All Bruno Junqueira’s Z-Line Designs car needed was an extra couple of gallons of fuel and second place was his for the taking. 

With eight laps remaining, Junqueira had to pit for fuel and settle for a 13th place finish in the Honda Indy 200 at the 2.40-mile, 15-turn permanent Mid-Ohio Sports Club road-course in Lexington, OH Sunday afternoon.

“Three more laps of caution and I’m pretty sure that we would have been able to make it to the end,” Junqueira said.  “The #19 Z-Line Designs car performed great today and the crew did a good job.”

The 31-year-old Brazilian, who started ninth, was running in second place on lap 77 when he pitted for the final time.  The 12 cars running in front of Junqueira had pitted in later sequences and had enough fuel to make it to the end.  If not for that final pit stop, Junqueira had a podium finish locked up.

Headed for his third straight IndyCar® Series top 10-finish in a row, possibly a podium finish, 19-year-old rookie Mario Moraes had a stellar run going in his Sonny's Bar-B-Q/Sun-Rich International car.  Moraes moved steadily forward through the field to eventual lead the race on lap 56.  When the talented Brazilian pitted on lap 57, he came back out in 8th place and in a fierce battle to move back to the front, a spin in turn four ended his day in the gravel trap.  

“I was trying to push too hard and just locked the rear tires,” said Moraes.  “I don’t know if we would have been able to get a top three finish today, but for sure we would have finished in the top five.”

Moraes was 18th quickest in the 30 minute warm-up session Sunday morning, but it was very deceiving because most of the session he was running in the top 10, even getting as high as P2.

The IndyCar Series next heads to Edmonton, Alberta in Canada on Saturday, July 26 for the running of the Rexall Edmonton Indy on the 14-turn, 1.973-mile airport road course.  The race can be seen live on ESPN starting at 5 p.m. (EDT).