Dale Coyne Signs Sebastien Bourdais

Back in 2011, Sebastien Bourdais had a partial stint with Dale Coyne’s race team. Today, the team confirmed that the four-time Champ Car champion will be joining their Verizon IndyCar Series squad next season.

Bourdais is making the move from KVSH to Coyne, and bringing his race engineer Olivier Boisson with him. Craig Hampson was with Bourdais in Champ Car, and will be joining the Frenchman at Coyne after spending the last four years at Andretti Autosport. Together, they won 31 races, 31 poles, and four straight championships from 2004-2007.

According to multiple reports, Coyne’s team is sticking with Honda power, which means a change for Bourdais. He was with Chevy at KVSH, where he drove since 2013. “I would like to thank Chevy and KVSH Racing for their support and trust in me over the last few years,” Bourdais said in a statement.

Team owner Dale Coyne said they have been eyeing Bourdais since he left for Formula One several years ago. “We have assembled a great group of guys over the past few years and with additions to our engineering department for 2017, we are definitely ‘putting the band back together. Needless to say we look forward to 2017 with great anticipation.”

In the last three seasons, he has finished 10th, 10th, and 14th in the final standings. This past year he had three top-five finishes, completed 96 percent of the laps during the season, and led laps at four different events.

Details of the deal were not disclosed, it is believed to be a multi-year agreement. There are a number of drivers that the team is considering for their second car, including last year’s primary driver Conor Daly, who had a fantastic season.

Bourdais and the team’s first time on track together comes tomorrow, when they will participate in a Firestone Tire Test at Gateway Motorsports Park. Eight drivers will be taking part in the test, which is closed to the public.

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