Westbrook: Tyre strategy as crucial as reliability in Daytona 24 Hours closing stages

Westbrook was speaking with over six hours remaining, having just exited the third-placed #02 car – which is running as a one-off entry by Chip Ganassi Racing before embarking on a full-time World Endurance Championship campaign.

“There’s just a really interesting strategy going on out there,” he told NBC Peacock. “We’ve got a tyre allocation this year which is new, so we’re trying to double-stint as many sets as we can now, to give ourselves fresh sets at the end. We feel like we’ve used less tyres than anyone else, but we’ll see.

“It’s amazing, I had no idea these cars would be running so close, still on the lead lap, without any issues. It’s incredible and testament to all the manufacturers and all the hard work by the teams.

“I just thought we’d see more issues. It really was a step into the unknown, because testing is testing and racing always throws a curveball. So far, we’ve been dealing with it.”

#02: Cadillac Racing, Cadillac V-LMDh, GTP: Earl Bamber, Alex Lynn, Richard Westbrook

Photo by: Jake Galstad / Motorsport Images

Westbrook, who shares his Cadillac V-LMDh with Earl Bamber and Alex Lynn, remains on the lead lap behind the leading #01 sister car and the Meyer Shank Racing Acura – which has proved the quickest car in the field but has encountered some technical issues.

“We’ve seen a few dropouts, but three or four cars have had very few issues at all, which is incredible in the first race of a new era,” he added when asked about the reliability of the GTP class cars. “I came into it pretty relaxed, because you didn’t know what was going to happen – and that just felt weird.

“You could say the Acura is really fast or the BMW, you just had no idea. Now we’ve got a better idea of who’s quick in certain situations, who’s good in the night, who’s good on the soft tyre. And now we’ll see what happens.”

Three of the four GTP manufacturers – Acura, Cadillac and Porsche – have enjoyed stints in the lead of the first ever IMSA race to feature hybridised powertrains, while BMW suffered the most in terms of unreliability and a lack of pace.