In Acura Meyer Shank Racings return to IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship competition, the team literally almost picked up where it left off.

Following the teams win in the 2023 Petit Le Mans capped off the season at Road Atlanta, MSRs sports car operation went dormant as focus shifted to its NTT IndyCar Series program.

Now back to full-time competition, the 63rd Rolex 24 at Daytona saw the team nearly duplicate its performance at Petit Le Mans two years ago.

However, a valiant effort by anchor driver Tom Blomqvist aboard the No. 60 Acura ARX 06 came up short in the waning stages of the twice-around-the-clock race at Daytona (Fla.) Intl Speedway as as Porsche Penske Motorsports Felipe Nasr polished off a second consecutive Daytona victory for the team

MSRs second entry, piloted by Renger van der Zande, Nick Yelloly, Alex Palou and Kakunoshin Ohta, endured issues during the endurance race after a left-rear suspension failure forced the team to make repairs. The No. 93 finished eighth in GTP.

Blomqvist, who co-drove the No. 60 with Scott Dixon, Felix Rosenqvist and Colin Braun, felt the car lacked pace throughout the 24-hour event.

I mean, somehow in the race we actually struggled a lot more pace, Blomqvist said. We came into the race relatively confident, but for whatever reason we just struggled a lot to keep our rear tires under us.

Even from lap one you already knew it was going to be a tough stint. We kind of struggled to be honest the whole race. The Porsches were extremely strong. We were good maybe the first few and then they would just pull away especially on the double stints they had a lot more pace than us, and when the traffic came they had such an advantage.

We struggled so much for traction that they would just carve through traffic so much better than us.

The No. 60 came to life unexpectedly during the final laps according to Blomqvist.

Last stint, the car was just better, Blomqvist said. Not much to say, really. I didnt think I was going to have anything for them, but you never give up, and I think I gave it all I had, and I think to be honest that was the best we probably could have done today.

The guys did a fantastic job to get us in that position strategy-wise. We were always making the right calls generally at the right time, so that was good.

But definitely some work to do, Blomqvist continued. A lot of lessons learnt, lets say, from this race, and I think to be honest, if you asked all of us, were super happy with second because at one point we thought it was going to be a real long day.

As Dixon and Rosenqvist shift back to full-time NTT IndyCar Series action, MSRs full-time sports car drivers aboard the No. 60, Blomqvist and Braun, felt the teams reemergence in the sport was as successful as it could be.

I think considering all the other GTP teams have been together for a few years here and were kind much reassembled and adding people, I think we have a lot of blue sky, a lot of potential to tidy up a few things here and there and continue to be stronger and stronger, Braun said. A heck of a first race.

I think when we all went to the first test in November when we got the cars, I think if you would have said wed come here and finish second, wed all have been signing up for that. So great job for sure.