Pruett, Rojas, Score Record-Tying Seventh Grand Am Win at Crown Royal 200 at The Glen

Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas celebrate winning the Grand-Am Rolex Crown Royal 200 at Watkins Glen International. (Tom Whitmore/Getty Images for ISC)

Telmex-Ganassi’s Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas extended their lead in Grand Am at the Rolex Crown Royal 200 at The Glen on Saturday, racking up their seventh win this season, tying the 2007 record set by Alex Gurney and Jon Fogarty.

Ricky Taylor in the #10 SunTrust Dallara-Ford leads Memo Rojas in the #01 Riley-BMW early in the Crown Royal 200. (Todd Warshaw/Getty Images for ISC)

“The Telmex car ran great. I can’t say enough about all the Ganassi guys, BMW, [engine builder] Steve Dinan, and Pirelli—everything was perfect,” Pruett told SPEED-TV. “We just have a good setup here—I mean, it works. We had to hit our marks all day long, not make any mistakes and that’s exactly what we did.

This victory was the thirtieth Daytona Prototype win for Ganassi Racing and the 29th for Scott Pruett.

“It says a lot about the longevity of the sport,” Pruett said. “Here we have been in this sport since ‘04—I love working with Chip [team owner Chip Ganassi] and all the guys. It’s a dream come true for me. This is an awesome ride.”

Scott Pruett leads Max Angellelli and Antonio Garcia during the Crown Royal 200 at Watkins Glen International. (Chris Trotman/Getty Images)

Rojas started from the pole in the Telmex-Ganassi Riley/BMW, but lost the lead to Ricky Taylor’s SunTrust Dallara/Ford on lap 9. Taylor surrendered the lead when he pitted on lap 38, and Scott Pruett moved back into the lead on lap 40 after Jon Fogarty in the Gainsco Riley/Chevrolet pitted.

Pruett ran away with the race as usual; his BMW-powered Riley, despite carrying 75 extra pounds and running a newly-detuned engine, was far and away the fastest car on the track.

A pair of full-course cautions on laps 86 and 88 gave Max Angelelli in the SunTrust Ford/Dallara a chance at the lead, but Pruett managed both restarts perfectly and opened a gap of 2.7 seconds by the checkered flag, despite Angelelli’s best efforts.

Keen and Gue Give Dempsey Racing First GT Win

Sylvain Tremblay and Jonathon Bomarito in the #70 SpeedSource Mazda held the lead for almost the entire race, pursued by Andy Davis and Robin Liddel in the #57 Stevenson Motorsports Camaro.

By lap 62 Leh Keen in the #41 Team Seattle/Dempsey Racing Mazda had worked his way into third in class, and on lap 64 passed the Camaro but was 14 seconds behind the SpeedSource Mazda.

Full-course cautions on laps 86 and 88 gave Keen a chance to start right on Bomarito’s bumper, and the Dempsey driver stayed right there, pushing Bomarito.

On lap 96, Bomarito ran wide in Turn Two, and Keen squeezed his way through underneath. Keen stretched his lead to three seconds in the next three laps, and took the checkered flag first in class, the first win for Team Seattle/Dempsey Racing.

Leh Keen was awarded the Pirelli Move of the Race for his pass on the SpeedSource Mazda.

“It looked pretty good to me,” Keen joked in his post-race interview with SPEED. “As long as that 70 car got out of my front windshield, I was happy.

“I guess he ran a little bit wide and I had just a little bit and when you try to go too wide into Turn Two it’s going to be close. He was on the outside and he had to give it to me. so it worked out pretty good for me.

“I can’t believe we ended up first place here. We were so good at the Six Hours [Sahlen's Six Hours of The Glen, where the team finished third.] We should have won that race. Now we’re back here. We raised a bunch of money for the Children’s Hospital out in Seattle and we’re pretty good in team points now we’re solidly in third. So we are happy.”

(All the team's prize money is donated to the Seattle, Washington Children's Hospital, and through sponsorships the team raises still more money for the hospital.)

Co-driver James Gue said, “The Team Seattle/Dempsey Racing guys have done an outstanding job all year. We’ve been so close all year, and to finally break through and get that win, we just couldn’t be happier. Lee did an awesome job at the end, the whole crew did awesome today.”