INDYCAR: Dragon, Bourdais Finalizing 2013 Contract

IndyCar

INDYCAR: Dragon, Bourdais Finalizing 2013 Contract

SPEED.com has confirmed Penske and Bourdais are finalizing a new contract for the 4-time Champ Car champion to lead the Dragon team for '13, if not longer.

Marshall Pruett | Posted August 30, 2012

Sebastien Bourdais appears to have found a home at Dragon Racing for at least the 2013 season. (Photo: LAT)

2012 started off with plenty of obstacles for Dragon Racing and Sebastien Bourdais, but with the Jay Penske-owned team hitting its stride in the final months of the season, both sides are ready to sign on for at least another year.

SPEED.com has confirmed Penske and Bourdais are in the midst of finalizing a new contract for the four-time Champ Car champion to lead the Dragon team for 2013, if not longer.

“We have a verbal agreement to have him in the car next year, we’re finalized the contract right now,” said Penske. “We have an option on [Bourdais] for next year. He and I have openly discussed how to get that to multiple years. We see him as a key part of this franchise; for as long as he's in racing, we’d like to be racing with Sebastien.”

Bourdais supported Penske’s comments, and reiterated that after splitting a single entry with teammate Katherine Legge from Round 6 onwards (Chevy was able to supply only one fulltime engine lease for Dragon after the Indy 500), getting back to a full-season program in 2013 is his priority.

Team owner Jay Penske wants to return to fielding two cars next season. (Photo: Marshall Pruett)

“Things have been good with Dragon; we’ve made a lot of progress lately,” said the Frenchman, who is nursing bumps and bruises from the chassis-destroying crash he suffered on Sunday.

“I want to run for the championship with Jay,” he continued. “We got taken out of it this year when we switched from Lotus to Chevrolet, but we would be much better if we can do the whole season with [Chevy] engines, obviously.”

Legge is already committed to Dragon for 2013, and it’s believed the team’s current roster of sponsors will be back to support Dragon’s goal of returning to two fulltime entries.

“I think, as we know in racing, it takes many partners to make these things happen,” Penske explained. “And I think at this point, we’re very confident from Dragon Racing's perspective that we’re going to field two cars next year. We still want to make sure that's in line with all the partners as well as people like Chevy who have been so helpful to us this year. So our intent is to absolutely run a two car program for 2013.”

With minimal testing this season—one day at Sebring and two at Sonoma—Dragon and Bourdais have punched well above their weight, even with Lotus as their engine partner for the first four races. Going forward, and Bourdais and Chevy in place, Dragon will need to expand its testing and R&D efforts to catch the bigger teams.

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