The #01 TELMEX Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates Lexus Riley driven by Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas relied on strategy and smart driving to stand atop the podium at Virginia International Raceway despite having to give up Rojas' pole position for an 18th starting spot on the grid.
The TELMEX team started the 77-lap race from pit lane to give Rojas enough room to avoid a potential accident in turn one. Strategy continued as Rojas pitted on lap four to get a splash of fuel and an early caution on lap eight allowed the #01 car to gain valuable track position.
Rojas and the #10 car made contact before a driver change on lap 30 and with another off-sequence pit stop, Pruett was able to advance to first place and held off increasing pressure from the #2 car to take the chequered flag as he led the most laps in the race.
“Today was awesome!” Pruett said. “It was such a great win. The last twenty, twenty-five laps were definitely raced hard. Sometimes we got the break, other times the #2 car got the break but we always got back together and were nose-to-tail with each other.
“The car was fantastic, what Lexus has been able to do for the TELMEX car has been great and all of our Ganassi team has done so much to get this season off to a start that allows us to chase the championship.”
Pruett and Rojas currently lead the Rolex series driver and team championship race with 137 points, 21 ahead of the #91 Goossens/Matthews car.
![Pruett/Franchitti/Montoya/Rojas - Chip Ganassi Racing Riley-Lexus [pic credit: grand-am.com]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/404259.jpg)
