ALTON, Va. — Scott Pruett held off Ryan Dalziel by 0.548 seconds Sunday in the Bosch Engineering 250 at Virginia International Raceway, the third victory for Pruett and Memo Rojas in in four Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series races this year.
The victory was part of big day for team owner Chip Ganassi. In addition to the Grand-Am win, Dan Wheldon won the IndyCar race in Kansas, teammate Scott Dixon was third, and Juan Pablo Montoya was second in the NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Talladega.
Pruett and Rojas drove the No. 01 SAMAX Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates Lexus Riley.
Dalziel, running in the No. 2 SAMAX BMW Riley started by Henri Zogaib, ran down Pruett in the closing laps, closing within a second with several laps remaining.
Pruett took the white flag with a 0.0268-second lead, and held off two late runs to take the checkered flag.
Pruett took the lead for the first time on the 58th of 77 laps, and paced the final 20 circuits despite a steady challenge by Dalziel.
“It was a great race, from 20 laps to go all the way to the finish,” Pruett said. “We were racing hard. He could carry more speed on some sections of the track, but once we got on the straights, we had a little more speed on him.”
The Ganassi team started from the back of the 19-car Daytona Prototype grid after Rojas’ provisional pole-winning run was disallowed Saturday due to a technical infraction.
Marc Goossens and Jim Matthews, the only other 2008 Daytona Prototype victors after winning last weekend in Mexico City, finished third in the No. 91 Riley-Matthews Motorsports Pontiac Riley.
Andrew Davis and Robin Liddell teamed to give Stevenson Motorsports its second consecutive Rolex Series GT class victory in the No. 57 Pontiac GXP.R. Spencer Pumpelly and Tim George Jr. finished second in the No. 66 TRG Porsche GT3, followed by Leh Keen and Eric Lux in the No. 86 Farnbacher Loles Racing Porsche GT3.
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