Servia, meanwhile, equalled the season's-best fifth place he took at Richmond to move back into the top ten overall. The Catalan qualified eighth and used a similar early tyre strategy to his team-mate, but waited two laps more before making the switch to dry tyres. That was enough to drop him behind cars that pitted before him but, from then on, Servia drove a smart, patient race, passing slower cars and benefitting from good strategy and pit work to battle his way into the top five.
“You saw where we started and how we progressed through the weekend from 20th to eighth yesterday," he said of practice and qualifying, "We had a car that could win today, and we could have chosen a crazy strategy and maybe been a hero, but having a car that could contend at the front was a smarter thing to do, more logical, maybe more conservative, but definitely the right thing to do as we need those points.”
“I am very proud of this team," KVRT GM Mark Johnson remarked, "We have made a lot of progress and to have a result like we did today, to be competitive with championship-calibre teams like Penske and Ganassi, builds morale and give us a big boost as we work to improve.”
