NASCAR's Jamie McMurray, Kyle Larson help Ganassi win Daytona 24-hour race

Ray Slover

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NASCAR's Jamie McMurray, Kyle Larson help Ganassi win Daytona 24-hour race image

Sprint Cup drivers Kyle Larson and Jamie McMurray helped bring Chip Ganassi Racing to victory lane in Sunday's Rolex 24 at Daytona.

They teamed with IndyCar drivers Scott Dixon and Tony Kanaan in the No. 02 Chip Ganassi Racing Target/Ford EcoBoost Riley "star car."

Dixon was at the wheel for the final three-plus hours, bringing it home 1.33 seconds ahead of defending race winner Action Express Racing.

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In the process, McMurray joined Mario Andretti and A.J. Foyt as the only drivers to win the Daytona 500 and Daytona's 24-hour race.

The win gave team owners Ganassi and Felix Sabates their sixth win in 12 Rolex attempts — most in the 53-year history of the race.

"It takes a team of people," Ganassi said. "It takes a team of drivers, a team of great drivers to be paired with McMurray and Larson and Kanaan, to pair those guys with Dixon, that was a great grouping."

The endurance race was not without its moments. Andy Lally and his Magnus Racing crew found a dead opossum in their Porsche 911's trunk with their race ended because of an oil leak.

Lally, the 2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup rookie of the year, apparently hit the critter about 5 a.m. Sunday.

“It came through the front end of my car, through the tub, ripped through the rivets and ended up in the trunk,” Lally said.

“Crew is fixing the car,” Lally commented on Twitter. “They’ve posthumously named the opossum ‘Ballast’. Sad but I think we should put him back in to take the checker.”

As fits the social media world. Ballast the possum soon had its own Twitter account — @BallastPossum.

Here's the gruesome discovery.

It appeared the No. 54 CORE Autosport entry was headed for victory before it caught fire with 20 minutes remaining. Driver Colin Braun escaped without injury.

McMurray was behind the wheel for three stints and found the ride uncomfortable in comparison to his Sprint Cup car.

"The seat doesn't really fit anybody, so it's way more uncomfortable than what you're used to," he told Fox Sports. "It's a lot of fun, though. It's so much fun for me."

Still, victory was sweet.

"It's really special," McMurray said in Victory Lane. "We had such a great group of guys driving, such an awesome team."

Larson, the 2014 Sprint Cup rookie of the year, showed marked improvement over his first run in the Daytona 24-hour race. He kept the Ford in contention by piloting the fastest car in the field during his run.

"It's crazy how much a year can do," Larson said. "I hated this race after last year. I was terrible. This year, coming back, I felt comfortable right off the bat and had a lot fun.

"I'm just a dirt oval guy, and to come here and race a sports car here at Daytona, on the road course, it's pretty awesome."

McMurray, Larson and teammates held off a second Ganassi car and entries from Wayne Taylor Racing's Dallara-Chevrolet and Action Express.

Joao Barbosa, Christian Fittipaldi and Sebastien Bourdais drove Coyote-Chevrolet Corvette DP for Action Express.

AJ Allmendinger was among drivers in the Michael Shank Racing Ligier-Honda JSP2 that won pole position for the race.

Ray Slover