Monday, Sept. 27, 2004 | 10:05 a.m.
After running side-by-side and nose-to-tail with teammate Bruno Junqueira at more than 200 miles per hour for the final 20 laps of Saturday's Champ Car World Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, race winner Sebastien Bourdais appeared more relieved than elated.
It was clear that Bourdais, a 25-year-old Frenchman, didn't enjoy the show as much as the few thousand fans who stuck around for the second half of the racing doubleheader with the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series.
"No, I think it was pretty scary," Bourdais said when asked if he liked the close racing.
In fact, Bourdais said he even considered yielding the lead to Junqueira as they were in the midst of swapping the lead five times in the final nine laps.
"At some point, I was maybe thinking about backing off because he was so close," Bourdais said. "If we (make) contact at that point, it's really going cause a mess. I'm just glad he's a smart guy but racing like this, it's difficult."
Bourdais overcame his reluctance and held off Junqueira by .066 seconds to win the inaugural Bridgestone 400. It was Bourdais' sixth victory of the season and allowed him to increase his lead in the championship over Junqueira to 27 points with two races left on the 2004 schedule.
For Junqueira, it was his sixth runner-up finish in a season in which he has only one victory in 12 starts. Las Vegas resident Patrick Carpentier, who started from the pole and ran with leaders all evening, finished third. There were 13 lead changes among five drivers in the race.
Like his Newman/Haas Racing teammate, Junqueira said he was glad the Champ Cars don't race on high-speed ovals such as LVMS on a regular basis.
"It was an exciting race for the fans," Junqueira said. "When you finish the race in one piece, it's enjoyable -- but that's not what always happens. Maybe once a year is OK."
Bourdais, who led 100 of the 166 laps and won with an average speed of 167.832 mph, said he thought briefly Saturday night that he wouldn't be challenging for the race win after he received a scare during the first round of pit stops on lap 37. Bourdais' crew had a hard time refueling his car as Bourdais watched car after car beat him out of the pits.
"I thought it was over in the pits," Bourdais said of the problem with the refueling hose. "My stop took like four or five seconds longer than anyone else and I saw all the guys leaving in front of us and I thought, 'man, this is not looking good at all.'
"It was very frustrating but I knew it was going to be a very long race and I was not too worried about that."
Bourdais ended up losing no track position because of the pit problem when race leader Alex Tagliani of Las Vegas received a stop-and-go penalty for not pitting within the mandatory 37-lap pit window. Bourdais inherited the lead when Tagliani was black-flagged on lap 58 and led until the next round of pit stops on lap 75.
Bourdais regained the lead on lap 79 and stretched his lead to 3 seconds before the second and final caution period came out on lap 125. Once the race was restarted on lap 134, the two-car battle between Bourdais and Junqueira intensified.
The two ran side-by-side from lap 147 on, with Junqueira leading four times in the closing laps but, eventually, running into lapped traffic that made overtaking Bourdais difficult in the final three laps.
"With five or six laps (to go) I was running side-by-side with Sebastien," Junqueira said. "I tell all the guys (on the team) that I could draft him, but with two (lapped) cars (in the way), I knew I had no chance.
"Between lap 10 to go and three to go, I knew that I had a chance, but then when the (lapped cars) started running side-by-side, Sebastien started to get a little bit ahead."
After a pair of disappointing past two races in which he finished 15th in Montreal and eighth at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca and saw his championship lead trimmed from 58 points to 24, Bourdais let it be known Saturday that he wouldn't give up his points lead without a fight.
"After two frustrating race weekends, (this win) is very rewarding," Bourdais said. "It is another great finish for Newman/Haas Racing -- hopefully we can also finish one and two in the championship."
And there's no doubt who Bourdais believes should finish first in that battle.
"We deserve the championship -- but that doesn't mean we're going to win it," he said. "We're just going to keep our heads down and carry on with what we've been doing all season. Will it be good enough? You never know."
Las Vegas resident Paul Tracy, the defending series champion, had his race end before he ever turned an official lap Saturday night and was officially eliminated from the championship. Tracy noticed during the parade laps that the driveshaft wasn't turning his right rear wheel and pulled into the pits as the rest of the field took the green flag.
"I can't say how disappointed I am," Tracy said. "Not to be able to run in the race in my hometown Las Vegas is very, very sad. We didn't have the quickest car during practice or qualifying, but we'd made some progress (Saturday) afternoon and you can never rule out anything on the ovals; dramatic comebacks happen and I'll always race hard if any points are on the table.
"But tonight I lost the drive to my rear right wheel because of a broken spline and there was nothing we could do to stay in the race. We were out before we'd even started."
Another Las Vegas resident, Jimmy Vasser, finished fifth after running with the leaders for much of the first half of the race. Tagliani finished three laps down, in 16th place, after being penalized for not stopping within the pit window.
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