Wilson hopes St Pete is springboard

In his first drive for Coyne's small squad, Wilson was among the pace-setters in practice, started from the front row, and led over half the race before being pushed back to third at the penultimate restart.

He admitted that he had a better chance of getting the under-resourced team to the front on a street course than on the ovals where driver ability makes less of a difference, but hopes that results such as the St Petersburg podium can help Coyne progress.

"(On street tracks) you have a chance to try and curb up some of the deficiencies that may be happening with some of the handling of the car," said Wilson.

"On the speedways obviously you need a good team and good drivers and that continuity to keep developing the car to make it to your suiting. It's not a luxury we tend to have, but there are very few guys in that position. So when you come to these types of tracks, you can sit in the car Friday and finish second on Sunday.

"Obviously we want to go out there and capitalise again and try and get some momentum behind us, and maybe we can build our programme and add to it.

"Maybe get sponsorship that allows us to develop the car more and be able to compete more in those high-speed one-and-a-half-mile ovals, which you need the development on."

Despite his frustration at so narrowly missing the victory - which would have been Coyne's first in 23 years of trying - Wilson was still delighted to take his team's first podium since joining the IndyCar Series.

"Having led the most laps all race and been so strong and been so fast, I'm disappointed not to get the win. But under the circumstances I'm very pleased with third result for Dale Coyne Racing," he said.

"I think we've been working hard all weekend, and it's all about the people. We've got some good people and pulled a team together, and that's what allows you to compete, and that's the great thing about this series."

Dale Coyne was also disappointed, but reckoned his team had proved its quality.

"I never thought I would be disappointed with a podium finish, but we truly had the best car of the weekend and certainly had a well deserved win in our sights," he said. "The team is coming together very nicely and we certainly look forward to the next IndyCar Series race in Long Beach."