Worst to 1st: Bourdais wins IndyCar opener

you’re pushing everybody so hard. It’s hard because you want this so bad, and you put so much into it, that at some point it’s very easy to be overdemanding.”

So the potential is there this season for Bourdais to help build the Coyne organization. Few expected it to come Sunday on the temporary street course in St. Pete, the town Bourdais calls home. Team Penske was seeking its fourth consecutive victory in the event, and a problem in qualifying meant Bourdais started last in the 21-car field.

It left him downtrodden the day before the race because it was his error.

“Come out of yesterday, feel miserable about yourself. Man, I just threw that one away so bad,” he said. “It’s probably the hardest race to recover. The (passing) windows are super narrow and it’s difficult to pass.

Bourdais earned his 36th career victory, which broke a tie with Bobby Unser for sixth on IndyCar’s win list. It was the fifth career win for the Coyne team, first since Carlos Huertas won at Houston in 2014.

“We were hoping we could win a race or two this year. We’re halfway there. Maybe we can do better than that. We’ll see,” Coyne said. “The money we spent over the winter was starting to pay off.”

Bourdais led 69 of the 110 laps to give Honda a much-needed victory over Chevrolet.

He beat reigning series champion Simon Pagenaud, a fellow Frenchman, to the finish line by 10.350 seconds.

Scott Dixon finished third for Chip Ganassi Racing, in its first race back with Honda. Ryan Hunter-Reay was fourth for Andretti Autosport.