Ganassi gets 3rd straight 24-hour win

Chip Ganassi's guys are making this look easy.

The quartet of Juan Pablo Montoya, Dario Franchitti, Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas encountered no serious problems, giving Ganassi an unprecedented third straight victory in America's premier sports car race — the Rolex 24-Hour at Daytona International Speedway.

Other than a minor handling problem for Pruett at the start of the race Saturday afternoon, the team's No. 01 Lexus Riley Daytona Prototype was nearly perfect, racing at or near the lead in an event that was the most competitive in the 46-year history until the waning hours.

At dawn Sunday, with about six hours to go, there were five other prototypes on the lead lap. But, as often happens in endurance events, attrition suddenly took its toll.

The Ganassi car had been swapping leads with the Ford Riley shared by NASCAR's A.J. Allmendinger, Ian James, Burt Frisselle and John Pew. That car, driven by Frisselle, was just seconds behind the leader when a tire blew, damaging the suspension midway through the 21st hour and knocking it out of contention.

Montoya, who had taken the wheel of the Ganassi car near the end of the 18th hour, had a comfortable five-lap lead on the 3.56-mile road circuit and his team was able to cruise the rest of the way. The race began with scattered rain showers and a treacherous track and ended on a warm, sunny afternoon.

The winning car was one of 10 prototypes that chose to pit during the pace lap to change from rain tires to slicks as the track dried. That meant Pruett, who started in the car, fell all the way to 18th. But it didn't take long for the eventual winner to get back into contention, running among the top five from the fifth hour on.

Pruett took over from Montoya for the last two hours on the way to becoming the winningest sports car driver at Daytona with his eighth victory — three overall wins and five others in lower classes.

A beaming Ganassi hugged all of the winning drivers and gave Pruett high-fives with both hands as he shouted "Unbelievable! This is amazing."

Pruett said, "We're just going to keep doing it as long as we can."

Montoya, who left Formula One late in 2006 to join Ganassi's NASCAR team, co-drove with road racing veterans Pruett and Salvador Duran to victory in the No. 01 last year. NASCAR rookie Franchitti, who won the IndyCar Series title last year, and Rojas both won here for the first time.

"It was pretty hard until the last stint," said Montoya, last year's top NASCAR rookie. "The No. 6 was tough until they had a problem and, after that, it was more just bringing the car home."

Ganassi, who also won a record four straight championships in the CART open-wheel series in the late '90s, got his first win here in 2006 with IndyCar stars Scott Dixon and Dan Wheldon combining with NASCAR's Casey Mears for a win in his No. 02 entry.

No other team has won three years in a row, but the late Peter Gregg owned and drove the cars that won three straight races from 1973 to 1976. The 1974 race was canceled because of a national gas crisis.

The latest edition of the 24-hour grind was easily the most competitive to date.

Fifteen different cars led, breaking the record of 11, set last year. Overall, there were 60 lead changes, 16 more than the record of 44 set in 2005.

In the end, though, the winning car led a race-high 252 of 695 laps, completing 2,460 miles and beating the runner-up Pontiac Riley co-driven by two-time defending NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson, former CART champion Jimmy Vasser and 2007 Rolex Grand-Am Series prototype champions Jon Fogarty and Alex Gurney by two laps. Johnson, who has raced in this event four times, also finished second in 2005.

Four more laps back in third was the Pontiac Riley co-driven by NASCAR champion Kurt Busch, two-time Indy 500 winner Helio Castroneves and Ryan Briscoe.

For Ganassi, the only disappointment was the performance of the No. 02, shared by Dixon, Wheldon, Duran and Alex Lloyd.

"It seemed like that car caused half the caution flags out there," Ganassi said.

Duran had the fastest lap early in the race, but damaged the car when he went into the grass to avoid two of the slower GT class cars. He spun again later in the race and Lloyd was at the wheel when the badly damaged car spun a third time and retired late in the 18th hour.

Ganassi team runs into early trouble

The Porsche Crawford of three-time race winner Andy Wallace, Joey Hand, Patrick Long and Bill Auberlen grabbed the lead in the sixth hour of one of the most competitive races in the history of the Rolex 24-Hour sports car endurance race at Daytona International Speedway.

Hand was at the wheel of the Daytona Prototype when it moved to the front Saturday, the 12th lead change in a race that has never had more than 15 lead changes in the entire 24 hours.

