Penalties were handed out like candy on Halloween and MSR were not excluded from race control’s justice. Additionally, at one point, the #60 Acura ARX-06 was two laps down following contact with another competitor that required an extended pit stop to replace a toe link.
The combination of Tom Blomqvist, Colin Braun and Helio Castroneves continued to chip away as other GTP rivals dropped out. Sitting eighth – the final spot in class among those still running – with two hours to go, Blomqvist was struggling to keep pace on a set of older tyres and attempting to stretch the energy.
However, a pit stop for a driver change amid a flurry of yellows saw Blomqvist handoff to Braun, who was equipped with fresh tyres and energy and sent off.
With one hour to go, a crash involving the #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Acura put all the players in a frenzy of strategy, which Braun took advantage of by staying out and vaulting up to second.
On the ensuing restart with 30 minutes to go, Braun was able to pull off a herculean move on the #01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac V-Series.R of Renger van der Zande entering Turn 1 and holding firm until a late caution in the final minutes sealed the victory.
“With around two hours to go, we were P-last,” co-team owner Mike Shank told Autosport.
“Tom Blomqvist's last stint, we made a mistake and we really hurt him. I feel terrible that we didn't put tyres on when we should have. He had just super old tyres and we went backwards, and I thought we were done. We just literally ruined our race and put Tom in a horrible position.
“But what's funny is it actually ended up setting us up and we were able to take advantage of that mistake, I guess you'd call it. It started that progression of things to get to where we were at the end, which was we were ahead on fuel and energy, and we could make it. And we did.”
Source: Autosport