When Pruett pitted in the #01 car, it allowed James into the lead for MSR ahead of Hand and Barbosa, with
Juan Pablo Montoya now at the wheel of the Ganassi entry. James wouldn't remain out front for long however, as little more than ten minutes after hitting the front, he suffered a spin which enabled both Hand and Barbosa to move ahead. Further down the DP pack, the Bob Stallings/Riley-Matthews team was amongst those in trouble, with Johnny O'Connell having climbed as high as fifth before he was forced into the pits with an engine issue.
A full course caution for debris on the circuit saw the race back under yellows approaching the 20th hour and as the resulting pit-stops played through it was Barbosa who hit the front after he elected not to stop. Montoya was now second, with Burt Frisselle third in the #6 MSR entry. Joey Hand was now fourth for Ruby Tuesday, while Justin Wilson had the second MSR car in fifth. In GT, Sylvain Tremblay now led on his own in the Speedsource Mazda – a lap clear of Dumas' Porsche and just outside the top ten overall.
Before the caution finished, Ganassi had lost its second car after Alex Lloyd suffered a spin and then on the first lap of green flag racing, Barbosa spun coming out of the final turn – handing the lead to Montoya and bringing out the caution once again.
After 20 minutes of cleaning up, the race got back underway with Montoya quickly opening up a lead over Frisselle, with Hand third, Justin Wilson fourth and Alex Gurney fifth. Wilson wouldn't run highly for long however, with a spin in the International Horseshoe damaging the rear of the car and leading to a stop that would leave the car well out of contention.
It led to another caution period at which point a number of teams pitted, although Montoya wasn't amongst them – meaning he lead Frisselle by 13secs when the race got back underway. Third placed Hand though was in trouble, bringing the Ruby Tuesday car into the pits smoking heavily as the 20th hour drew to a close. A blown rear main seal would force the car behind the wall and out of the race.
![Castroneves/Briscoe/Busch - Penske-Taylor Riley-Pontiac [pic credit: Grand-Am]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/401754.jpg)