Second, just seconds behind after the first quarter of the grueling race, was the Ford Riley of Mark Wilkens, Andrew Ranger, Colin Braun and Brian Frisselle, with the Pontiac Riley of former Formula One driver Riccardo Zonta, Nic Jonsson and Darren Turner close behind.

In fact, eight cars — all prototypes — were on the lead lap, with four more just a lap down.

Two-time defending champion Jimmie Johnson, teamed with former CART champion Jimmy Vasser and defending Rolex Grand-Am Series champions Jon Fogarty and Alex Gurney, was in fourth place after taking his first stint in the team's Pontiac Riley prototype.

"I had a great experience out there," Johnson said. "We have a great car and we're just really trying to stick to our rhythm. I tried not to put the car into any bad situations."

Chip Ganassi Racing, going for an unprecedented third straight Daytona victory, had the Lexus Riley of Scott Pruett and Juan Pablo Montoya, part of last year's winning team, and Dario Franchitti and Memo Rojas running fifth.

But teammates Salvador Duran, the Mexican driver who was also part of the winning team in 2007, former IndyCar champions Scott Dixon and Dan Wheldon and IRL rookie Alex Lloyd, were far back in the back despite Duran posting the fastest lap of the race.

After running off course and damaging the car in Thursday's night practice on the 3.56-mile road circuit, Duran did it again Saturday, 4 1/2 hours into the twice-around-the-clock event.

This time, Duran's brakes failed as his Lexus Riley Daytona Prototype came upon a pair of the slower-moving GT class cars. He went into the grass to avoid a collision and, bouncing across the uneven surface, tore the front bodyworks from the car and sent him to the garage for about 20 minutes.

Duran was back in the car when it resumed racing, 12 laps behind the leaders in 25th place. But the fast car quickly began chopping into its deficit and was 10 laps back in 17th place by the end of the sixth hour.

Kurt Busch, another NASCAR champion teamed with IndyCar star Helio Castroneves and Ryan Briscoe in a Pontiac Riley, was sixth at six hours.

Rain fell sporadically during prerace activities and the two Ganassi entries were among 10 prototype cars that changed from rain tires to racing slicks during the pace lap. All of those cars had to start the race from the pits and then work their way through heavy traffic in the early going.

It didn't take them long to get back among the leaders.

"I've been having a little problem locking up the front, so I had to do a couple of pit stops because we're being overly cautious," Pruett explained. "But our car is running well otherwise. I just need to find that fine line between carrying good speed and avoiding locking it up."

A.J. Allmendinger, another 2007 NASCAR rookie, started in his team's Ford Riley, passing Michael Shank Racing teammate and pole-winner Oswaldo Negri Jr. at the start to take the lead.

He was just one of the leaders in the early going as the 66-car field, including 41 of the slower GT class cars, remained tightly bunched and there were a series of full-course caution flags.

"With the rain and everything, overall, I think we need to find a little more grip out there," Allmendinger said. "It's very slippery. A lot of guys are going off out there."

Asked about the traffic, Allmendinger made a face and said, "It's brutal. It's so bad out there right now, it's a struggle.

"It's worse than I remember in past years. We were catching GT cars in groups of 10 out there, and I don't remember that happening before."

The race began at 1:30 p.m.

Joe Gibbs may be headed back to NASCAR

Joe Gibbs is apparently headed back to NASCAR following his resignation Tuesday as coach of the Washington Redskins.

Gibbs formed his NASCAR team in 1992 during his first retirement, but turned control of the three-car organization to son J.D. when he returned to the Redskins four years ago. He made sporadic appearances on race day, but spent most of his time in Washington with the football team.

Although he may stay on with the Redskins as an adviser, he's now free to be directly involved again in racing. Gibbs gave no clear indication what role he'll take with the race team, which has won three championships since 2000, during a news conference in Virginia.

"We've got our family business there, it's real important to all of us," Gibbs said. "We spent (16) years building it, and it's a huge part of our family. That will be a big part of my life and a big part of me."

J.D. Gibbs said he wasn't sure what his father will do next, and didn't rule out a continued involvement with the Redskins and owner Dan Snyder.

"The great part is he can still be part of the Redskins and still work with Dan, who means the world to him," J.D. Gibbs said. "Nothing would mean more to him than to being a part of the Redskins winning another Super Bowl. If he wants to, he might sign on to stay with the team in some way and I'm excited about that.

