Ganassi leads Daytona after six hours

Heavy rain forced the race to be started under caution, and six laps were completed behind the pace car before the green flag waved to get the racing underway.

Scott Pruett made an impressive start from fifth in Ganassi's #01 car and grabbed the lead halfway through the first lap but shortly afterwards was overtaken by Michael Shank's Oswaldo Negri. Polesitter Max Angelelli (SunTrust) initially dropped back but was able to retake the lead for a while before a deflating tyre forced him to pit.

Ricardo Zonta also led the way briefly in Krohn's Racing Lola-Ford before having an off at Turn 3, while the #02 Ganassi car ran faultlessly and moved back into the lead entering the second hour of the race with Dixon at the wheel.

The Kiwi drove a long first stint in which he had to go through the transition from wet to dry on a quickly improving track as the rain stopped before the first hour was over. His team performed some very quick stops helping him leap to the front of the field.

Dixon drove the last part of his stint on dry weather Pirellis, timing the switch from wets perfectly, and set the pace at the front before handing the car over to Franchitti under a caution period.

The Scot led for the duration of his stint despite some caution periods bunching up the field behind him. The #6 MSR Riley-Ford driven by Brian Frisselle put some pressure on the leader at times, as did the #9 Action Express Riley-Porsche driven by Mike Rockenfeller.

"Scott did a very good job in the first stint with the rain," Franchitti told AUTOSPORT following his stint. "But conditions are pretty pretty tough. There's only one dry line and you can't be off at all.

"When passing the GT cars you have to pick your spots very carefully. It's hard to get temperature in the tyres but it's the same for everybody else."

Montoya took over from Franchitti but the #59 Brumos Riley-Porsche grabbed the lead thanks to a quicker stop and driver change. IndyCar racer Raphael Matos kept Montoya behind during a short stint before handing the car over to Butch Leitzinger.

Running on a different pit sequence, the #99 Chevrolet-powered Bob Stallings Racing Riley of Grand-Am champions Jon Fogarty and Alex Gurney then grabbed the lead of the race - making a great recovery having started from the back of the field after Jimmie Johnson crashed during practice on Thursday.

Jimmy Vasser was at the wheel when they led the race, having taken over from Johnson who had a couple of moments during his stint. When they pitted, Level 5's Lucas Luhr took over the lead but only briefly as Montoya dived to the outside of him on a restart just as the event reached the six-hour mark.

The SunTrust Dallara-Ford of polesitter Angelelli has had a series of issues, the latest one caused by Pedro Lamy, who slammed the wall on cold tyres exiting the pits.

The top ten runners in the Daytona Prototype class remain on the lead lap despite the race having passed the quarter-distance mark.

In the GT class the battle for the lead is a three-way fight between the #71 TRG Porsche, its #67 TRG/Flying Lizard twin and the #57 Camaro GT.R. The #70 Speedsource Mazda RX-8 is fourth in class, and is on the same lap as the leading trio.