His progress was interrupted, however, when AJ Foyt brought out the third yellow on lap 30, losing the Vision Racing Dallara after contact from John Andretti when pinching his fellow American as the latter attempted to pass.
In a disappointing fluke for Vision, however, the second car of Ed carpenter was the only one to strike parts of Foyts machine as they were scattered across the track, badly damaging the right front corner. Having made it back to the pit, however, Carpenter and Vision were not about to give up, and began rebuilding the car in an attempt to rejoin and take advantage of any future carnage.
It proved to be a wise decision as, following a fourth caution to clear debris, the lap 80 restart was marred by another accident. The leaders - Kanaan heading AGR team-mate Andretti, Graham Rahal, Scott Dixon and Dan Wheldon in largely grid order - had headed for pit-lane under the initial yellow, allowing rookie Jaime Camara - who had emulated countryman Castroneves' progress from the back of the field - to assume control behind the safety car and, after the first attempt at getting underway was aborted, the next effort saw five cars involved in separate incidents that would have implications for all.
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.
