It was a story of what could have been for several drivers, with Wilson also set back by the brush with Power - although the Aussie required the more extensive cosmetic repairs - and then a spin of his own in the latter stages. At that point, Wilson had forced his way back into the top six, passing RSports team-mate Alex Tagliani in the process, but his mishap dropped him to the tail of the top ten by the chequer.
Forsythe stand-in Oriol Servia could also have laid claim to a podium, if not the overall win, having moved up into second after the first round of pit-stops. Calling in for fuel and tyres slightly earlier than Bourdais meant that the Spaniard was on a marginally different strategy, but his downfall came at the hands of his own team-mate, if slightly unfortunately. Making his final stop, Servia was about to rejoin the fray when Dominguez arrived, momentarily blocking the Long Beach runner-up in his stall. That was enough to allow Bourdais extra time to make his stop, and promoted Rahal and Robert Doornbos into the podium positions. Bourdais' own final stop came under the microscope when the NHLR car appeared on pit-road with the final yellow of the day already flying, but the stewards adjudged the Frenchman to have been committed at the time of its arrival, paving the way for win number 26 of his career.
Rahal duly became the youngest Champ Car podium visitor as he crossed the line four seconds adrift of his team-mate, completing the first Newman/Haas 1-2 since Bourdais and Bruno Junqueira accomplished the feat at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in 2005. Having missed his high school prom to race, Rahal made the most of a top six grid position to run in the leading group throughout, picking up places as those around him faltered.
Doornbos, too, made up good ground, vaulting from a lowly 13th at the start to seventh in the early laps. From there, slick pit work from the Minardi Team USA crew moved the Dutchman into contention and, when Servia suffered his pit-lane problems, Doornbos was well set to claim his second podium in three races.
