Gil de Ferran took pole in qualifying by a considerable margin, but his lead did not last long as Dario Franchitti passed him at Turn 3 on the first lap.

The combination of incidents brought out a full course caution and the first round of pitstops as some backmarkers looked to make up track position by using alternate pit strategies.

The top ten running order on the 28th lap was Franchitti, de Ferran, Fittipaldi, Tracy, Vasser, Kanaan, season points leader Montoya, Patrick Carpentier, Memo Gidley, and Scott Pruett.

Montoya had made up four places to retake 15th position, while his teammate Vasser languished at the tail end of the lead lap.

Team Kool Green took advantage of the full course caution to bring in race leader Franchitti for a 12 second pitstop.

While the lead cars strung out ahead, Max Papis and Tony Kanaan tried desperately to pass Carpentier, who was struggling with old tires.

A short time later, Greg Moore retired with engine woes, while in the background, de Ferran locked up his brakes while trying to avoid a slow pack of cars entering turn 3.

At the restart, Fernandez took 6th place from Kanaan, but most other cars held station, as the marble buildup off racing line was becoming significant.

With 8 laps to go, Franchitti was 2.7 seconds ahead of teammate Tracy, followed by Fittipaldi, Moreno, Papis, the charging Adrian Fernandez, Pruett, Kanaan, Gugelmin, and Unser Jr., who'd started 25th.