2011 NASCAR Cup Series Rookie of the Year and sports car racing veteran Andy Lally announced his retirement from racing Wednesday (Nov. 4). His final race as a regular driver will be in January’s Rolex 24 at Daytona for Magnus Racing.
In place of his racing activities, Lally has been named as the new president of the Trans Am Series. He will be replacing former Watkins Glen International track president Michael Printup, who is the chief operating officer of Parella Motorsports Holdings, Trans Am’s parent company.
“This is both my retirement from professional driving and a simultaneous transition to president of the Trans Am Series,” Lally stated in a press release. “It’s a lot of emotion, both looking back and realizing how fortunate I’ve been, while at the same time looking forward to this next journey. I’ll be using 32 years of auto racing experience in a huge variety of cars and sharing what I’ve learned along the way to contribute to the growth of Trans Am and the continued development of future stars.”
The move comes as his longtime teammate/car owner John Potter has decided to step away from regular competition after January’s Rolex 24 at Daytona. In a Magnus Racing press release back in September, the team indicated that Potter would be taking part in “…a one-of-a-kind opportunity in the upscale hotel sector.”
In NASCAR, Lally made 45 career Cup starts with a best finish of 18th at Watkins Glen in 2010. In the NASCAR Xfinity Series, he has four fifth-place finishes in 23 starts, the most recent of which came at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in 2021 for Our Motorsports. Three of those top-fives came with Our Motorsports, while the other was with SS-Green Light Racing in 2017 at Mid-Ohio. Lally also made 14 starts in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series with a best finish of 11th at Daytona in 2008.
However, his biggest accomplishments in motorsports came in sports cars.
He is a five-time class winner in the Rolex 24 at Daytona. Four of those wins came in GT cars, three in Porsche 911s, plus his 2016 GTD victory in an Audi R8 LMS GT3. His first class win came in Grand-Am’s SRP II class in 2001 while driving a Lola B2K/40-Nissan for Archangel Motorsports.
Lally won three championships in what ultimately became the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series, each in a different class. He won the 2001 SRP II championship with Archangel Motorsports with a series of co-drivers. In 2004, Lally and Marc Bunting…
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