Last minutes of confusion
The spectacular 2024 edition from the 24 Hours of Daytona did not fail to provide emotions and twists until the end and indeed the final minutes of the legendary stars and stripes endurance race generated discussion and a bit of confusion. In fact, whoever had the task of waving the checkered flag at the end of the race miscalculated the times, marking the actual end of the race about a couple of minutes early.
Race Direction has in fact certified it as the race was declared over after 23 hours, 58 minutes and 24.723 seconds. An inattention which fortunately was not decisive for the final result, but inevitably created confusion among the drivers and even among the race commentators themselves.
Victory with doubt
The #7 car of the Porsche Penske Motorsport team beat the #31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac Racing Cadillac by just 2.1 seconds and given such a balanced finish the Brazilian Felipe Nasrwho was behind the wheel of the 963 in the final stint, admitted to not having understood immediately to have actually achieved success.
“You gotta keep your foot on the gas until you know it's over, right? – commented Nasr himself, as reported by the site Autosport.com – that's what Tim Cindric (Team Penske president) said on the radio. I was confused too. I don't know if there were two white flags (the flag that in America is used to signal the last lap of the race, ed.)because I was focused on every corner, every braking point and the traffic. I made sure not to make any mistakes until the end“.
Chaos even on TV
American television management itself was caught off guard by the checkered flag waved slightly early, with the graphic indicating the time remaining until the end of the race who – at the moment of crossing the finish line of Nasr – jumped from 'two laps to go' at the 'checkered flag'. However, nothing could deprive Nasr and his crewmates of their deserved victory.
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