NEWTON, Iowa – Sebastien Bourdais advanced 10 positions to win at The Milwaukee Mile on July 12. Six days later, he also was a big mover in the Iowa Corn 300 at Iowa Speedway.

Bourdais started at the rear of the 24-car grid for the 300-lap race on the .894-mile Iowa Speedway oval after an incident during qualifying earlier in the day in which the No. 11 Team Mistic E-Cigs – KVSH Racing Chevrolet made contact with the Turn 2 SAFER Barrier. He finished ninth.

“It was a really good effort from the Mistic E-Cigs Chevy team,” Bourdais said. “You have to feel good about going from 24th to ninth and the fact that over the last two races we have really improved the car and our performance on ovals, but to get up to sixth and end up ninth, that is always tough.

“But, with the debacle of qualifying, I guess we have to be pretty happy with the result.”

Graham Rahal, who won at Auto Club Speedway on June 27 and placed third at Milwaukee, gained 13 positions relative to his qualifying spot to finish fourth in the No. 15 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda.

“That was my hardest race ever,” he said. “First we had the right rear (tire) go down and then the car just wouldn’t shift. You don’t know how tough that is around here when you’re in traffic and you need to go down to fifth, fourth gear at times and I couldn’t do anything. It was a killer for me. 

“We were quicker than (winner) Hunter-Reay, that’s for sure, which is frustrating. When the car was working right, we passed all those guys. The car was good, very competitive, very consistent over the long run and that’s what helped me.”

Ryan Briscoe earned a top-10 finish after being involved in crashes the past two races. He gained 11 positions for eighth place in the No. 5 Arrow/Lucas Oil Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda.

“I think we should be pretty happy with the race we ran,” he said. "Man, we fought hard. All weekend, we were struggling with the balance in the No. 5 Arrow Electronics car since first practice and I think we pretty much threw the kitchen sink at it for the race. We made improvements all weekend and I was really proud of the guys. No one ever gave up.”

Tritan Vautier moved from 20th on the grid to 12th in the No. 19 Dale Coyne Racing Honda, and Jack Hawksworth also gained eight positions to finish 13th in the No. 41 ABC Supply Honda for AJ Foyt Racing.