“Today, we’re really starting to make progress at ovals,” Bourdais said. “On these ovals, you can go from here to zero and back to hero again. I guess that’s my story.”
Bourdais has won 34 races in his IndyCar career that spans 10 years. He won four consecutive IndyCar championships, from 2004 to 2007, before leaving the series to race in Formula 1. Bourdais returned to the Verizon IndyCar Series in 2011. A master at driving on street circuits, Bourdais has struggled with oval-track races, where he’s only been able to win five times in 143 races.
“It’s so much about momentum when you can feel one with the car,” Bourdais said. “It felt pretty good off the truck and I thought, ‘This could be a pretty good weekend.’ When the car is right, it’s so special.”
Bourdais led the field for 53 laps, from Lap 117 to Lap 170, and then took possession of the race on Lap 188, leading all the way to the finish.
Finishing second behind Bourdais was Helio Castroneves, whose qualifying rule violation sent him to the back of the field. He said he knew he had a good car at the start of the race and simply had to concentrate while making his way to the front.
“I was pushing to the limit. We had a little miscue with qualifying, but we never lost faith,” said Castroneves. “I didn’t know what position I was until Lap 200, I think. I glanced and saw my number and thought, “Oh, I guess I am doing well.’”
Coming off a win two weeks ago in California, Graham Rahal was back on the podium, finishing third at the Wisconsin 250. Rahal admitted he was surprised by his placing.
“Our strength is not ovals,” he said. “The last couple of years, we’ve been terrible so I’m pretty shocked. It’s pretty awesome to see and I think it shows the resilience of this team.”
The Wisconsin 250 ran pretty evenly and there were only three caution periods during the race, two due to a stalled cars on the track.
Juan Pablo Montoya leads the Verizon IndyCar Series driver standings by 54 points over Scott Dixon, while Rahal and Castroneves are tied in the third spot, 15 points further back, and Will Power is fourth just one point behind them.
Power, the defending series champion, did not finish his second straight race and knows he has to do something special with only four races remaining in 2015, if he is going to defend his title.
“There is no question, it is going to make it tough,” Power said. “We just have to focus and move on to the next one.”
The Iowa Corn 300 is the next race on the Verizon IndyCar Series schedule. The race runs on July 18, 2015, at Iowa Speedway.
