Hunter-Reay happy to repay Rahal

The 27-year-old American won a race in his debut Champ Car season in 2003 but his career faltered after an unsuccessful campaign with Rocketsports Racing in 2005.

He had been racing part-time in the US Grand Am series before Rahal signed him to his IndyCar team for the final six races of last season.

"The Rocketsports thing was a horrible experience from the first day to the last and when I was on the bottom, Bobby gave me an opportunity to come back and really show my stuff," he said.

"I was driving a couple of Grand-Am races and looking for some NASCAR testing, I didn't sit down, I was out there trying to make myself visible. To get into this seat I had to really show what I could do and I like to think I drove the wheels off anything I got into.

"At the beginning of this year Bobby told me to go out there and make something of this opportunity, to build this team around myself, and it's really a special thing to be a part of.

"We made some engineering changes over the off-season and he put faith in me and the guys on my car, and we've been working so well together it's unreal, we're doing everything right. We've been building and getting faster so to finally win is huge."

Rahal believes the result proves that he made the right decision when he took a chance on Hunter-Reay last year.

"My own career wasn't a smooth progression," he said. "I had side steps, backward steps, times when I was flavour of the month and times when people didn't return my phone calls, so I think I identified with where Ryan was at. It takes a long time to get up and none to get down.

"Ryan showed a lot of promise and I had a great belief in him, so it wasn't a difficult decision to ask him to drive for us. He's stepped up his performance and stepped up the team's performance as well, and we're seeing the results.

"There were comments made about this team by some of our previous drivers about our desire and commitment, but what it boils down to is you have to have the right person in the driver's seat. So, for me, this is vindication."

Hunter-Reay admitted that he benefited from the clash between Scott Dixon and Ryan Briscoe but says it makes up for the misfortune he suffered when he was caught up in accidents in the recent races at Richmond and Texas.

"For all the things that have gone against us in the weeks leading up to this race, for something to go our way was great. But it didn't land in our lap, it wasn't gifted on the last lap, we had to and grab it.

"It helped, but I had to stuff it down the inside of Darren (Manning) to win, and hold off Tony (Kanaan) several times during the race.

"This is big for us and for our momentum. It's only going to be better as we go forward and I've got to stay strong. This is showing me what it could be like and to never be complacent and to always be pushing as an athlete and as a businessman too. You've got to go out there and work as hard as you can."