DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Juan Montoya said he felt like he had brought a knife to a gunfight.

Montoya and his Chip Ganassi Racing teammates went into the 47th Rolex 24 going for an unprecedented fourth consecutive victory for their car owner, but it was David Donohue and the long-suffering Brumos Porsche team that came out on top.

Donohue was at the wheel of the winning car in the last hour Sunday, chasing down and passing NASCAR star Montoya just 41 minutes from the finish, then holding the former IndyCar and Formula One driver off by the closest margin in race history.

The victory came on the 40th anniversary of a victory by Donohue's late father at Daytona International Speedway.

It was the biggest win of his career for Donohue, who started from the pole in the team's Porsche Riley on Saturday afternoon. He combined with former Indianapolis 500 winner Buddy Rice, Antonio Garcia and Darren Law to win.

"We ran hard the whole time" said Donohue, son of Indy 500 winner Mark Donohue, who died in 1975 after a crash during a Formula One test. The son was just 8 years old at the time.

"It's a good storyline but, to be perfectly honest, he's been gone for quite some time and our guys have done the hard work and putting in the effort to win this race," Donohue added. "I'm certainly really very proud of my father and his accomplishments and what he's done, and just coincidentally we happened to nail it on the 40th anniversary of his win.

"But I feel more of an attachment to the effort my guys have put in and Brumos. ... That's where my heart is, to be honest."

Four Daytona Prototypes, including the third-place sister Brumos Porsche -- co-driven by six-time Daytona winner Hurley Haywood, J.C. France, son of NASCAR board member Jim France, Terry Borcheller and Joao Barbosa -- finished on the lead lap in an event that had only once before had two cars on the lead lap.

The Ganassi drivers insisted that the Porsches had a big advantage on power, particularly on the portion of the 3.56-mile road circuit that encompasses about three-fourths of the 2.5-mile NASCAR oval.

"I said before the race that if the Porsches don't have any problems they're going to beat us," said Montoya, who had combined with teammates Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas to win his first two Rolex 24s. "Every stint, apart from the last one, they drove away from us. We did what we could. I gave it 110 percent."

Donohue and his teammates pooh-poohed the supposed power advantage.

"There's no doubt we had good top end, but you really had to know how to use it," Donohue said, crediting former NASCAR driver and IROC test driver Dave Marcis with teaching him the art of passing on Daytona's high banks. "I've done a lot of testing here with the IROC guys.

"It's different cars, but the principles still apply. That's how I was able to do it, to be honest with you. I couldn't just sit there and drive by. You really had to plan it."

Law called the Ganassi team's gripes sour grapes, noting, "They crossed the line 50 feet behind us and it was a fight the whole way through."

The winners completed 735 laps, a total of 2,616.6 miles. (Continued)