Bourdais Wins In Detroit

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DETROIT — Sebastien Bourdais held off Takuma Sato in a three-lap shootout Sunday to win the second race of the Chevrolet Dual in Detroit, then promptly ran out of fuel.

After a spirited challenge by Sato during the first two laps of the timed conclusion of the race, Bourdais pulled away during the final lap as Sato had to fight off Graham Rahal for second place.

It was Bourdais’ first win since he claimed a street race last July in Toronto. His car was so low on fuel, it sputtered to a stop just as he was about to perform a celebratory burnout.

“It was just about as nerve wracking as it gets,” Bourdais said of the finish. “When we elected to stay out, I was like, ‘Oh, man, it is all or nothing’ from there. … The difference is that we obviously deserved it I think because the boys worked really hard.”

It also was the sixth victory by a Chevrolet-powered car in eight races of the 2015 Verizon IndyCar Series season. Honda surprised its opponent with a win by Carlos Munoz in the rain in Saturday’s first race of the dual-race format, but Bourdais was able to help the engine supplier capture its hometown race.

“It’s just a heck of a feeling,” the 36-year-old Frenchman said. “After yesterday’s debacle where

we couldn’t get it more wrong yesterday and today, well we did everything wrong yesterday but did everything right today. The strategy, the pit stops, the management of the fuel — the guys did awesome. I couldn’t be any happier.”

Juan Pablo Montoya dominated the first half of the 70-lap race until a slow pit stop on Lap 37 dropped him back to sixth place. Montoya was held up as a crew member attempted to make an adjustment to the car’s left front wing.

“We can’t be doing that,” Montoya said over the radio after the incident. “No comment.”

After more than half of the race was completed without a caution, the action was slowed by a number of crashes in the later laps. On Lap 36, rookie Rodolfo Gonzalez crashed in Turn 5. Five laps later, Luca Filippi and Stefano Coletti crashed in separate incidents. On Lap 49, Josef Newgarden crashed in Turn 8.

On Lap 55, Sage Karam hit the back of Jack Hawksworth’s car in Turn 3. The crash also collected Coletti, who — with Karam — continued. After a restart three laps later, Scott Dixon was taken out by Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Charlie Kimball in Turn 4.

On Lap 61, Hawksworth spun and continued, but a yellow flag waved for debris from a collision between Kimball and Will Power. On the ensuing restart, Power and Team Penske teammate Helio Castroneves got together. Series officials opted for a red flag to allow the race to finish under green.

The race opened with Saturday’s winner, Carlos Munoz, encountering a mechanical issue and stopping on a runoff area. The incident didn’t result in a caution.

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