Sebastien Bourdais, KVSH Racing

The cast: Race engineer – Olivier Boisson. Race strategist – Jimmy Vasser. Chief mechanic – Tim White.

Twitter: @BourdaisOnTrack, @kvracing

The car: No. 11 Chevrolet (Hydroxycut and Mistic primary sponsors)

The driver: Turned 35 on Feb. 29 … Was born in Le Mans, France – home of one famous endurance race – and lives in St. Petersburg, Fla., with his wife and two children.

Season finish: Placed 10th in Verizon IndyCar Series standings – two points out of ninth – in his second full season in the series. He placed 12th in 2013. It was his first season with KVSH Racing (Kevin Kalkhoven, Vasser and James Sullivan the principals). Vasser was the 1996 CART champion.

The gist: Bourdais is a four-time Champ Car champion (2004, ’05, ’06, ’07) who has won 32 races in 131 Indy car starts, including one this past season. … He ranks eighth on the all-time victory list and is tied with Dario Franchitti for seventh with 33 poles.

Season stats: Bourdais competed in the Firestone Fast three times, earning the Verizon P1 Award for Toronto1 and Mid-Ohio. The initial pole of the season was his first since Assen in 2007. … From late June (fourth place at Houston1) through early August (second place at Mid-Ohio), he posted four top-five finishes in the seven races. … Won at Toronto, which was his first victory since Mexico City in 2007. The pole sitter won three times in the 18 races. … Overall, recorded five top-five and seven top-10 finishes. … Led four races for total of 98 laps. … Was running at the finish in 15 races.  

Year over year: 2013 best qualifying second (13.8 average), best finish second (13.0 average). 2014 best qualifying first (9.8 average), best finish first (11.3 average).

Video: Sebastien Bourdais reviews his season

He said it: “I think it was a great season. We showed more pace than we showed results, but that’s the way it goes. The target of the season was to win a race or a couple. We won one and next year the goal is to fight for the championship. Hopefully, we’ve set the foundation.”

The chart (below): Looking at how Bourdais finished relative to his qualifying position in the 18 races:

Click to download the hi-res Infographic