If every year in movies begins at Sundance, every year in motorsports begins at the 24 Hours of Daytona. Or the 23 hours and 58 minutes at Daytona that ended this year. He had less than two minutes left and, due to a close call or a clerical error in race control, his GTP leader took the checkered flag before he knew he was on his last lap. No one was celebrating and no one knew it was over. The shortest 24-hour race in racing history ended in a top-class race of nearly 60 cars, with Brazilian Felipe Nasr ahead of British-Swedish driver Tom Blomqvist. But it was actually a battle between two Americans: Roger Penske and Jim France.
It opened as an open-to-all race in the premier class of prototype sports cars, but it plunged into a river of headlights for the longest stint in a night race in 2024, and most of the obvious challengers in front dropped out of any decent competition. did. The #01 Cadillac entered P2 in the hands of 2014 Daytona winner and four-time CART champion Sebastien Bourdais (and 2019-20 Daytona consecutive champion Renger van der Zande). It features an all-star driver rotation, with then-IndyCar champion Scott Dixon (6th place) and current IndyCar champion Alex Parow (6th place) retiring due to mechanical trouble just past the midway point of the race, leaving the No. 40 Acura behind. Although he was fast enough to get on the podium, he was far away from the leaders. For the final few hours, we drove to the customer’s No. 7 Porsche Penske, a 963 with a 4.6L twin-turbo V8 engine, and the No. 31 Action Express Cadillac V-Series.R, which had a beefy naturally aspirated 5.5LV8 engine. It attracted a lot of attention. It was a proxy war between two auto racing greats, pitted against each other with cunning European engineering and raw American power.
America’s automobiles are in a long twilight, starting with the decline of Detroit and ending with electric motors attempting to drive themselves. The stifling industries that were tearing apart every city in the country for a bunch of suburban fascists (America’s great highway system is just a side effect) are dying, rather than being replaced by something better. , replaced by a bunch of idiots with iPads. Americans no longer care about anything and now realize that the old industrialists, the beasts they created, don’t get as much respect as they thought they did, and since 2016 have turned to the Republican Party. These are old-school conservatives who have reduced their huge donations. Of course, they’re still fighting for the last bit of dwindling viewership from the infield seats of Florida’s tri-oval.
In 2019, transportation magnate Roger Penske, whose son and heir have spent his fortune buying up every trade publication in Hollywood, is home to the Indy 500, America’s crown jewel in motorsports’ triple crown. He bought the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and with it, all of IndyCar. , North America’s first open-wheel racing series. He’s been a racer all his life, and just last year, Team Penske achieved its first 500 wins since acquiring the speedway, with Josef Newgarden in a thrilling (a bit stage-y) final lap after the race restart. He overtook current winner Marcus Ericsson. . Newgarden replaced Penske in the lead at Daytona on Sunday, and he and all three co-pilots in the No. 7 Porsche (Felipe Nasr, Dane Cameron and Matt Campbell) took their first overall victory at the Daytona 24. I accomplished it. They lined up in a car owned by Jim France, son and scion of NASCAR founder “Big Bill” France Sr., and piloted by Blomqvist, Jack Aitken and Pipo Derani # 31 Action Express. Dating back to the 1960s, Big Bill was a founding member of the International Motorsports Association, the long-established sanctioning body for sports car racing, and in 2012, under CEO Jim France, NASCAR All were acquired by NASCAR, and in 2014 the Daytona 24 opened the newly combined Grande and Rolex. Racing series as IMSA Sports Car Championship. Penske and France own everything.
It’s been 55 years since Penske won the overall victory at the Daytona 24, a feat not unlike the 58-year hiatus since Ferrari topped Le Mans, which ended last year. What cannot be compared is the durability of the brand. Enzo is dead, but Ferrari lives on. NASCAR fans are aging, and European auto racing is reaching new audiences through great innovation and a Netflix series. On the other hand, America’s automobile population is aging and is falling into a rut. It didn’t matter at all whether Penske or France finished first Sunday. Now that they both have everything they want, they are left to drive in circles as the world they destroyed crumbles around them.