NASCAR Garage 56 Chevy Camaro completes 24 hours of Le Mans with one major setback
Running their first 24 Hours of Le Mans since 1976, NASCAR successfully completed the most prestigious endurance race in the world Sunday.
Hendrick Motorsports’ No. 24 Chevrolet Camaro collectively driven by Jenson Button, Mike Rockenfeller and Jimmie Johnson crossed the finish line 39th after completing the full 285 laps. Button ran the first 97 laps before giving way to Rockenfeller following “Garage 56’s” first major mechanical setback.
Chad Knaus, Hendrick’s VP of Competition, described it as a “drive line issue.” The team spent one hour and 21 minutes making repairs to the car in the garage before getting back out on the race track. Rockenfeller immediately set the car’s fastest race lap yet at a 3:50.512 after changing the gearbox.
Rockenfeller remained behind the wheel for 91 laps before handing things over to Johnson for the final 97 laps. Johnson, the seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion, said it was awesome to finish the race, though he couldn’t help but be a little disappointed.
“We’re not the same category, but we are the same type of car, and our own estimations we thought we’d be mid-to-back pack of the GT cars and you use that for motivation,” Johnson said, via the Associated Press. “We were laughing at ourselves when they were changing the transmission because the goal was only to finish, and then after the first laps on track, we thought ‘Maybe there’s more for us’ and over the course of the week, we started the race with the desire to win the GT race.
“We are bummed.”
NASCAR CEO Jim France thrilled with performance in Le Mans
NASCAR CEO Jim France, who brokered the deal to get the Next Gen stock car in this year’s Le Mans, came away thrilled with the performance of the entire crew. This one certainly meant a lot to France as his father, NASCAR founder Bill France Sr., brought NASCAR to Le Mans twice. Both times, however, the car failed to finish the race.
“That was thousands of hours of hard work by hundreds of people that went into making this thing happen. And then the way the team and the pit crews and everybody performed all week, it was just fantastic,” France said. “I hope my dad and my brother are somewhere up there looking down and smiling but the goal when we set out was to try and finish the race running at the end and not be last. And we accomplished that.”