Son to make IMSA debut at Daytona, teams with father for first time - MotorSportsTalk

A father and son team will share driving duties in the upcoming IMSA Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge race at Daytona International Speedway.

Former sports car world champion David Murry and son Dylan will team with car owner Jim Cox in the No. 38 BGB Motorsports/David Murry Track Days Porsche Cayman GT4 MB in the four-hour BMW Endurance Challenge on January 26.

The race is one of the undercard events prior to the Rolex 24, which runs January 27-28.

This will be the first time that the Murry’s, of Cartersville, Georgia, have competed together.

“This is such a great opportunity for Dylan and me to race together,” David Murry said in a media release. “We’re so grateful to Jim Cox and John Tecce from BGB Motorsports for making this happen. We’re very excited to get on track at the end of the month.”

David Murry last drove for BGB Motorsports and won at Watkins Glen in 2008. Since then, he has shifted to racing part-time while focusing on his business, David Murry Track Days, which works with aspiring racers at tracks across the U.S., as well as his son’s driving career.

David Murry, who turns 61 on Jan. 29, made a combined 147 starts in the former American Le Mans Series and Rolex Grand-Am Sports Car Series, amassing a total of five wins and 28 podium finishes.

Dylan Murry, 16, has been racing since the age of six and has earned 12 championships along the way, including 60 combined feature wins in Pro Class Legends and the Pro-Legends Winter Series at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Dylan made two starts in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East Series last season, finishing sixth at Greenville-Pickens Speedway and eighth at Watkins Glen.

“I’m so excited to make my IMSA debut,” said Dylan Murry. “It will definitely be an incredible experience. To be able to have my dad as a teammate is just unbelievable.”

The NBC Sports IndyCar power rankings naturally were as jumbled as the action on the streets of St. Petersburg after a chaotic opener to the 2023 season.

Pato O’Ward, who finished second because of an engine blip that cost him the lead with a few laps remaining, moves into the top spot ahead of St. Pete winner Marcus Ericsson and Alexander Rossi, who finished fourth in his Arrow McLaren debut. Scott Dixon and St. Pete pole-sitter Romain Grosjean (who led 31 laps) rounded out the top five.

St. Pete pole-sitter Romain Grosjean (who started first at St. Pete after capturing his second career pole position) Callum Ilott (a career-best fifth) and Graham Rahal entered the power rankings entering the season’s second race.

Three drivers fell out of the preseason top 10 after the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg – including previously top-ranked Josef Newgarden, who finished 17^th after qualifying 14^th.

Heading into Sunday’s race at Texas Motor Speedway, here’s NBC Sports’ assessment of the current top 10 drivers through the first of 17 races this year (with previous preseason rankings in parenthesis):

NBC Sports’ IndyCar Power Rankings

1. Pato O’Ward (5) – If not for the dreaded “plenum event” in the No. 5 Chevrolet, the Arrow McLaren driver is opening the season with a victory capping a strong race weekend.

2. Marcus Ericsson (7) – He might be the most opportunistic driver in IndyCar, but that’s because the 2022 Indy 500 winner has become one of the series’ fastest and most consistent stars.

3. Alexander Rossi (10) – He overcame a frustrating Friday and mediocre qualifying to open his Arrow McLaren career with the sort of hard-earned top five missing in his last years at Andretti.

4. Scott Dixon (3) – Put aside his opening-lap skirmish with former teammate Felix Rosenqvist, and it was a typically stealthily good result for the six-time champion.

5. Romain Grosjean (NR) – The St. Petersburg pole-sitter consistently was fastest on the streets of St. Petersburg over the course of the race weekend, which he couldn’t say once last year.

6. Scott McLaughlin (6) – Easily the best of the Team Penske drivers before his crash with Grosjean, McLaughlin drove like a legitimate 2023 championship contender.

7. Callum Ilott (NR) – A quietly impressive top five for the confident Brit in Juncos Hollinger Racing’s first race as a two-car team. Texas will be a big oval litmus test.

8. Graham Rahal (NR) – Sixth at St. Pete, Rahal still has the goods on street courses, and Rahal Letterman Lanigan remains headed in the right direction.

9. Alex Palou (4) – He seemed a step behind Ericsson and Dixon in the race after just missing the Fast Six in qualifying, but this was a solid start for Palou.

10. Will Power (2) – An uncharacteristic mistake that crashed Colton Herta put a blemish on the type of steady weekend that helped him win the 2022 title.

Falling out (last week): Josef Newgarden (1), Colton Herta (8), Christian Lundgaard (9)