Photo Credit: Chris Jones/IndyCar
Following a long recovery during a crash in Indianapolis 500 qualifying, Sebastien Bourdais will return to Dale Coyne Racing’s No. 18 Honda this weekend for the Bommarito Automotive Group 500 presented by Valvoline at Gateway Motorsports Park. It’s only been 14 weeks since Bourdais was last in the car, where he crashed during his qualifying attempt, in which he suffered hip and pelvic fractures.
The French driver has made a tremendous recovery from his injuries and was recently cleared by Dr. Geoffrey Billows, the medical director for INDYCAR after Bourdais completed a successful test at Mid-Ohio SportsCar Course at the end of July. Bourdais will join his fellow Verizon IndyCar Series competitors for practice on Friday to open the race weekend at Gateway.
“You have no idea how excited I am to be getting back in the car this weekend and for the remainder of the season,” Bourdais said. “It’s been a long 14 weeks and I’ve worked very hard to get to this point. Following the crash, I had one goal in mind and that was to be back for Sonoma, and here I am getting back in the car with three races to go. It’s a bit unbelievable but I can’t wait to try out that new surface at Gateway this weekend!”
With Bourdais’s return to the No. 18 car that means rookie Esteban Gutierrez, the driver who filled in during his recovery, will step aside.
“It’s been a very interesting few months for me getting to race in the Verizon IndyCar Series on the street circuits, road courses and especially ovals,” Gutierrez added. “I want to thank the team and Dale Coyne for giving me this opportunity to gain this experience in view of a full-time program in the Verizon IndyCar Series next year. My goal was to learn as much as possible in order to be ready for 2018, where a new car will be introduced. This experience with the team will pay dividends next season.”
Bourdais will join his teammate rookie Ed Jones inside the Dale Coyne Racing garage for the final three races.
“It’s great to have Sebastien back,” team owner Dale Coyne said, “But I want to thank Esteban for the amazing job he did filling in for him these last few months. It wasn’t easy for him coming in and having never driven an Indy car, but he did a fantastic job, especially on the ovals. For someone that had never driven on an oval track before Iowa in July, he impressed a lot of people including myself. Hopefully we get to work with him again in the future.”
