Wheldon, Dixon, Mears win Rolex 24

The Lexus Riley finished the most prestigious American endurance race a lap ahead of its nearest rival, after a hard-fought event that saw seven lead changes in the 24-hour period.

The winners ran a total of 2,613.04 miles around the Daytona International Speedway - a total of 734 laps at an average speed of 108.826mph.

Wheldon, winner of the 2005 Indianapolis 500, has moved to Ganassi this season from Andretti Racing Green. He joined former IRL champion Dixon.

Mears, who drives for Ganassi in the Nextel Cup series is the first active NASCAR driver to win the endurance race, and he admitted this was the biggest win of his career.

"It's always been well known in racing that this is one of the biggest races around," he said. "It's a big honor to come here and represent NASCAR and win it."

Dixon admitted he was amazed they had managed to win, but the New Zealander also believes the win is a warning for Ganassi's rivals in IRL of things to come this season.

"This race is so difficult, so hard to win," Dixon said. "I can hardly believe we won it. But Chip gives us a great team and great equipment. Dan and I were also fast in the [IRL] Phoenix test earlier this week and I think there are going to be a lot more wins this year."

Wheldon gave full credit for the win to his teammates, stating: "Those guys, particularly Scott, did just a great job. It's another good win to add to the Indy 500. It's amazing."

Second place went to Champ Car's RuSport teammates Justin Wilson and A.J. Allmendinger, who paired up with Oswaldo Negri and Mark Patterson. Their Lexus Riley seemed close to a victory but ended one lap behind the Chip Ganassi #2.

Third place went to the Porsche Crawford of Lucas Luhr, Mike Rochenfeller and Patrick Long, who had started the race from pole position.

Final results - top 25:

Pos Cl.  Drivers                                   Laps
 1.  DP  Dixon, Wheldon, Mears                      734
 2.  DP  Negri, Patterson, Allmendinger, Wilson    +  1
 3.  DP  Luhr, Rockenfeller, Long                  +  3
 4.  DP  Donohue, Law, Maassen                     +  4
 5.  DP  Krohn, Jonsson, Bergmeister               + 17
 6.  DP  Gidley, Mcdowell, Barron                  + 18
 7.  DP  Borcheller, Brix, Barber, Jour            + 31
 8.  DP  Dfranchitti, Duno, M franchitti           + 39
 9.  GT  Pobst, Levitas, Baas, Pumpelly            + 43
10.  GT  Lally, Bunting, Valentine                 + 46
11.  DP  Valiante, Finlay, Herta, Rice             + 50
12.  GT  Werner, Peter, Quester, Riccit            + 51
13.  GT  Ortelli, Johnson, Near, Sauva             + 56
14.  DP  Cdyson, Rdyson, Gavin, Smith              + 59
15.  GT  Farnbacher, Fitzgerald, Ehret             + 63
16.  GT  Henzler, Liddell, Van Overbeek            + 64
17.  DP  Fittipaldi, Cheever Jr, Carpen            + 65
18.  GT  Mowlem, Arnold, Sellers, Shep             + 71
19.  GT  Zitza, Thomason, Lewis Jr                 + 79
20.  GT  Wanonnamaker, J Nonnamaker                + 81
21.  GT  Dumoulin, Assentato, Lhongi               + 83
22.  DP  Johansson, Erdos, Newton, Hugh            + 89
23.  GT  Ave, Stewart, Stewart III                 + 98
24.  DP  Gurney, Stallings, Vasser                 + 99
25.  GT  Davis, Lux, Espenlaub, Tafel              +100