Dramatic Rolex 24 finish

The Howard-Bell Motorsports Chevrolet-powered Crawford, driven by Britain's Andy Wallace and NASCAR stars Tony Stewart and Dale Earnhardt Jr, suffered a last-gasp suspension failure with just 20 minutes remaining. That opened the door for the Bell Motorsports Doran-Pontiac of Terry Borcheller, Forest Barber, Andy Pilgrim and former CART star Christian Fittipaldi to inherit a fortunate win.

"Evidently a rocker was breaking, which is your spring on the right rear corner," said a gutted Stewart. "That was the first major problem, and it kept getting worse and worse."

In a race blighted by torrential rain, which caused the event to be halted for more than three hours, many of the fancied runners fell by the wayside. The Chip Ganassi Racing Riley Lexus of Max Papis, Scott Pruett, Scott Dixon and Jimmy Morales, which led from pole early on, was struck by cooling problems before half distance.

Ex-pat Briton Pilgrim said of the conditions: "It's been atrocious; certainly the worst Daytona weather I've ever seen. Even when it dried out, it didn't dry out. It just meant puddles were smaller."

The Orbit Racing Porsche GT3 RS of Mike Fitzgerald, Robin Liddell, Johnny Mowlem, Joe Policastro and Jay Policastro finished second. Autosport.com columnist Mowlem, who repeated his runner-up spot of 2003, commented: "It was very, very slippery out there, especially off-line, so it was quite difficult keeping out of trouble. Also, the windshield was getting very wet on the inside with water coming in, so visibility through the left was really, really tough. Following other cars, the visibility was the biggest issue. The car itself ran like clockwork."

The Flying Lizard Motorsports Porsche of Johannes van Overbeek, Seth Neiman, Lonnie Pechnik, Peter Cunningham and Mike Rockenfeller finished third, as the Daytona Prototype field struggled in the appallingly wet conditions.