Stewart ahead at dawn

Overnight leaders Scott Dixon, Darren Manning and Casey Mears plummeted down the order just after 4am Florida time when they brought their Chip Ganassi Racing Lexus-Riley into the garage for electrical repairs - costing the team 12 laps.

Almost simultaneously the second-placed SunTrust Racing Pontiac-Riley of Max Angelelli, Wayne Taylor and Emmanuel Collard lost nearly three laps while bodywork damage was repaired during the scheduled pit stop - allowing Wallace's Howard-Boss entry to vault from third to first.

Collard has since been on a charge, getting back on the lead lap just before a full course yellow at 6.15am.

The Howard-Boss entry driven by the Franchitti brothers, Dan Wheldon and Milka Duno is currently classified fifth but may well be out of the race after making heavy contact with the TPC Racing Porsche that was running second in the GT class. Franchitti had led the race at one stage until an earlier collision in traffic cost the team several laps.

Fabrizio Gollin, Matteo Bobbi and Didier Theys are now secure in third place for Doran Racing, having been less than 10s ahead of the Franchitti car before its problems.

Six cars were still racing closely on the lead lap when darkness fell, but many frontrunners have now dropped by the wayside. The polesitting Ganassi car suffered myriad problems early on, including a dramatic moment when it shed a section of bodywork, but is now running competitively in tenth.

The Bell Motorsports car featuring Paul Tracy in the driver line-up retired with engine failure after being delayed with an overheating problem, while Multimatic's all-star NASCAR line-up is running only 28th after transmission gremlins on Saturday evening.

A recent retirement was the Brumos Racing Porsche-Fabcar that had to start last after rolling in practice. Hurley Haywood, JC France, Mike Rockenfeller, Timo Bernhard and Romain Dumas made it into the top ten before tangling with a GT car at around 3am.

A trouble-free run for the Farnbacher Racing Porsche GT3 means that drivers Wolf Henzler, Dominik Farnbacher, Shawn Price and Pierre Ehret hold a comfortable advantage in the GT class.



Wallace/Lammers/Stewart (Howard-Boss Pontiac-Crawford) 541 laps
Angelelli/Taylor/Collard (SunTrust Pontiac-Riley) + 19.423s
Gollin/Bobbi/Theys (Doran Lexus-Doran) + 2 laps
Magnussen/Labonte/Herta/Labonte (Doran Pontiac-Doran) + 6 laps
Dixon/Manning/Mears (Ganassi Lexus-Riley) + 11 laps
Franchitti/Duno/Wheldon/Franchitti (Howard-Boss Pontiac-Crawford) + 13 laps
Leitzinger/Forbes-Robinson/Johnson (Howard-Boss Pontiac-Crawford) + 14 laps
Johansson/McMurray/Wagner (Ganassi Lexus-Riley) + 15 laps
Donohue/Law/Luhr/Maassen (Brumos Porsche-Fabcar) + 22 laps
Pruett/Diaz/Briscoe (Ganassi Lexus-Riley) + 22 laps



Henzler/Farnbacher/Price/Ehret (Farnbacher Porsche GT3) + 33 laps