While Buddy Rice blew his strong qualifying run by losing the rear of the lead Dreyer & Reinbold car approaching the green, hitting the main 'straight' wall hard enough to trigger the yellows, behind him, Darren Manning was forced to check up as he caught Dixon quicker than expected, giving Vitor Meira nowhere to go. In the chaos, Ryan Briscoe hit Manning hard, badly damaging the front end of the Penske car, while Bruno Junqueira's promising start to the race went no further as he too was involved.

Meira and Manning, having triggered the incident appeared to have got away without too much harm, but the Briton was in next time around. Like Carpenter's crew, however, the AJ Foyt team - and Briscoe's Penske men - refused to believe that their race was over and set about replacing the damaged parts in an attempt to rejoin the fray.

Meira, meanwhile, continued only as far as the restart twelve laps later, when he found himself unceremoniously dumped into the wall by John Andretti. Although the American veteran held his hand up - and suffered by far the greater damage - Meira was also out on the spot, bringing the casualty list to ten - including walking wounded - with the race yet to reach one-third distance.

Camara had continued to lead at each restart, with Kanaan distracted on the latest attempt as Castroneves went three-wide with his fellow Brazilian and Danica Patrick, who had found herself in the mix courtesy of AGR's decision to pit her, along with several others including Camara and those involved in the latest incident, during the Foyt/Carpenter-inspired yellow.

With a substantial clear-up operation to be carried out, the caution extended through lap 100, with Patrick and Townsend Bell taking another opportunity to top off their tanks as Carpenter finally resumed. Camara, meanwhile, prolonged his stay at the front by resisting Kanaan until lap 114, when the elder Brazilian's look allowed Andretti Jr into second. A lap later, the American was into the lead and, once there, proceded to pull out one of the biggest leads of the night.

Again, however, any attempt to pull away and establish a lead that would last to the chequer was thwarted when fellow 'son of' Graham Rahal found the turn four wall, ending a strong run for the Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing team that had seem feature at the sharp end for a long time.

The ensuing yellow, however, saw the majority of the contenders opt to pit for fuel and tyres, but Andretti remained on course, confident that the cautions would fall for him later on. The AGR driver lead Ernesto Viso, Bell and Patrick at the top of the order, before Kanaan resumed in fifth after winning the race of pit-road. The next yellow came too soon for Andretti, when Hunter-Reay was nerfed out by Mario Moraes just two quick tours after the restart, and only Patrick, Hideki Mutoh and Dixon - twice, the second to try and cure a handling deficiency that had plagued him all night - took the opportunity to stop. Manning and Briscoe, meanwhile, swelled the number of runners by returning in pursuit of vital points.

Viso resistance in second did not last long, but Andretti again made the most of the clear track to pull away in the lead, eventually stretching his fuel over 100 laps before being forced to pit under the longest green of the night so far. With a lap of Richmond taking just over 14 seconds to complete, the AGR car went a lap down, and it was sometime before he was able to get the deficit back.

Typically for a driver who can't buy a break at the moment, the remainder of the field was given the opportunity to make their final stops under caution, as Camara's breakthrough performance came to a sad end exiting turn four on lap 217. Kanaan won the race to rejoin the track - albeit after nosing ahead of Castroneves at pit exit - and the die was cast for the rest of the race.

The fourth AGR car wasn't so lucky, Mutoh breaking a half-shaft as he gunned the throttle to rejoin, but the remainder of the fild would have made it to the chequer had Briscoe and Carpenter not decided to peel off when it became obvious that they could not gain any further ground after their downtime.