Scott Pruett Talks About His Fifth Rolex Series Title

Scott Pruett and his teammate Memo Rojas

Scott Pruett, wrapped up his fifth Rolex Series Daytona Prototype championship on Saturday, joined Wind Tunnel to speak about it. The Chip Ganassi-owned No. 01 TELMEX BMW/Riley team, driven by Pruett and teammate Memo Rojas, landed their third-straight title and fourth in the last five years.

Pruett joined co-hosts Bob Varsha and Robin Miller about the triumph, and what lies ahead for sports car racing.

Bob Varsha: You only had two victories this year, that is a little low for you, wouldn’t you say?

Scott Pruett: It was, in what was a very interesting season. In fact, it was a wild card season when you look to see what took place with the 99 (Alex Gurney & Jon Fogarty), the 10 (Max Angelelli & Ricky Taylor) and us; you saw some new guys make it to victory lane this year. But for the TELMEX BMW, certainly we would have liked to of had more victories, but we knew going into the season, we didn’t have the fastest car and every point was cherished, was worked hard for, hard-fought for. The Ganassi Group did a great job; teammate Memo Rojas did an awesome job. Here we are with yet another championship.

Robin Miller: You and Scott Dixon need to get some type of award, as you’ve been with Ganassi now longer than most people can tolerate being with him; what’s the secret?

Pruett: It’s funny, just keep winning. You keep winning and you stay out of the spotlight for any issues. It is great working for Chip that many years; he was there for that last race. He’ll be at the banquet. We’re all focused on the same thing. Going out and winning, even this many years later. This is our ninth year together, with six team championships and five driver championships, if you look at it in itself, what an incredible run. It’s been, for me personally, quite an achievement.

Varsha: The question now is, how are things going to change? I’m sure you’ve read all the reports about the merger with the American Le Mans Series and Grand Am beginning in 2014. What do you see happening going forward? How are they going to pull these two series together and create something better?

Pruett: First of all, just like we saw in Indy Car, it’s very difficult to function with two separate series. It’s confusing to the fans, it’s confusing to the drivers and they aren’t sure which direction to go, so we’re going to see the same thing. The biggest challenge I see is trying to come up with a rules package that really makes sense. What are you going to do with the tires? What are you going to do with the cars? What are you going to do with the engines? The great part about it is that NASCAR is at the helm, and their focus is that (they) want to give great shows for the fans. We want to keep the cars competitive, and we want to keep it a reasonable price for all the team owners. I know they are working hard at it now. For me personally, I’ve been through it all. I’ve seen the rise and fall of Trans Am, the rise and fall of IMSA (International Motor Sports Association), and everything that’s kind of taken place in between over the years; I’d like nothing more than some sort of stability in road racing. I truly see this being the first step into that happening, to know that what’s going on in the back doors within NASCAR and how they are trying to put everything together, they are spending a lot of time to try and figure out exactly what to do with those rules.