Ford GT teammates hail Muller for dramatic final stint
Ford scored a hard-fought GTLM victory in the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona, as Dirk Muller saw off the challenge of Porsche, Ford and Corvette to take the win.
Muller had to pass the Corvette of Antonio Garcia and Ferrari’s James Calado in the final stint to repeat Ford’s famous victory it scored at Le Mans last June.
His teammates Sebastian Bourdais and Joey Hand paid tribute to the way he held off Porsche’s Patrick Pilet in the closing stages.
“I was dreading the last 20 minutes, and when I came to the pits I could see that Joey was as pale as I was!” quipped Bourdais. “It was very uncomfortable, and I couldn’t be any more proud of these guys – Ford and Chip Ganassi Racing.
“My father just sent me a message saying ‘Dirk is a stud’! He did an unbelievable job to make it stick.”
Hand added: “It was a stressful race. You do three hours, rest a bit, do another three hours. You gotta be on your game, and that’s what this race is all about.
“One year ago, this was the first race for this car. Since then we have won Le Mans, and now we’ve won Daytona. Dirk was the man at the end, he got it done in a tough situation.”
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