"But selfishly, this also frees him to continue to be a good leader for our business and a great partner for all our corporate partners."

J.D. Gibbs said he doesn't anticipate much changing within the structure of the race team.

"He's still the owner, he always has been the owner," J.D. Gibbs said. "And we've got great, great people who run the team and make it possible for myself and Dad to not be at the track all the time. I just don't see that much is going to change."

Lee White, senior vice president of Toyota Racing Development, said J.D. Gibbs called him Tuesday morning to inform him of the elder Gibbs' decision.

"We discussed how it was great that it was Joe's decision, and J.D. is very pleased and thrilled to think that he'll have Joe close at hand," White said. "J.D. still runs the team. But as far as renewing sponsorships and extending drivers and wining and dining new sponsors, Joe is going to be available and be a help, not a hindrance, in those things."

Joe Gibbs Racing ended its longtime affiliation with General Motors last season to join Toyota, which is entering its second season in NASCAR's elite Sprint Cup Series. The manufacturer struggled in its first season and has been counting on JGR to help shape its program.

"It can't help but put the team on a more solid foundation, leadership-wise, at a challenging time," White said. "It's a family business and the more members of the family in the business, the better."

Gibbs' announcement surprised Kyle Busch, the newest driver at JGR, who was testing his new ride Tuesday at Daytona International Speedway.

"I knew he had one more year left (on his Redskins contract), so I figured he was going to keep digging," Busch said. "I don't know what his decision process was about retiring, but I'm sure it'll be for the better of Joe Gibbs Racing."

Busch said he's had few dealings with Gibbs, other than his contract negotiations last summer and an occasional phone call. But Gibbs was involved in the courting of Busch, and before that met with Dale Earnhardt Jr. in a failed attempt to sign NASCAR's most popular driver.

He also made a surprise visit to the track in Chicago last July to mediate a feud between drivers Tony Stewart and Denny Hamlin. He summoned both of his stars into a hauler, forcing them to miss valuable practice time, as he played peacemaker in an argument that stemmed from an on-track accident.

Busch said he hopes Gibbs will be hands-on with the team now.

"I think it would be pretty cool," Busch said. "(Crew chief Steve) Addington told me early today that whenever you really need something or want something, you'd just go to Joe, and he's like, 'Fine, do whatever you need. We'll figure out a way to pay for it later.' That will pay dividends for us, just being able to go out there and get what we need when we need it.

"Having Joe playing a bigger role in the race team's always nice. J.D. does a great job with it, but it's not like having Joe Gibbs around to run this organization."

Gibbs said part of his reason for retiring from football again was to spend more time with his family, which includes a 3-year-old grandson who was diagnosed with leukemia exactly one year ago.

Taylor Gibbs, the youngest of J.D. Gibbs' four boys, completed his first phase of treatment last September. J.D. Gibbs said Taylor still undergoes chemotherapy treatments every few weeks.

"My family, as everybody knows, when I came here it was one set of circumstances," Gibbs said. "It was a tough year for (wife) Pat, which means a lot to me. J.D. and (youngest son) Coy being back down there, and all the things we went through with Taylor.

"Almost all of them said the same thing `If you want to go, then keep going, we'll go with you.' It's just that I felt after sitting with my family, that's not something I should do."

Judge dismisses NASCAR antitrust suit

A federal judge on Monday dismissed an antitrust lawsuit filed against NASCAR by a Kentucky track that was left off its premier racing circuit.

Kentucky Speedway alleged that NASCAR had conspired to leave the Sparta track and others out of the Sprint Cup — formerly known as the Nextel Cup — series despite their superior amenities.

Judge William O. Bertelsman threw out the speedway's suit against NASCAR and the International Speedway Corp. in a ruling from U.S. District Court at Covington in northern Kentucky.

NASCAR spokesman Ramsey Poston said the ruling "puts an end to any question about which locations and dates NASCAR can operate its races. Like other sports such as the NFL, MLB and the NBA, NASCAR can host its events where it decides is best for the sport and its fans."

The speedway plans to appeal, its attorney said.

"We feel that there are serious issues of both law and fact that need to be heard by the appellate court," attorney Stan Chesley said by phone.

