Bourdais prepared to be patient

The Frenchman can wrap up the championship if he outscores AJ Allmendinger and Justin Wilson by eight points at Road America. The former teammates are tied on points in second place.

"For us to clinch the championship this weekend we would need to have a perfect weekend and our opponents would need to have a bad one," said Bourdais.

"What we need to do is just finish the event and leave Elkhart Lake with the same points lead."

If the Newman Haas driver does maintain his advantage, then he will win the championship by just starting the penultimate round at Surfers Paradise.

"That would put us in a similar scenario to last year but we were able to do it in style with a victory, which is what we hoped for instead of just winning it by starting."

In the rookie points standings, Will Power continues to head Dan Clarke, but the Brit has already scored a podium finish this season, and Power is also aware of how close the overall standings are.

"I've got a reasonable points lead in the rookie fight, but overall we also have to beware of how close the points are from fourth to 12th," he said.

"We need to be aggressive here and get that first podium, and this would be a great race to do it at before heading to my home event."