Wayne Taylor obliterates Rolex 24 field without his sons

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Wayne Taylor raised two sons to become world-class sports car drivers. In the biggest event in North America, the recent empty nester proved he’s still the man in charge.

Wayne Taylor Racing won the prestigious Rolex 24 at Daytona on Sunday for the second consecutive year, the third time in four seasons and fourth time overall, and moved within two Rolex victories of Chip Ganassi’s record six wins.

It was the first victory for the team owner without a Taylor behind the wheel and he grabbed his head in celebration, slammed the pit stand, then hugged his all-star driver lineup.

This Wayne Taylor Racing team came without either of the Taylor sons. Jordan, the youngest, left the team this year to become a factory driver for Corvette Racing while Ricky is in his third season driving an Acura for Team Penske.

Taylor had accomplished his dream by placing both of his boys in high-profile, properly funded rides. But that life goal forced him to rebuild his sports car program without either son.

For the first outing, he assembled a lineup full of Rolex winners. Taylor called in five-time IndyCar champion Scott Dixon and Kamui Kobayashi, one of the top sports car racers in the world. They joined Ryan Briscoe and Renger van der Zande, the full-time drivers of the No. 10 Cadillac DPi.

The credentials in the Cadillac gave Taylor a “star car” of sorts, but his team was overshadowed in the buildup by other teams, the Rolex debut of reigning NASCAR champion Kyle Busch, and the bittersweet final breakup of the family-oriented team.

Underestimating Wayne Taylor Racing was a massive mistake.

His team was so good in the twice-round-the-clock race that it shrugged off every tiny miscue — even when Briscoe blew through a red light on pit lane to earn a penalty that dropped him from the lead to a lap down — in a total beat down of the prototype class.

Kobayashi, once a Formula 1 driver and member of Taylor’s winning team last year, was spectacular and the Japanese driver closed the final three hours to beat No. 77 Mazda Team Joest by more than a minute. The Cadillac was the only car on the lead lap for long stretches of the race.

The race had a record 833 laps, breaking the mark of 808 set two seasons ago. Taylor now has two wins as a driver — one when he drove for Wayne Taylor Racing — and four as a team owner.

DrogSpeed USA won the Le Mans Prototype 2 class. BMW Team RLL won the GT Le Mans class for the second consecutive year. Paul Miller Racing won the GT Daytona class, the slowest but stacked divsion that had 18 entries including the Aim Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT# with Busch.

Busch was really good in his first endurance race, but the team had its share of struggles with attrition and was never a contender.

Still, Busch said he’d be interested in a return to sports car racing, especially if Toyota or Lexus moves up to the prototype class, because he’d like a shot at racing for the overall win.

“Hopefully there is some things that Toyota’s got up their sleeve as to what kind of class they want to participate in and what kind of cars they want to run over here in the next few years,” Busch said. “I would certainly be, you know, all hands on deck to put my hands up to get ready to go for a DP overall win.”

New regulations reached for 2022 earlier this weekend would make IMSA’s prototype class eligible for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, another race Busch could potentially elbow into in the future.

Toyota Racing Development President David Wilson said the manufacturer has no present plans to move up in class with Lexus or enter prototypes with Toyota.

“We are very happy racing in the GTD Series and we intend to continue as we still have races and championships to win,” Wilson said. “We would not rule it out in the future, but at the present time we have no plans to participate.”