Papis: Strategy, not luck, was the key

The Team Rahal driver cleverly used his position at the back of the pack to keep topping his car up with fuel under yellow flag caution periods. That paid off when he gained the lead when all the frontrunners pitted during the penultimate caution, while a late yellow for Oriol Servia's huge crash meant the race was shortened to two hours and gave him the fuel economy he required to run until the end.

"I'm very proud of my achievement," said Papis of his third career CART win. "Definitely today we didn't have the fastest car, but we had the best pit strategy. I attacked very hard and was under pressure all race, so I feel this was a great victory because we came from last to first. I told [team manager] Mark Johnson before the race that I thought we could pull something special out of here, and we did."

Second placed finisher Memo Gidley was fortunate, however, as he survived an pit fire when he made an early stop in his Target Ganassi Racing Lola-Toyota.

"I think the fuel mechanism stayed open," he said. "I left when I was given the signal, like I always do. I could feel the heat over my shoulder and thought it was better to drive away.

"Sometimes you win by running fast from the front and sometimes you do it by persevering at the back and making good pit calls," Gidley added. "When you start at the back, you hope for yellows, and that's what's happened to us the last two weeks."