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Sunday, 27th January 2008

Three-in-a-row for defending champions.

That retirement put the GAINSCO car up into third place with Kurt Busch fourth for Penske-Taylor Racing and Darren Turner fifth for Krohn Racing. However, only the top two cars were now on the lead lap, with the rest straggling behind.

However, towards the end of the 21st hour came the defining moment of the race as Frisselle hit problems in the #6 MSR entry. Now leading the race after Montoya pitted under caution, Frisselle suddenly pitted himself with smoke pouring from the car after a puncture and suspension failure. For the team it was the end of the challenge, with the resulting trip behind the wall leaving the car more then 40 laps off the pace and outside the top ten.

Montoya therefore moved back into the lead and had a comfortable lead over Jimmie Johnson in the GAINSCO car, with Turner third for Krohn Racing and Busch fourth for Penske-Taylor, although the pair would swap positions before the race entered its 22nd hour.

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At the head of both the DP and GT fields, the win was looking to become a foregone conclusion, with Montoya four laps clear of second placed Alex Gurney in the GAINSCO car and Raphael Matos also well clear of the GT field at the wheel of the Mazda.

Approaching the 23rd hour, the positions at the front were settling down, with Montoya leading Gurney, Helio Castroneves, Nic Jonsson and Michael Valiante. Indeed, there were no changes through the hour as the teams made their final stops and prepared for the run to the flag.

Before that last sprint however there was to be another caution after Ed Carpenter hit the wall in the Vision Racing Crawford - with the field then heading into the final hour of a race beset by cautions that dominated large parts of proceedings.

For Ganassi there was to be no sting in the tail, as Pruett returned to the wheel of the car to bring the #01 car to the flag for the second successive season – giving the team victory for the third time in a row, the first team to achieve the feat.

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