Grand American Rolex

We tried to focus on the race set-up for our #01 TELMEX/Lexus most of the weekend in an attempt try to figure out the excessive tire wear everyone was seeing and we qualified only seventh. At that point, we basically just went back to the drawing board and pulled out everything from last year and just went with that – and it worked pretty well.

Memo (Rojas) started seventh and moved up pretty solidly from there on. He was up into the top-five and would have been in great shape if we could have had the first yellow come out about two or three laps later. Unfortunately, we had to reach the 30-minute mark, so we stayed out under yellow for a couple of extra laps and by the time we did our driver change, we had fallen back to 15th-place.

At that point, we just decided to attack and really go for it. We ended up making an extra pit stop for tires, but we were still in a position to win late in the race after I’d passed the #10 car for the lead, but there just wasn’t much left in the tires by that point and the #59 Porsche slipped by us with about 15 laps to go. After that, two long yellows ate up a good chunk of the remaining race, but truthfully, we were just holding on by that time and didn’t have anything left for them.

I can honestly say we gave it everything we had on Saturday. It was brutal on the drivers, on the teams and on the equipment, but our entire Ganassi team did a great job and needless to say, our Lexus engine was flawless. Amazing to think that over six years of racing with Lexus, I think we’ve had only one engine problem and that came in practice a few years back.

Our second-place finish moved us up to second in the championship, but we still fell six points shy of winning our third title and second in a row. Second is better than third, but it sure isn’t first and, needless to say, it was more than a little disappointing.

But it’s not any one race that determines a championship. We didn’t lose the title in Homestead, we probably lost it in the rain – in August at Montreal or in May at New Jersey where we struggled in the wet and finished 10th at both places. When you consider that we finished on the podium in eight of the other 10 races, those two 10th-place finishes in the wet really stick out. But that’s what makes Grand-Am racing what it is. You have to come and battle every week. You can’t be good at certain tracks and in certain conditions, you have to be good everywhere.

Well, one nice thing is we don’t have long to think about it. It’s hitting mid-October, yet, the new season is right around the corner. We’ll go back to the shop and re-group and our first test at Daytona is less than two months away, and then the ’24 Hours’ will be upon us pretty quickly.

Many of you might have noticed that I always like to acknowledge my family and friends back at home with a hello when I’m interviewed at the end of each race. Well, since this is my last blog of the year and it’s basically the end of our season-long race, I’d like to throw out one last acknowledgement, but in this one, I just want to say thanks to all the fans for not only coming here to keep up with us, but also for coming out to the track and following us all season on SPEED. We truly appreciate your support. It’s meant an awful lot to me over the years – from IMSA to CART to NASCAR and here in Grand-Am, so thank you all very much.

See ya next year!