DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — It hasn't taken long for Scott Dixon and Dan Wheldon to build up a rapport. And that could carry the new Chip Ganassi Racing teammates a long way in the Indy Racing League.

After combining with NASCAR star Casey Mears over the weekend to win the Rolex 24, America's most prestigious sports car endurance race, Dixon and Wheldon engaged in a session of mutual admiration.

"We get on pretty good. But we've sort of been teammates for years," said Dixon, noting he was the CART driver for the PacWest team in 2001, while Wheldon drove for the PacWest's Indy Lights team.

"This race is so difficult, so hard to win," Dixon added. "I can hardly believe we won it. But Chip gives us a great team and great equipment. Dan and I were also fast in the Phoenix (IRL) test earlier this week and I think there are going to be a lot more wins this year."

Wheldon, the reigning IRL champion and Indianapolis 500 winner, won in his first start since leaving Andretti Green Racing.

"Let's hope this is just the start of a lot of good things for this team," he said.

All three drivers contributed to the Daytona win, but it appeared Dixon and Wheldon took the lead and were particularly comfortable as teammates.

"He's been on a different team the last couple of years, but there is a good rapport in IndyCars," Wheldon said of Dixon. "As close as we drive together, you've got to trust one another."

Avoiding major trouble was the key in this grueling twice-around-the-clock battle that saw seven different leaders, all among the 31 Daytona Prototypes that started at the front of the 66-car field at 12:10 p.m. Saturday.

Not even the winning car was immune to the mechanical problems that plagued many of the top teams.

"We had brake issues to start with, then a gearbox, then brakes again," Dixon said. "Then we had some engine belts fall off three or four times. Yeah, and we couldn't select some gears. I thought, eventually, it was going to knock us off the lead, but the team seemed to have an answer every time."

The winners covered 734 laps and 2,613.04 miles on Daytona International Speedway's 3.56-mile, 14-turn road circuit and averaged 108.826 mph. That was good for a one-lap victory over the Lexus Riley of Champ Car teammates A.J. Allmendinger and Justin Wilson and Oswaldo Negri and Mark Patterson.

For Mears, the first driver to be part of a winning Rolex team while still racing full-time in NASCAR, it was the biggest win of his career.

"It's always been well known in racing that this is one of the biggest races around," he said. "It's a big honor to come here and represent NASCAR and win it."

It appeared for a while Saturday night that the battle would come down to the two Ganassi entries. They were 1-2, with the Lexus Riley driven by Scott Pruett and Max Papis, the 2004 Grand American Racing Daytona Prototype champions, and Luis Diaz close behind the leaders at the halfway point.

That team also came back from an early mechanical problem that put it four laps behind, but wound up sidelined early Sunday morning when a broken oil line blew the engine.

It was an amazingly close competition for a 24-hour event, with four cars separated by just four laps at the end.

The Porsche Fabcar of Darren Law, David Donohue — son of the late Indy 500 winner Mark Donohue — and Sascha Maassen was on its way to third place when a flat tire forced Law to drive nearly a full lap at slow speed. He was able to get the car to the pits for a tire change, but lost third place to the pole-winning Porsche Crawford of Lucas Luhr, Mike Rockenfeller and Patrick Long.

Third was a great finish for a team that had to overcome a broken axle and a nine-lap deficit early in the race. The team members charged back to the lead in the early morning darkness and built a three-lap margin over the eventual winners before a second broken axle put them out of the race in the 19th hour.

Most of the biggest names in the star-studded field were far behind or out of the race at the finish.

The Pontiac Crawford shared by retired NASCAR star Rusty Wallace, IRL sensation Danica Patrick and former Formula One drivers Allan McNish and Jan Lammers got as high as third in the 10th hour before an overheating problem and a blown head gasket retired their Pontiac Crawford.

Reigning Nextel Cup champion Tony Stewart, whose team was denied victory the last two years by mechanical problems late in the race, fell out of contention early this time.

Paired with three-time Rolex race winners Andy Wallace and Butch Leitzinger, Stewart's team had a series of mechanical problems and wound up far off the pace in 30th, 141 laps behind the winners. The two-time NASCAR champion took his scheduled driving stints throughout the race even though his ribs, injured in a sprint car crash two weeks ago, were throbbing.

"I wish they were teeth so I could have them pulled," Stewart said, wincing as he watched the race from the pits. "The only time they don't hurt is when I'm in the race car."