Only a matter of weeks again, Sebastien Bourdais was being proclaimed as the new Champ Car World Series Champion, with the Frenchman opening up a 58 point lead in the standings that looked unassailable.

However Lady Luck has not been shining on the Newman Haas driver in recent meetings, and disappointing finishes in Montreal and at Laguna Seca mean that once again Bourdais is forced to look over his shoulder.

In those two meetings, Bruno Junqueira has secured a first and a second to close the gap on his teammate to 24 points as the Champ Cars head to the 1.5 mile superspeedway oval at Las Vegas this weekend.

Despite his recent misfortune, Bourdais heads to Las Vegas looking to make a little history of his own, as he attempts to build on a season that has already put him in the record books. In terms of success during qualifying, Bourdais is in the midst of one of the great years in the history of Champ Car, winning seven poles in 11 starts including the last four in a row. He could become one of only four drivers to win five consecutive poles if he duplicates the feat in Friday's qualifying, joining Alex Zanardi (1997), Danny Sullivan (1988) and Mario Andretti (1984) on that list.

However, race-day success has not automatically followed for Bourdais, as early-race incidents have led to finishes of 15th and eighth respectively in the last two races.

He feels that the race will be a team effort and should be exciting for the fans.

“Racing in Las Vegas is a lot about the team effort and how good they are and how good your wind tunnel program is,” he said. “Craig [Hampson – engineer] is very good at sorting out the best package to show up with to make the car as fast as we can. There are going to be some surprises though. The outcome isn't going to rely so much on the driver but it's going to be an exciting race because it's going to be close racing, hard racing and very fast and we cannot afford to make a mistake in those kinds of conditions.”

Junqueira has been the total opposite of Bourdais this year, winning just one pole and leading only 70 laps, but his consistency has earned him seven podiums and makes him the most imminent threat to Bourdais' title aspirations. The Brazilian also posted the fastest speed of the day during last month's Champ Car testing at LVMS, and he believes that he believes that not only can fans expect an exciting race, they can expect an exciting end to the season as a whole.

“Everybody is going to race really hard since there are only three races to go and it's an important time in the championship,” he said. “It's going to be a very close race with a lot of fighting. I think the fans can expect a sensational finish at the end.”

Patrick Carpentier has made the most of the opportunity presented in the last two races, finishing second in Montreal and scoring his first win of the year with a dominant performance at Laguna Seca. The Forsythe Championship Racing driver has moved to within a single point of third place in the standings and is still within reach of his first series championship.