After putting Nick Tandy in the history books with a second consecutive Rolex 24 victory, Felipe Nasr immediately was thinking about payback upon parking the No. 7 Porsche 963.
As they celebrated on the podium in victory lane at Daytona International Speedway, Nasr leaned over with a simple request for his Porsche Penske Motorsport teammate.
“I said, ‘You’ve got to help me win Le Mans now,’ because those big races are extremely difficult just to be there at the end,” Nasr said. “There’s so many things happening during the race. I’ve never seen Daytona that cold and the transition at night, the cold tires. Just surviving and staying on the track was a challenge, honestly. It was a real challenge for the drivers today.
“But for sure, Le Mans is a dream list of mine for sure. I’m a little jealous of Nick, in a good way, of everything he’s accomplished so far. I think for sure Le Mans is the next goal, and why not do it this year.”
Tandy already had an overall victory at the 2015 24 Hours of Le Mans, which is why his first overall win at Daytona was so significant.
As Nasr carried the load for the final two hours in zooming from third to first and leading the final 14 laps, Tandy shared a checkered flag (with Nasr and third co-driver Laurens Vanthoor) that made him the first driver in history with overall wins in the world’s four major 24-hour events: Daytona, Le Mans, Spa and Nurburgring.
“To be the first person ever to do something is quite unbelievable, really,” said Tandy, who won the GTLM class of the Rolex 24 in 2014. “First of all, you’ve got to be proud that you’ve been put in a position to be able to compete in those sort of races, and then be in a car that can compete for the win.
“But yeah, it never really dawned on me about these sort of records until when we won at Spa (in 2020) and somebody said, ‘Well, you’ve got class wins in all the four majors now.’ And then you look into it and see there’s legendary names on these lists who have won various things but never overall in all four.
Team Penske drivers Laurens Vanthooer, Felipe Nasr, and Nick Tandy with their Rolex watches in Victory Lane with Daytona Speedway President Frank Kelleher, Sunday January 26, 2025 after winning the Rolex 24 at Daytona International Speedway.
Laurens Vanthoor (left), Felipe Nasr (middle) and Nick Tandy celebrate their Rolex 24 at Daytona victory (David TuckerNews-Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images).
“It’s something that since that day in 2020 I’ve definitely wanted to check off the list. … To get the big four 24-hour wins. One would be just an incredible career, so to be able to get four is dream come true stuff.”
Now the Le Mans dream becomes Nasr’s.
The world’s biggest sports car race has yet to release a final entry list for the June 14-15 race, but it’s expected to include Nasr (and other Porsche Penske Motorsports drivers from IMSA) for the second consecutive year.
With a win, the Brazilian would become the first driver in 15 years to win the unofficial “triple crown” of endurance racing: Daytona, Le Mans and the Twelve Hours of Sebring (which Nasr won in 2019).
But even bigger is what a Le Mans victory could mean for the career of Nasr, who is highly experienced in major-league motorsports but still only 32 years old.
A Le Mans triumph is one of the only prestigious race wins missing from team owner Roger Penske’s storied resume. If Nasr could deliver “The Captain” another major-league endurance crown, it’s worth asking what’s next for a star who will have little left to prove in sports car racing.
Especially because Nasr also has proved to be a phenomenal talent in single-seater open-cockpit racing. He raced two Formula One seasons with Sauber F1 in 2015-16 before moving full time to the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
Though yet to make a start in the series, he also has flirted with IndyCar. Last November, he got behind the wheel of a Dallara-Chevrolet and turned the fastest lap in a test at the Thermal Club a month after winning IMSA’s Grand Touring Prototype championship. It was the latest of several IndyCar tests (with multiple teams) for Nasr since 2019.
With Penske having the boundless connections to broker a seats in the Indy 500 or even NASCAR (and with his IndyCar lineup still needing to be finalized beyond 2025), it’s easy to imagine Nasr being on the short list if and when opportunities materialize in other series.
With another heroic closing double stint Sunday, Nasr certainly has earned the organization’s trust as its lead sports car star. He logged 8 hours, 47 minutes (short of his GTP-leading 9-plus hours last year but tops on the No. 7 this time) and stamped himself as the most consistent, fast and tactically sublime driver.
“If you look back at the data, all three of these guys up here were performing at an extremely high level so there wasn’t a wrong choice,” Porsche Penske Motorsport managing director Jonathan Diuguid said when asked about how the team went with Nasr at the finish. “Obviously Felipe had a history of success, so he probably got the football to carry it across the finish line there and deliver it again for us.
“To see that happen two years in a row and see the defense he put on for the last 30 minutes of the race is always really exciting.”
In the final 40 minutes Sunday, Nasr passed pole-sitter Dries Vanthoor, outdueled teammate Matt Campbell in a fierce battle for the lead and then fended off two-time Rolex 24 winner Tom Blomqvist.
“I knew the car was capable,” he said. “I knew we had a great team behind us. Working with Nick and Laurens for the first time this weekend was very straightforward, trouble free. We all have different personalities but very professional. No one did a foot wrong all weekend, and we’re all celebrating this huge victory.
“On a personal level, doing it back-to-back, it’s incredible. Just inside, it’s one for the memory for sure.”
It could be the prelude to a high-profile future for Nasr as well. Le Mans awaits.
