“Where do I start...," the veteran said, "Winning the race with Will and three KV Racing Technology cars finishing in the top ten was fantastic.

“I obviously wished for a better finish for myself but I put the KVRT Plantronics car in neutral in the hairpin and lost four or five spots, which really hurt. I had to burn a lot of fuel to catch a back-up, which was too bad.”

There was no repeat of the emotional scenes of two weeks ago for Graham Rahal either, the St Pete winner never featuring in Long Beach and having to settle for 13th - ahead of Alex Figge, Nelson Philippe and Antonio Pizzonia - as Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing suffered its worst weekend in the city for some time.

Joining Wilson on the sidelines were rookies Mario Moraes - who crashed out with five laps under his belt - and Juho Annala, as well as veteran Roberto Moreno, who got to within 20 laps of the chequer on his return to the series.

“We'd hoped to win here and, at the very least, get a good points haul, so it's really disappointing,” Wilson said, “I knew there was something wrong fairly early on, because I was finding it a real struggle to hit my fuel mileage target. Then we lost a cylinder and, finally, it gave up the ghost coming down the front straight. It's a missed opportunity, but we'll just have to put it behind us and re-focus on finding a good set-up on the Dallara at Kansas.”

While the IndyCar championship continues next weekend, it could not be forgotten that this was the end of an era, however, and Dominguez's closing comment summed the mood up perfectly.

"It is a sad moment for me because I will miss Champ Car," he admitted, "I loved Champ Car and I will always be so proud to have won in Champ Car.

"But there has to be one series - that is very clear. The future is bright, I am sad but, at the same time happy, in the end, the fans will be the winners and that is terrific and I hope to be part of that."