The SunTrust Racing Dallara-Chevrolet driven Max Angelelli led the 49th Rolex 24 at Daytona International Speedway in the early going. Antonio Garcia's Spirit of Daytona Racing Coyote-Chevy ran a close second ahead of Alex Gurneyin the GAINSCO Bob Stallings Racing Riley-Chevy and the Michael Shank entries of A.J. Allmendinger and Oswaldo Negri.
The two Chip Ganassi Racing Riley-BMWs were running 16th and 17th – one lap down – early in the second hour of the race. Scott Pruett changed the gear stack on a green flag pit stop and lost a lap in the No. 01 TELMEX/Target Riley-BMW, while Scott Dixon punctured his right-rear tire and lost a lap in the No. 02 entry.
"It's not the best start to the race, but the car is still in one piece," Dixon said after turning the car over to Dario Franchitti. "It's better to get this stuff out of the way. There's a long way to go. It that's our biggest problem, we'll have a pretty good race."