The race featured an exciting battle for victory between Felipe Nasr's No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 and Tom Blomqvist's No. 31 Cadillac V-Series.R for Action Express Racing.
Confusion reigned when the white flag signaling the final lap was erroneously displayed with three minutes of the 24 hours remaining.
In fact, it was first shown to the GTD class leader, who crossed the finish line and took the checkered flag at 24:00:03.261 seconds, which is the race time that the overall winner should have recorded.
But with the GTP leader having already crossed the posted finish line, even though the NBC TV ticker indicated there were still two laps to go, Nasr was greeted with the checker with 1:35.277 of the remaining 24 hours.
This flag always ends the race, regardless of whether it was displayed incorrectly. Nasr's lead over Blomqvist was 2.112 seconds.
The IMSA statement said: “Due to an official error in race management, IMSA accidentally announced and subsequently showed the white flag when the race was less than three minutes into the race.
“At the end of the lap, the leading #7 GTP car took the checkered flag with one minute and 35.277 seconds remaining, effectively completing the race one lap ahead of the scheduled 24 hours.
“Pursuant to Article 49 of the 2024 IMSA Sporting Regulations and Standard Supplemental Regulations, if the checkered flag is displayed accidentally or otherwise before the leading car has completed the scheduled number of laps or the prescribed time, the race will still be deemed to have ended when the flag is displayed .”
Photo by: Michael L. Levitt / Motorsport Images
#7 Team Penske Motorsport Porsche 963: Dane Cameron, Felipe Nasr, Matt Campbell, Josef Newgarden
Nasr, who triumphed alongside teammates Dane Cameron, Matt Campbell and Josef Newgarden, revealed that his strategist Tim Cindric had told him to keep pushing until they were sure the race was over.
After the race he said: “You have to keep pushing until you know it's over, right?” said Nasr.
“Tim Cindric said that on the radio. I was confused too.”
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