Pipo Derani drove the Action Express Racing No. 31 car to the finish line in Sunday’s Motul 100 Pole Award race, which is a large accomplishment in its own right.
But that fails to mention that 2020 NASCAR Cup Series champion Chase Elliott will be listed on the pole as well.
Mike Conway and Felipe Nasr will join them.
The team was the class of the field for most of the day, however they don’t think that it was as much of a surprise to see the speed. Nasr and Derani argue that other teams didn’t roll the dice on Sunday.
“We’re just a little upset that we know that some other guys aren’t showing everything they have, but a race win is a race win and we’ll take it any way we can,” Derani said on the NBC TrackPass broadcast.
The team feels that if they drove at 100% all week, other teams should have followed suit.
Kevin Magnussen took the Chip Ganassi car to the top spot in the race early on, but the team dropped back and avoided any accidents like a vintage superspeedway race in NASCAR.
“I’m looking forward to next week,” Nasr said on the broadcast. “We’ve shown what we’ve brought. We’ve been driving all week flat out all week. It’s just annoying that other manufacturers aren’t showing their hands yet. I hope they see that, because we’re doing our thing and we hope the series understands that.”
Regardless, the team will be kicking things off from the top spot of the grid, a small detail in the grand scheme of the race but a momentous accomplishment.
Ben Keating and Moritz Kranz drove their respective prototype cars to poles in the LMP2 and LMP3 classes.
On the GT side of things, Corvette Racing didn’t dissapoint.
The No. 3 and No. 4 Chevrolets will lead their pack to green on Saturday looking for yet another dominant performance with the likes of Jordan Taylor and Nick Tandy wheeling the yellow and grey bullets.
With GT Daytona, the Turner Motorsport No. 96 car – the team Colton Herta will race for – was the class of the 19-car field, maybe the most telling result of the day.
Since the group is so large in numbers, it’s likely that they had to earn that win more so than other teams had to compete.
The 2021 Rolex 24 will kick off on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. CT on NBC.
Rolex 24 Starting Lineups
DPi – Top Prototype Class
1. Action Express Racing No. 31
Pipo Derani
Felipe Nasr
Mike Conway
Chase Elliott
2. Mazda Motorsports No. 55
Jonathan Bomarito
Harry Tincknell
Oliver Jarvis
3. JDC-Miller Motorsports No. 5
Sebastien Bourdais
Loic Duval
Tristan Vautier
4. Meyer Shank Racing W/Curb-Agajanian No. 60
Dane Cameron
Olivier Pla
Juan Pablo Montoya
AJ Allmendinger
5. Wayne Taylor Racing No. 10
Ricky Taylor
Filipe Albuquerque
Alexander Rossi
Helio Castroneves
6. Action Express Racing No. 48
Jimmie Johnson
Kamui Kobayashi
Simon Pagenaud
Germany Mike Rockenfeller
7. Cadillac Chip Ganassi Racing No. 01
Kevin Magnussen
Renger van der Zande
Scott Dixon
LMP2
1. PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports No. 52
2. High Class Racing No. 20
3. Tower Motorsport by Starworks No. 8
4. Racing Team Nederland No. 29
5. DragonSpeed No. 81
6. Cetilar Racing No. 47
7. Era Motorsport No. 18
8. RWR-Eurasia No. 51
9. Dragon Speed No. 82
10. WIN Autosport No. 11
LMP3
1. Muehlner Motorsports No. 6
2. Forty7 Motorsports No. 7
3. CORE Autosport No. 54
4. Sean Creech No. 33
5. Performance Tech Motorsports No. 38
6. Riley Motorsport No. 91
7. Riley Motorsport No. 74
GT Le Mans
1. Corvette Racing No. 4
2. Corvette Racing No. 3
3. WeatherTech Racing Proton Competition No. 79
4. Risi Competizione No. 62
5. BMW Team RLL No. 25
6. BMW Team RLL No. 24
GT Daytona
1. Turner Motorsport No. 96
2. Pfaff Motorsports No. 9
3. GRT Grasser Racing No. 111
4. Vasser Sullivan No. 14
5. HTP Winward Motorsport No. 57
6. GRT Grasser Racing No. 19
7. Heart of Racing Team No. 23
8. Scuderia Corsa No. 63
9. Wright Motorsports No. 16
10. Vasser Sullivan No. 12
11. SunEnergy1 Racing No. 75
12. Magnus with Archangel No. 44
13. TF Sport No. 97
14. Team Hardpoint EBM No. 88
15. Alegra Motorsports No. 28
16. AF Corse No. 21
17. NTE Sport No. 42
18. Paul Miller Motorsports No. 1
19. Team TGM No. 64
