Dominguez confirmed at Coyne

The Mexican was dropped by Forsythe after Milwaukee to make way for AJ Allmendinger, who had himself just been fired by RuSPORT in favour of DCR driver Cristiano da Matta.

It was widely expected that Dominguez would complete the circle by joining Coyne, but the move was only confirmed on the eve of first practice for this weekend's Portland round.

Dominguez told The Oregonian newspaper that he felt he had been sacrificed so that Allmendinger - currently Champ Car's only American driver - still had a competitive drive.

"I guess with him being the only American in the series, they had to take care of him, and my head had to roll," said Dominguez.

"I'm very grateful that Dale Coyne gave me a ride."

Coyne has often seen his star drivers poached by bigger teams, losing Oriol Servia to Newman/Haas a year ago, and was relieved to have picked up a replacement of Dominguez's calibre.

"It seems wild that the two guys tied for the fourth in the championship both got fired," Coyne told The Oregonian. "But we're going to grab one of them."

Dominguez's Coyne deal is currently only for one race. He had fallen out of favour at Forsythe after causing first lap accidents that eliminated his team leader Paul Tracy at both Long Beach and Milwaukee.

There were also disagreements about the technical direction that Dominguez and his engineer Michael Cannon wanted to take.