"Four Way Tie for Grand-Am Rolex Series Daytona Prototype Lead"

On top the racewinners of the Sahlen's Six Hours of the Glen: Left, Scott Pruett (who notched his 20th career Daytona Prototype (DP) victory) and Memo Rojas. Below, Brian Frisselle and Max Angelelli, who finished second.

The Chip Ganassi Racing team of Pruett and Rojas led the most laps on the way to breaking a nine race losing streak. Pruett was being caught by Angelelli at the end; with "Max the Axe" beginning to chop into a sizeable lead for the defending DP champions. A yellow with less than two minutes to go raised an issue with Pruett's fuel. Pruett set the fastest lap time ten laps from the end and was on the gas till the yellow flew--he had to be, or else Angelelli would have caught him.

Roger Penske's drivers--Romain Dumas and Timo Bernhard--led some early laps...but fell back and finished third in their final tuneup before they go to LeMans to drive for the Audi team next weekend.

Next action for the Daytona Prototype cars is at the Mid Ohio Sports Car Course in two weeks. Pruett, Rojas, Frisselle and Angelelli are in a four way flatfooted tie with 140 points. Alex Gurney and Jon Fogarty--leaders when the day started, fell back to third in points--just six behind.

We get a short night and will catch up to you from the tricky trioval--Pocono Raceway--on Sunday.

"A Riley-Saturn?"

Roger Penske with his Grand-Am Rolex Series crew. This is actually a Porsche-Riley, driven by Romain Dumas and Timo Bernhard in Verizon Wireless livery. They will chase the polesitting car driven by Memo Rojas and Scott Pruett--the defending series champions--when the Sahlen's Six Hours of the Glen gets the green flag around 2:15 pm here on the hilltop overlooking Seneca Lake in Schuyler County, NY. The sponsor--Sahlen's makes some great provisions--I can recommend their hot dogs without reservation.

The Captain seems a bit relaxed this weekend. Roger, for those with short memories, was a sports car driver of great repute, even winning a driver of the year award from Sports Illustrated. He parlayed that, and some degree of success at Indianapolis, into a racing empire that was the genesis for the Penske Automotive Group--soon to be the new owners of the Saturn brand.

We'll be here for a while, and will Tweet updates at MSRnet, with a snapshot of the overall winners later this evening.

"Helio's Back"

We join you from the 35th edition of the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, where a real-life feel good story just took place. Helio Castroneves retook his place behind the wheel of the #3 Dallara Honda owned by the legendary "Captain", Roger Penske--scan hours after a Miami jury acquitted him on six counts of federal tax evasion in US Federal Court. Penske made it clear--he stood behind Helio and assured him that he (Castroneves) would get the seat back if acquitted. That put Will Power into a third car in Verizon livery this weekend, and for the Indianapolis 500. The Captain was certainly loyal to Castroneves and kept his word. I am not so sure other owners would have had that much patience and loyalty if faced with such a dilemma.

Helio makes no secret about the practice of his Catholic faith. He says that faith, and weekends in shifter go-karts, helped him through the dark days of that 7 week trial.

The last time Castroneves raced here in 2001, he led 82 laps on the way to Victory Lane. The fastest driver this morning was Dario Franchitti. Power, who won this race in 2008 (the last of the Champ Car series in reunification) was third in the Verizon car...point leader Ryan Briscoe (third member of the Penske triumverate) clocked in 16th.

David Brabham put the Patron Acura LeMans Prototype 1 car on the pole for this afternoon's race in the American LeMans Series sprint race which will take the green after qualifying.

In the signature Toyota Pro Celebrity Race, a familiar name took the checkers in the Pro category--the now retired Al Unser, Jr. with seven checkers--five in the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, and now two in the Celebrity race (first one was in 1985--25 years ago) Keanu Reeves won the celebrity portion--Jamie Little was mired in mid pack--the ESPN pit reporter and last year's celebrity winner was never a factor.

More after qualifying for the Indy Cars and definitely more after the American LeMans race.

"History and Sour Grapes"

From Left to Right, the overall winners of the Rolex 24 at Daytona International Speedway:

Darren Law, 2004 Indianapolis 500 winner Buddy Rice, David Donohue and Antonio Garcia.

• Rice joins a club of Daytona 24 Hour Sportscar winners and Indianapolis 500 winners. Donohue beat another member of that club, Juan Pablo Montoya, by .167 seconds (50 feet) to win the Rolex 24...40 years after his father Mark won here.

• The sour grapes come from the comments about the apparent power of the racing Porsche from the runners up (Montoya, Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas, the latter two defending Grand-AM Rolex Series Daytona Prototype Champions).

• Donohue credited the testing done by Darren Law for a lot of the win...along with exceptional pit and preparation work by the Brumos Porsche crew. The second Brumos Porsche car finished third, with Joao Barbosa, JC France, Terry Borcheller and Hurley Haywood behind the wheel. How much did Donohue appreciate that work? He made a respectful reference to his father's accomplishment, but said he connected a lot more with the Brumos crew and their hard work. And with Roger Penske's 6th place with his new Porsche Riley team...well, the next race at Virginia International Raceway in April (yes that's right) will be interesting.

• As for the crowd: I sensed that it was not as large as last year; by what percentage, I could not tell. Given the circumstances, it was a good crowd--a baseline from which to improve for 2010. I found it easier to move around the infield, and the number of cars parked in the infield looked smaller. That will likely not be the case in three weeks (February 15--Daytona 500).

We'll join you from Sebring on Tuesday, with a look at the new Acura LeMans Prototype 1 chassis, and perhaps comments from the American LeMans Series about NASCAR Chairman Brian France's comments on the green programs of other racing series, made last Thursday at the NASCAR R&D Center in Concord, NC.