Wilson: Coyne win a career high

Starting from the outside of the front row at Watkins Glen, Wilson passed polesitter Ryan Briscoe in the early going and, after Briscoe rebounded from an unluckily-timed first pit stop, drove away from the Australian in the final stages of the race to earn the win.

The victory was the first for a non-Penske or Ganassi driver in ten IndyCar Series races dating back to last September when none other than Wilson won at Detroit for Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing.

More importantly, it marked the first win for Coyne and wife Gail since they began racing Indycars in the CART PPG (later Champ Car) World Series in 1984. 558 starts and 25 years later, victory finally arrived.

"That didn't take long..." Coyne quipped.

For Wilson the win had a number of historic dimensions

"It's fantastic to get Dale's first win and also Gail's," he said. "The two of them put a lot into this, their heart and soul. It means a lot to me. I think this is the most important victory of my career.

"I got here early, so we're down in Watkins Glen walking around, and you see all those names on the pavement [outside the Watkins Glen Motor Racing Research Library], the guys that have won here. That's pretty cool. It's fantastic to get your name on the board of winning at Watkins Glen up there with some of the best."

In the end, the contest boiled down to the fact that Wilson had managed to save two sets of fresh Firestone option tyres for the race while Briscoe only had one. On the final round of stops, Wilson donned his second set of options while Briscoe only had Firestone's harder primaries left.

Although Briscoe hounded Wilson in the early stages of the final stint, a crash by Hideki Mutoh caused a late caution and set the stage for Wilson's final runaway.

When the green flag flew for the final time, Wilson took full advantage of the fact that the options came up to operating temperature faster than the primaries. By the time he passed the start/finish line on the final restart he was 0.8s ahead of Briscoe. On the next lap he pulled out a lead of 2.3s and then added another second to his margin.

With Briscoe occupied with the advances of Scott Dixon, Wilson was able to cruise to a 4.9906s victory.

"I knew Ryan didn't have [the options] and we did," said Wilson. "As soon as the yellow came out we didn't need to save fuel, we could run flat out to the end. The option tyres seemed to be coming in a bit quicker. It heats up faster, so I was able to open a nice gap and make my life a lot easier over the last five laps."