DAYTONA BEACH — When it comes to endurance racing, steadiness and longevity are certainly half the battle.

On Friday afternoon, they were worth the whole enchilada.

One-by-one, leaders dove down pit road in the waning laps, fuel tanks sputtering and tongues wagging.

Ultimately, it left the No. 91 Kellymoss with Riley Porsche, driven on the final stint by Riley Dickinson. He assumed the lead on the last lap and guided it home to claim the overall win in the BMW M Endurance Challenge, the season opener of the Michelin Pilot Challenge, on Friday at Daytona International Speedway.

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It was the last on-track event before Saturday's 62nd running of the Rolex 24 at Daytona.

With an hour to go in Friday's race, Dickinson got word that the fuel-saving strategy would be implemented. He just had to figure out exactly how to do that.

“For me, it was the first time I’ve done a live fuel save during a race,” Dickinson said. “It was definitely a learn-on-the-fly kind of thing.”

And learn he did.

A lengthy caution flag near the end of the third hour finally yielded to yellow with around 54 minutes to go. Quickly, a five-car breakaway formed led by a trio of BMWs, the Nos. 92, 95 and 96. The No. 57 Mercedes of Winward Racing and the No. 46 Team TGM Aston Martin completed the leading quintet.

The race, scheduled for four hours, went a total of 110 laps and it took a long time for the Kellymoss strategy to start coming in. Dickinson didn’t enter the top 10 on the last stint until Lap 98.

But from there, the dominoes fell either via pitstop or cars running out of fuel.

On lap 104, Dickinson moved into ninth. He gained two more spots on the next lap, another on lap 106 and two more on 107 to get to fourth. From there, it was one per lap, moving from third, taking the white flag in second and when Kenton Koch in the No. 92 fell by the wayside, Dickinson was the last car rolling.

“My teammates (Michael McCarthy and Brady Golan) did an incredible job delivering me a clean car once I jumped in,” Dickinson said. “About an hour left to go in the race and we made the call for a maximum fuel save. I thought a stint was 48 minutes and thought, how do I make this possible? But straight away I was able to do a pretty nice job fuel saving.”

The No. 57 Mercedes came home second with Daniel Morad driving the final stint. The No. 46 was third with Matt Plumb in the car for the final laps.

The No. 23 Smooge Racing Toyota, driven by NASCAR regulars Bubba Wallace, Corey Heim and John Hunter Nemechek, ran into mechanical issues that forced the car off track for a few laps around the halfway mark. The entry settled for a 27^th-place finish, seven laps down.

In the TCR Class, the No. 17 JDC-Miller Motorsport Audi, a late entry that didn’t participate in the final practice due to mechanical issues, got to the line first for a class win. Drivers Chris Miller and Mikey Taylor drove the winning entry.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Michelin Pilot Challenge opener comes down to the wire as Porsche wins