Daytona24: Krohn Racing hour 18 update

The Krohn Racing team continues to stay in the hunt at the Rolex 24 at Daytona race. There have been a total of 17 cautions for 108 laps and 49 lead changes among 12 cars after 18 hours. Fog rolled in on Lap 426 at approximately 4:30 a.m. ET.

The running order at the 18 hour mark was: P1- No. 02 Ganassi BMW Riley; P2 - No. 01 Ganassi BMW; P3 - Riley No. 9 Action Express Porsche Riley, P4 -- No. 5 Action Express Porsche Riley and P5 - No. 76 Krohn Racing Proto-Auto Lola, all on the lead lap of 529.

Tracy Krohn, Driver, #76 Krohn Racing Ford Proto-Auto Lola:

"The car was much better than the first stint I had. The track must be rubbering up a little bit. The problem is the track is also narrowing up a bit. There's a lot of oil and a lot of pick-up off line and even one-line sometimes. You just have to be very, very cautious going through all the traffic and everything. I'm sure that slowed me down a little bit. But the point is to get to the end right now. It's really hard to see the oil on the track at night. There's just a lot of oil and I'm very concerned about that. I've seen a lot of cars go off. Every once in awhile you get to the brake point and you hit the brakes and there's nothing there because there's so much oil on the track; so you just wait for it."

WHAT DO YOU THINK IS GOING TO BE THE MOST CHALLENGING THING FOR THE BALANCE OF THE RACE?

"I think mechanical integrity. I'm not really worried about anything else other than the car staying together."

Tracy brought the car in at 4:36 a.m. in P5 for Nicolas Minassian, who did the bulk of the driving in nighttime fog. The fog rolled in about 5:30 a.m. and didn't clear until after the sun rose a burned it off around 8:05 a.m. ET.

Nicolas Minassian, Driver, #76 Krohn Racing Ford Proto-Auto Lola:

"It was so difficult to see when the fog set in. About the first hour of my stint was pretty good. Then the fog rolled it. It was light at first and then got quite thick and lasted a long time. We did not know if they would stop the race but they decided to just have us run under yellow. It was difficult to see the tail lights on the car before you or the headlights on the car behind you. It got very boring to just pace around under caution. I gave the car to Tracy after the sun came out and the fog had cleared out a little."

Minassian turned over the No. 76 car to Ricardo Zonta at 7:03 a.m. ET in the lead, following a fuel and tire stop.

Ricardo Zonta, Driver, #76 Krohn Racing Ford Proto-Auto Lola:

"It was quite a good stint. We just tried to keep the car as safe as possible. You still can't push

I was just keeping my pace. Traffic is very hard. It's low grip so all of the time you are slidding but it's okay."

HOW IMPORTANT IS IT TO YOU TO FINISH WELL?

"It is important for us to finish well. We have worked very hard for this. The strategy and the car pace have to be the key to being on the podium but we are working very hard for that."

Rick Mayer, Race Engineer on the #76 Krohn Racing Ford Proto-Auto Lola:

"We don't have the fastest car on the grid but we have made the right choices with strategy and we have good drivers that can hang it out. Tracy has done a good job, I think. He's been able to stay on the lead lap by being keen to what is going on and having some drive-bys and what not. It's all going to come down to the end and the last few stops and see how we do."

-source: krohn racing