The speedway, located about halfway between Louisville and Cincinnati, has drawn huge crowds to some of its other races. The NASCAR Busch race, now called the NASCAR Nationwide series, last year drew more than 70,000 people to the 1.5-mile tri-oval in northern Kentucky.

The speedway had asked that ISC be ordered to sell some of the tracks it owns that host Sprint Cup races and that the speedway be awarded in excess of $200 million in damages.

"We are disappointed in the court's decision, both for ourselves, for the commonwealth of Kentucky and for all those fans who have been hurt by what we believe are NASCAR's and ISC's anticompetitive actions toward Kentucky Speedway," Chesley said.

Its events also include a Craftsman Truck Series race and an IndyCar Series event.

To improve traffic flow for the huge crowds, an interstate highway was widened near the track and a new exit was added. The track, with a capacity of just over 66,000, has said it's prepared to add 20,000 to 35,000 seats if it attracted a Sprint Cup race.

Attorneys for NASCAR and ISC asked Bertelsman for a summary judgment in November, arguing the speedway had insufficient evidence to prove NASCAR and ISC worked together with other tracks to keep the Kentucky track from obtaining a race in the Sprint Cup series.

A March 4 trial date was set in the case, but Bertelsman had urged attorneys for NASCAR, ISC and the speedway to return to the bargaining table. He said an expected monthlong trial, followed by years of appeals, could be avoided if the sides continued mediation.

Poston said Monday that race fans in Kentucky and the Cincinnati area have been "great supporters" of races at Kentucky Speedway but said there are factors of geography and a tight schedule for the 36-race Sprint Cup series, which runs from February to November.

"It's not simply possible to squeeze in too many more events onto our schedule," he said.

In the last decade, NASCAR's expansion has largely been outside the South, in places such as Indianapolis, Chicago and Michigan.

Terror Threats Cancel Dakar Rally

The Dakar Rally, the epic motorcycle, car and truck race across the Sahara desert, was canceled Friday by organizers citing "direct" threats of terrorism from al-Qaida-linked militants.

The race was deemed too inviting — and too easy — a target for the terror group's new north African affiliate. The roughly 550 competitors were to have embarked Saturday on the 16-day, 5,760-mile trek through remote and hostile dunes and scrub from Europe to Senegal in west Africa.

Organizers of the rally, once known as the Paris-Dakar, cited warnings from the French government about safety after the al-Qaida-linked Dec. 24 slaying of a family of French tourists in Mauritania — where most of the competition was to be held — and "threats launched directly against the race by terrorist organizations."

It was the first time that the 30-year-old rally, one of the biggest competitions in automobile racing, has been called off. The Dakar is one of the most prominent public events to be canceled since the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, when many sports events in the United States were canceled or postponed — some as a result of airport closings or in mourning for the victims.

The cancellation of such a world-renowned sports event is rare, particularly as a pre-emptive measure against terrorism. Even the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich continued, following a 34-hour pause, after 11 Israeli athletes and coaches were killed by Palestinian gunmen.

Victor Anderes, vice president of special projects at Global Security Associates, a New York-based firm that provides security for high-profile events including the 2006 Olympic Games in Turin, Italy, called the cancellation unprecedented.

"Smaller cultural events have been canceled before because of terror threats, but this hasn't happened with such a major international event," he said.

"The threat is significant," Anderes said. "It would be almost impossible to secure the entire course." He said the race is particularly vulnerable because it crosses different countries and large, unpopulated areas.

"When you are told of direct threats against the event and when the sinister name of al-Qaida is mentioned, you don't ask for details," Patrice Clerc, who heads the company that organizes the rally, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. "It was enough for me to hear my government say 'beware, the danger is at a maximum.'"

Experts cautioned — as Western governments have often warned — that bowing to terror threats could encourage more violence. They said al-Qaida's North African wing had scored propaganda points as it seeks to increase its reach in the region.

"They scored a media victory without firing a shot," said Louis Caprioli, a former assistant director at France's counterintelligence agency DST. "Everybody gets the impression that they are very powerful, when they in fact represent a small number of people in this region."

Adam Raisman, senior analyst at the SITE Institute in Washington, said "the jihadist Internet community is quite happy with the closing, seeing it as a victory."

Al-Qaida in Islamic North Africa is the rebranded name of an Algeria-based insurgent group known as the Salafist Group for Call and Combat, or GSPC. Al-Qaida's No. 2, Ayman al-Zawahiri, first recognized a "blessed union" between the two groups on Sept. 11, 2006.

