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Notes and notations on the 2014 Rolex 24 at Daytona [w/video]

This year is the 52nd edition of the Daytona 24 Hours. The 2014 Rolex 24 at Daytona is also the first race of the year in the brand new TUDOR United SportsCar Championship (TUSCC) With the merger of the American Le Mans Series and Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series rewriting and revising the rules of American sports car racing right up until yesterday, we've made the journey to an intermittently wet and constantly freezing Daytona Beach, Florida with Audi to watch the new R8 LMS and every other competitor explore the limits of those rules on the track.
With a ton to cover - and a couple of videos below to watch, including some slo-mo qualifying footage and a hot lap in an R8 LMS - let's not waste time with chit-chat, eh?
Quick things to know about the classes and the leader-light system:

Porsche hybrids come up short at Le Mans

Two cars, one finish, zero victories. That's a brief synopsis of Porsche's hybrid-vehicle performance in the 24 Hours of Le Mans race in France. There's always next year. Porsche entered two 919 Hybrid vehicles in the race. The No. 14 car essentially limped to the finish line after encountering drivetrain problems. The other Porsche hybrid, No. 20, was driven by Germany's Timo Bernhard, New Zealand's Brendon Hartley and Australia's Mark Webber. That car ran for more than 22 hours before its own powertrain issues did that racing team in for good. Both vehicles ran towards the front of the pack at times during the race, and the No. 20 car actually led the race after about 20 hours. Still, both teams said they were disappointed in the results. Porsche sister company Audi came up big for the 13th time in the race's long and storied history. One Audi R18 E-Tron Quattro won the race, while another finished second. The Toyota that had pole-position and was winning much of the race shut down after 15 hours of racing because of electrical issues and Nissan had trouble with is ZEOD RC. Check out Porsche's press release below, and read here for a more general race recap. STRONG PERFORMANCE BY PORSCHE 919 HYBRIDS BUT NO DREAM ENDING IN PROTOTYPE RETURN TO LE MANS Le Mans. After a strong performance by both Porsche 919 Hybrids, the Porsche Team was left empty-handed after a dramatic final stage of the race. Following more than 22 hours, car No. 20 driven by Timo Bernhard (Germany), Brendon Hartley (New Zealand) and Mark Webber (Australia) suffered a powertrain problem at the world's most famous endurance race, the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Earlier in the race the LMP1 class car was leading overall for a significant period of time. The second innovative and highly complex prototype – in the hands of Romain Dumas (France), Neel Jani (Switzerland) and Marc Lieb (Germany) – likewise proved to be very competitive, but was hampered by a drivetrain problem. However, their No. 14 car crossed the finish line under its own power. After a thrilling start to the race with changing weather conditions, numerous accidents and a relatively calm night, Bernhard took the overall lead in the No. 20. The longtime Porsche factory driver returned to the top spot after 20 of the 24 hours. At 12:36 (CET) on Sunday, he handed the leading car over to Webber. Less than 20 minutes later the Australian was forced to slow down and drove solely on electric power back to pit lane.

Adam Carolla is world's the least helpful test drive co-pilot

If you were going to test drive a new car, who would you want to take with you? Your spouse? A friend? Maybe an automotive journalist? Well take it from us: there's one of us riding shotgun just about every time we go to drive anything, and we're not all we're cracked up to be.
How about a celebrity comedian? Well, that largely depends on which comedian we're talking about here. Some - say, Jerry Seinfeld or Jay Leno, for example - might be more helpful than others, being more or less schooled in the finer points of the modern automobile. Adam Carolla might seem like he belongs on that list too, but in this latest video for a friends at Edmunds.com, the one-time host of The Car Show on Speed TV seems bent on being as comedically intrusive as possible. Which may be funny, but helpful? Not so much. See what we mean in the video below, and the next time you go to test drive a new car, you just might find the world's most popular podcast host climbing in with you.