexus Rolex 24 Notes

- Five of the 12 drivers scheduled to run Lexus-power this weekend are previous Rolex 24 winners – Scott Pruett, Juan Montoya, Salvador Duran, Scott Dixon and Dan Wheldon – all with Lexus power.

- Scott Pruett is the all-time leader in Rolex 24 wins with seven, two of those being overall wins. He has won the Rolex 24 in Daytona Prototypes, IMSA GTP, IMSA GTS and IMSA GTO competition.

- Seven of the 12 Lexus-powered drivers have earned at least one major open-wheel victory with Pruett, Montoya, Franchitti and Dixon winning in CART; Montoya, Dario Franchitti, Dixon, Wheldon and Alex Barron have won in IRL; while Salvador Duran has won in both A1 GP and Nissan World Series competition in Europe.

- Three Lexus drivers have won the Indianapolis 500 - Montoya, Wheldon and Franchitti; while Montoya also has a victory in Formula One competition.

- Five Lexus-powered drivers have each made at least one NASCAR start in Montoya, Pruett, Franchitti, Bill Lester and Ted Christopher. Montoya is the only one of the group to have won in NASCAR, in both SPRINT Cup, as well as Nationwide Series competition.