Update: Montoya, Franchitti leading Rolex after 22 hours

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - Chip Ganassi Racing nursed a slightly hot engine, leaving teams that were hoping to unseat the two-time defending Rolex 24 At Daytona champions thinking something could go wrong with the Ganassi car.

The Ganassi team of Sprint Cup drivers Juan Pablo Montoya and Dario Franchitti, with road-course aces Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas, owned a three-lap lead with 90 minutes left in the race at Daytona International Speedway.

Montoya was to run a pace of 1 minute, 48 seconds a lap instead of 1:43 to make sure he engine doesn't overheat. The team had led 205 of 648 laps with 90 minutes remaining.

"It's pretty good," said Montoya, who handed off the car to Pruett with about two hours remaining. "It was getting a little hot. We've [had] a five-lap lead, so we decided just to back off and bring the car home. ... We've got enough of a lead, we can just cruise along.

"I don't even want to think about winning. We're doing good and everything is going our way. Until the fat lady sings, it's not over."

Three laps down was Alex Gurney, a Bob Stallings Racing driver who took the wheel from two-time defending Cup champion Jimmie Johnson with about 2 1/2 hours remaining.

Johnson had cut a few laps off of Montoya's lead but had to pit after running through oil and flat-spotting the tires. Then he watched Gurney, the defending series champion, get in the car to finish the race.

"I wanted it to be in Alex's hands or Jon's hands because this is what they do," said Johnson, whose team had led 85 laps. "All along, in my own mind, been willing to get out and let them take control."

Running third, five laps down, was Helio Castroneves, with Penske-Taylor Racing. He took over after 2004 Cup champion Kurt Busch exited the car.

"We had some overheating issues and we had to short-pit a few times and we had to blow the radiator out and we had to drain the water at one point," Busch said. "We have to keep purging it every other run just to keep it cool. If we didn't have that problem, we'd be right on the lead lap in the mix."

The most disappointed Cup driver of the day was AJ Allmendinger, the Red Bull Racing driver who had some stellar runs and his team led 118 laps before a blown tire resulted in a suspension break and retired the team with 3 hours, 18 minutes remaining.

That team was leading when it happened with Montoya the only other driver on the lead lap.

"We've been lucky," Ganassi said with about three hours remaining. "We had a great team this weekend. Knock on wood, everything has been good so far."

Would Johnson feel bad if Ganassi's Lexus had an issue and Johnson's team could possibly win the race?

"For this trophy, you never know," Johnson said with a laugh.

The Allmendinger team was listed in 17th with 90 minutes remaining. Allmendinger wasn't the only strong team with a NASCAR tie to have trouble. The AIM Motorpsorts team with Roush Fenway Racing truck series driver Colin Braun had to retire after fuel pump problems and an accident. They were in 48th place.

Mechanical gremlins also stymied the team of veteran Cup driver John Andretti, which was running in 13th. Although Indianapolis Motor Speedway CEO Tony George was listed as a possible co-driver, he opted to just oversee the team as its owner.

In the GT category for production-based cars, the TRG Motorsports No. 66 car that included its truck series driver Andy Lally was second, five laps behind the leader, and 10th overall.

Michael Waltrip Racing's Michael McDowell was part of a team that was running 16th.

The race ends at 1:30 p.m. EST.

• Mentioned Drivers:
• AJ Allmendinger