DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Scott Dixon took control in the opening hours of the Rolex 24 at Daytona on Saturday while actor/race car driver Patrick Dempsey received an early penalty that put his Porsche team in a deep hole.
Dixon, in the No. 02 "star car" for Chip Ganassi Racing, passed pole-sitter Ozz Negri Jr. at the start of the twice-round-the-clock endurance race at Daytona International Speedway. Although Michael Shank Racing, in its new Ligier JS P2 Honda, was the fastest car in every on-track session this week, Dixon had no problem getting by Negri.
The New Zealander, hoping to lead his Ganassi squad of all-star drivers to their first Rolex win since 2006, held down the top spot through his stint of almost two and a half hours. He turned the car over to Daytona 500 winner Jamie McMurray, with Indianapolis 500 winner Tony Kanaan and reigning Sprint Cup rookie of the year Kyle Larson waiting for turns.
"It's hard to tell this early on who is holding back and who has something in their back pocket," Dixon said. "We just need to keep out of trouble. Whenever we had someone catching us, we just tried to turn up the pace to see what they had."
Right behind Dixon was Ganassi's No. 01 car, driven by five-time winner Scott Pruett in the opening stint. Although the No. 02 team gets most of the attention, Pruett's No. 01 team has won four Rolex races since Dixon's car last went to Victory Lane.
Pruett is seeking sole possession of the career wins mark, which he currently shares with Hurley Haywood.
"I told Scott if he's leading and I'm second, I'd give him my watch just to win the race," Pruett joked after his stint. "But right now we're just staying patient and letting the hours tick by."
The Shank team felt strongly it had a solid shot to win the race, and Negri wasn't concerned after turning the car over to teammate John Pew. Also driving the Shank car is AJ Allmendinger and newcomer Matt McMurry, a 17-year-old who raced last year at Le Mans.
"I feel things are looking pretty good," Negri said. "We are having a little issue with fuel flow, but we've got the pace and are just looking after the car right now. The car is fast enough to win the race."
Shank moved to the Ligier and Honda after using Fords since 2008.
Meanwhile, Dempsey was the second driver behind the wheel of the Porsche 911 GT, but he was flagged for improperly passing during a wave around.
He has kept a low profile at Daytona since he and wife Jillian Fink announced Friday night they were divorcing after 15 years of marriage. Dempsey had done some press interviews Friday but skipped Saturday's driver autograph session and wasn't on the starting grid with his teammates before the race.
The penalty on Dempsey dropped his team nine laps behind the leaders, but only six laps down in the GT class.
It was another abbreviated run for the notorious DeltaWing.
The odd-looking car, which showed impressive speed early, retired after just 42 laps Saturday. The DeltaWing left the track with transmission failure and never returned.
It was the second straight year the funky-looking sports car failed to finish at Daytona.
The DeltaWing retired after 16 hours in 2014 because of transmission failure and finished 61st out of 67 cars. The car was poised to finish 52nd out of 53 cars this time around. The latest run was so short that drivers Gabby Chaves, Katherine Legge and Memo Rojas didn't even get behind the wheel.
Andy Meyrick drove the opening stint and was battling the leader before he punctured a tire. He battled back from the setback, but then stalled on the 3.56-mile road course with transmission trouble. The team took it to the garage and never returned.
"We had had a fast car today, but it was not to be," the team posted on its Twitter page. "Proud of the job by the whole team this week."