In the red early light, overtaking race leader, finished in front (9)
I believe the answer is:
overdrawn
'in the red' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'early light overtaking race leader finished in front' is the wordplay.
'early light' becomes 'dawn' (the sun in the morning).
'overtaking' indicates putting letters inside (a word 'takes over' another set of letters).
'leader' says to take the initial letters.
'finished' becomes 'over' (over can mean finished or ended).
'in front' says to put letters next to each other.
The first letter of 'race' is 'r'.
'dawn' placed around 'r' is 'drawn'.
'drawn' put after 'over' is 'OVERDRAWN'.
(Other definitions for overdrawn that I've seen before include "got into debt" , "bust?" , "Cartoonishly exaggerated" , "venturing into red" , "is no longer credited" .)