PORTLAND, Oregon – How good was Sebastien Bourdais’ fourth-place qualifying effort Saturday at Portland International Raceway?

“As good as any pole I’ve ever won,” said Craig Hampson, Bourdais’ veteran engineer for Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser-Sullivan.

The accomplishment merited such praise because about three hours before qualifying, Bourdais lost control of his No. 18 Gorilla Automotive Products-sponsored car in Turn 10 and slammed the tire barrier with the rear. The damage was extensive, so much so that Bourdais feared the work wouldn’t be done in time to make a qualifying attempt.

The beehive of activity included crew members wearing all three of Dale Coyne’s teams – about 20 members in all, led by Bourdais’ chief mechanic, Todd Phillips. Bourdais called the additional car of rookie Santino Ferrucci a blessing in disguise.

“Without three crews I don’t think we would have been able to put the car (back) together,” Bourdais said. “It was an incredible effort to recover from my mistake.”

A backup car crashed seven days earlier at Gateway Motorsports Park was pulled off the trailer for spare parts. In those three hours were these reconfigured or rebuilt pieces: underwing, gearbox, right rear uprights, steering rack, engine cover, sidepod … and that’s just the things Hampson could think of off the top of his head.

“Yeah, big (repairs),” he said. “If I’m being honest, I didn’t think we’d get it done, and we did with probably 15 minutes to spare. Incredible.”

Bourdais did the rest, taking a car he was forced to have confidence in and advancing through a pair of qualifying rounds.

“In qualifying there isn’t time to build up (to speed),” Hampson said.

Said Bourdais: “The car may have looked like a Frankenstein car, but it was just about as good as it was in the morning. Yeah, I was really pleased with everything – good results under the circumstances.”