Grand American Rolex

A late caution set up a one-lap dash to the finish under the lights on the road course at Daytona International Speedway, with Pruett in the No. 01 TELMEX/Chip Ganassi Racing Lexus Riley restarting on the tail of defending Series champion Alex Gurney in the Bob Stallings Racing Pontiac.

Pruett tailed Gurney, the son of racing legend and former Toyota sports car team owner Dan Gurney, all the way through the infield section of the 14-turn, 3.56-mile course. Once the two reached NASCAR turns three and four, Pruett's Lexus power had enough to pull him into the draft and nip Gurney at the checkers by taking the outside line on the famed Daytona banking.

"Every restart, that's the only move that I had," Pruett said. "The 99 car was certainly quicker through the infield, and my rear tires after about two or three laps just wouldn't hold on. I did what I could to carry a lot of speed through the bus stop (chicane on the back stretch) and out, which we were able to do, and knew there was a good chance we could get him before the start/finish."

There was no doubt in Pruett's mind that he was going to make a run at Gurney on the high side of the track.

"You're always going to tend to protect your position down low, and he did that," Pruett said of his final effort. "If he would have went high, there would have been a big crash because I had a lot of speed on him. Its one of those deals where you plan to go naturally where the other guy isn't."

Pruett first took the lead from Gurney on Lap 50, when his Lexus power set up a pass of Gurney just after the start/finish line that would foreshadow the final lap. Pruett led through Lap 57, when Gurney was able to get back by after the tires started to fade under Pruett's No. 01.

From there, Pruett trailed Gurney until the restart on the white flag lap.

The last lap showdown was set up in a scary incident in which a GT-class car slid up the banking and into the path of the No. 3 Southard Motorsports Lexus of Bill Lester, flipping the GT car upside down. Neither driver was injured in the incident.

The Ganassi Racing win was set up with brilliant strategy after Rojas qualified fourth earlier in the day, and made the first stop among the race's leaders just after the 30-minute mark in the race.

"My part of the race was very boring compared to the end, it really was just staying out of trouble," Rojas said. "Very early, teams took different strategies, so we were all on different sequences, so I was basically riding by myself. We knew it was going to be decided at the end, and I just focused on setting a good pace and keeping out of trouble."

The win was Pruett's third in four races at Daytona, including back-to-back Rolex 24 wins, and stretched his record to 19 career Daytona Prototype wins.

"This is pretty big for us as a team, because we've never won this race at Daytona," Pruett said of the July race. "We've been close, and we just never quite seemed close enough to get it done. Memo did a great job, the crew did a great job, Lexus gave us a great engine package, and we got the most out of it."

The Southard Motorsports team once again ran a solid race, with Shane Lewis qualifying 12th and leading a lap early before being brought in for their first stop of the night. Lewis turned the car over to Lester, who brought the Lexus machine home in 12th.

"The highlight for me was to be able to lead a lap here," Lewis said. "I was pretty bummed because the crew wanted me to pit. I was like, man, let me lead five or six laps out here because I can not only lead it, but lead them strong for a while. But I understood what their pit strategy was and I do what they ask me to do. The team needed to lap, I needed to lead a lap, to show that we have the capacity to run up front and we did."

The victory stretched Pruett and Rojas' championship point lead to 40 with six races to go in the Grand-Am season.