Rolex 24, Hour 23: A Penske Porsche duel to the finish

Porsche Penske Motorsport leads the 63rd Rolex 24 At Daytona with one hour to go. Which factory Porsche 963, if either, will win it?

Taking fuel only on their last pit stops, the No. 6 Porsche of Matt Campbell now leads the No.24 BMW M Team RLL car of Dries Vanthoor. The No. 7 Porsche of Felipe Nasr is third after taking tires and fuel on his last stop.

One lap after the green flag flew at the top of the last hour, the younger Vanthoor got a great run through Speedway Turns 3 and 4, tucked into the slipstream of Nasr, and edged ahead at the start-finish line. But he had to catch his BMW M Hybrid V8 after a massive wobble in Turn 2. It allowed Nasr to draw back level, grab the inside line at the Kink, and then retake the lead in the No. 7 Porsche!

Kevin Estre then made the move to put the No. 6 Penske Porsche up into second with a brave move out of Turn 6 onto the banking — or so it seemed. Estre had to redress after cutting too much of the inside of the Le Mans Chicane, but after letting Vanthoor ahead, he quickly drove the No. 6 Porsche back ahead to restore a Porsche 1-2.

The leaders have one more round of pit stops to go in this final hour, whether or not we get another full course yellow.

And all that’s just in GTP — LMP2 has had another major, major swing in the battle for the lead.

A sudden mechanical problem has cropped up for Spike the LMP2 Dragon — with a flurry of AO Racing mechanics taking the engine cover off of the No. 99 ORECA 07 to address a suspected electrical problem — just as Christian Rasmussen was gearing up to take AO Racing to the checkered flag!

Spike’s heartache means that the No. 8 Tower Motorsports ORECA, which escaped a perilous fate in a multi-car pile-up last night, is now leading LMP2 — but not by much: Sebastien Bourdais has Paul di Resta in the No. 22 United Autosports car breathing down his neck after pitting with 73 minutes to go. And Mathias Beche isn’t far back in third for PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports.

GTD PRO has had the top seven cars in class as close as seven seconds apart. But right now it’s the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW that leads with Kelvin van der Linde aboard, just ahead of the No. 77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R of Laurin Heinrich in second, the No. 4 Pratt Miller Corvette of Nico Varrone in third, and the No. 65 Multimatic Mustang of Chris Mies in fourth, with less than two seconds covering them.

Danny Formal made one of the moves of the race, taking advantage of a stack-up of GTD rivals to sweep from sixth to second on the restart lap and put the No. 45 Wayne Taylor Racing Lamborghini in position to challenge for the win.

Ayhancan Guven’s optimism has driven the No. 120 Wright Motorsports Porsche to the lead in GTD, and Lucas Auer has moved back up to second in the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG ahead of Formal.

HOUR 23 STANDINGS