Al-Qaida in Islamic North Africa counts no more than several hundred members in Algeria and only a few dozen in Mauritania, said Caprioli, who now works for the risk-management company Geos.

But the group has adopted al-Qaida techniques to increase its impact. It claimed responsibility for twin suicide bombings last month in Algeria's capital that hit U.N. offices and a government building, killing 37 people — including 17 U.N. staff members. That attack was the most dramatic in a string of recent suicide bombings in Algeria.

Bruce Riedel, a former CIA officer and terrorism expert who now works at the Brookings Institution, called al-Qaida in Islamic North Africa "a threat to be reckoned with."

Rally organizer Clerc, in the AP interview, acknowledged that "Yes, we perhaps bowed to terrorism," but that security needed to come first: "We don't have the right to play games with safety."

Al-Qaida in Islamic North Africa, in a Dec. 29 statement posted on an Internet site that it often uses, had criticized Mauritania's government for "providing suitable environments to the infidels for the rally." It did not directly call for attacks on the race or its participants.

The vast desert region stretching from southern Algeria through Mali and Mauritania has long been a prime haunt for traffickers in arms, cigarettes, drugs and other contraband, and a GSPC redoubt. It claimed responsibility for a June 2005 raid on a remote army post that killed 15 Mauritanian troops.

Another terror and smuggling chieftain in the region is Mokhtar Bel Mokhtar, a veteran militant said to have been behind threats against the rally several years ago.

The United States has had the lawless border zones in its sights for years. In 2004, it began a counterterrorism training program in Mauritania and three other Sahara countries as part of efforts to fight infiltration by militant groups.

The race had been due to start in Lisbon, Portugal, on Saturday, and finish in Dakar, Senegal, on Jan. 20.

Thousands of Africans each year line ochre-colored, sandy roads as Dakar Rally racers speed through — at times crashing out or into spectators, and sometimes with deadly results.

The government in France, where race organizer Amaury Sports Organization is based, had urged the rally to avoid Mauritania after four French tourists were killed last month in a town 150 miles east of the capital as they picnicked on a roadside.

That attack was followed by another days later, when three Mauritanian soldiers manning a checkpoint were killed. Mauritania, a largely peaceful Islamic republic, was rocked by the back-to-back attacks.

Authorities blamed a terror "sleeper cell" linked to al-Qaida in Islamic North Africa for the tourists' murders. The group claimed responsibility for the killing of the soldiers in an audio tape released to Al-Arabiya TV station.

The race's central appeal — its course through African deserts, scrubland and savannas — is also a weak point for security, making it difficult to protect competitors and race workers as they cross remote regions.

Terrorism fears have previously forced organizers to cancel individual stages or reroute the race. In 2000, several legs were scrapped after a threat forced organizers to airlift the entire race from Niger to Libya to avoid danger zones. Several stages were also called off in 2004, reportedly because of terror threats in Mali.

Rally director Etienne Lavigne only recently approved the Mauritanian legs after two stages planned for Mali were scrapped over concerns about al-Qaida's north Africa affiliate there.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said he did not want to "stigmatize" Mauritania, but warned on French radio RTL that there were risks "in a very uncertain region and one crossed by the networks of al-Qaida in North Africa."

Mauritania's government had said last week that it would mobilize a 3,000-man security force to ensure race safety. Its foreign minister complained the cancellation was not justified.

"We have taken every measure to ensure that the rally goes forward without incident," Babah Sidi Abdallah said on RTL TV.

Clerc suggested the threat this year was different from in years past.

"This year — and only in very recent days — the nature of the threat changed, and neither the Mauritanians, the French nor anyone had the means to respond," he told AP.

For would-be racers, sponsors, teams and vehicle manufacturers, the disappointment was palpable.

"While canceling is obviously the right thing to do for safety and security reasons, there's no reason why we couldn't have raced a few stages in Morocco or Portugal where there wasn't the same risk," NASCAR driver Robby Gordon, who was planning to compete, said in a statement.

Organizers said the cancellation would not mean the death of the Dakar, but it cast doubt on the rally's long-term future. The race's tough geography is a both an organizational headache and a main ingredient of its charm. Going from Europe to west Africa inevitably means traversing inhospitable territory.

"Unless you want to turn this into a yacht race, I don't see an alternative," Clerc said.