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Montoya to defend Rolex 24 victory

Juan Pablo Montoya will try to defend his 2007 Rolex 24 overall victory next January at Daytona, driving the No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing car alongside his new NASCAR Sprint Cup teammate Dario Franchitti, Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas

The Colombian became the first driver in history to win the Monaco Grand Prix, the Indy 500 and the 24 Hours of Daytona, when he took victory this year in his maiden Rolex 24, sharing driving duties with two-time Rolex Series champion Scott Pruett and Mexican Salvador Duran.

Ganassi will field an equally strong driver line-up in their No. 02 Target/TELMEX Daytona Prototype, featuring two of the drivers who took overall victory two years ago at the event.

IRL IndyCar Series champions Dan Wheldon and Scott Dixon will partner current Indy Pro Series champion Alex Lloyd plus Salvador Duran who shared victory in this year's event.

Rojas and Duran are part of the TELMEX driver development program and both cars will once again have backing from the Mexican telecommunications company, owned by billionaire Carlos Slim.

"Everyone knows how special this race is and how much of a team effort it takes to win at Daytona," said team owner Chip Ganassi. "I'm extremely proud of the effort put forth by our organization the last two years, and we have another great opportunity this year with the addition of Dario and Alex to the lineup.

"It is a tremendous feeling to know that we have this many talented drivers on our teams to pick from."

Just as last year, Ganassi has split the driver line-up that will compete all year in the Rolex Series to maximize their chances of gaining points towards both the driver and team championships. Pruett and Rojas will race the No. 01 TELMEX Riley in the 14-event season that will finish in September at Miller Motorsports Park in Utah.

Chip Ganassi Racing is hoping to become the first team in history to claim three Rolex 24 consecutive overall wins, having won the event for the past two years.

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