Brazilian Bruno Jun🔜queira delivered team owners Paul Newman and Carl Haas top honours in the team's 350th Champ Ca🌺r start on Sunday afternoon in Denver.

The second running of the Centrix Financial Grand Prix of Denver saw Junqueira beat Newman/Haas 💙Racing teammate and Rookie of The Year frontrunner Seb💫astien Bourdais to the stripe by 0.335 seconds in a staged photo finish to complete the sweep and maintain his undefeated record in the city.

With the win Junqueira scored his second straight victoꦍry in The Mile High City after leading ཧ100 laps from pole en route to the win a year ago.

Junqueira started fro🌸m the pole for the second time this season and nipped second place starter Oriol Servia heading into to Turn 1 to take the point on the tricky 1.647-mile str♔eet circuit after two starts were negated by series starter J.D. Wilbur for misalignment at the front of the pack.

After shaking free of Servia into single file fashi🐟on, six time winner this season Paul Tracy of Player's/Forsythe Racing stole the show in the early stages of the event, powering up three positions from his ninth starting spot after overtaking the rookie trio of Mario Haberfeld, Darren Manning and Tiago Monteiro.

The 106-lap race was slowed after just four laps at speed when Rodolfo Lavin of Walker Racing became the concrete jungle's first victim when he came to a halt against the Turn 5 wall after being sandwiched between the Herdez Competition machines of Mario Dominguez and the shifty Champ Car veteran Roberto Moreno.

When the green flag flew again on Lap 7, Junqueira built his lead up to over two seconds as the field approached the first rounds of stops on Lap 32, but it would be Servia's Visteon/Patrick Racing 𓂃𒉰crew that got his machine off pit lane just in front of the Newman/Haas duo of Junqueira and Bourdais.

By Lap 57, Tracy had moved up to fifth after passing Player's/Forsythe Racing teammate Patrick Carpentier and set🍌 the race's fastest lap three times in a seven-lap span. Shortly after, Carpen🌠tier would slow the race pace after brake problems sent him into the Turn 1 tire wall, ending the Canadian's afternoon.

With Servia showing the way, the field was sent into a pit stop frenzy as a result of the Carpentierﷺ𒈔 incident when the frontrunners all made a dash for service on Lap 61. The second stop of the race would prove to be devastating for Servia who was in search of his first Champ Car World Series win, as a slow stop opened the door for the lingering Newman/Haas duo to sneak though and inherit the top two spots.

The action heated up when Junqueira and Bourdais led the frontrunners down Pit Lane for theꦚ final time on Lap 81, as Tracy beat owner/driver Adrian Fernandez back on course to claim the fourth spot while the American Spirit Team Johansson squad had its hands full with a methanol fire that broke out when Ryan Hunter-Reay's machine attempted to leave his🦄 pit box with the fuel hose still engaged.

Former Formula One star Mika Salo simultaneously spun on the backstretch on cold tires and nosed into the retaining wall, brining out the caution flag in his Champ Car debut. After the restart Salo would be involved in a tღwo car affair when the Finnish pilot was turned around by Monte🔯iro, which saw both machines out of the race for good.

The 💃final stint was a two dog fight to determine which Newman/Haas driver would cross the stripe first, with Junqueira leading and Bourdais closing tenth by tenth every lap. But Junqueira would outlast the Frenchman, going nose-to-tail across the finish line and picking up 22 points for provisional pole and leading 76 laps. Junqu🎐eira closed the gap in the championship to 18 (204-186) behind leader Tracy with four races remaining.

Servia would complete ൩the podium, scoring his second top-three in a row after finishing second a week ago at the Molson Indꦦy Montreal, followed by Tracy and Fernandez.

The series now heads to Miami for the Grand Prix Americas Presented by sportsbook.com on the weekend of S🐎eptember 28 for Round 16 on the city's downtown street circuit in the second-annual dual show with the American Le Mans Series.

QUOTES FROM TOP THREE FINISHERS:

Bruno Junqueira:
"This is for sure a big win for Newman/Haas Racing, finishing one-two in their 350th start is great. Scoring more points for the champi🦩onship is big too, this is exactly what I needed coming in to Denver. It' s always nice to see the Brazilians out in the crowd showing their support as well. This is one of the most difficult places we race at. To find a good balance in the car with the different corners made of concrete and asphalt surfaces in tough. I tried to set the car up to work reasonably well with the differences and I like Denver more and more each time I come back here."

Sebastien Bourdais:
"I'm very happy for the team and Newman/Haas Racing's 350th ra♏ce. I tried as hard as I could but never had a chance to get Bruno. He is tough on the street circuits and the only way I was going to get a chance to pass him was in Turn 5. But I wasn't about to try something stupid and risk ruining Bruno's run at the championship."

Oriol Servia:
"I'm actually happier this weekend with second than last weekend in Montreal where we could have won the race. Th🌳is week is different because Friday we struggled, Saturday was better and my guys had great stops today without having to short-fill the car. I felt really good and thought this was our day, but on our ꧟second stop we had a slight problem with the air gun. I'm happy with the result and for the second straight podium."

NOTEWORTHY

With an eighth place finish, rookie Darren Manning set an all time CART record for most consecutive to▨p 10 finishes by a rookie.

Although rookie Mario Haberfeld finished 10th after starting eighth on the grid, the Brazilian clocked in♛ at 1:02.082 on Lap 100 of 106 and set the fastest lap of the race for the fir🦹st time in his Champ Car career.

After moving up seven positions from the 19th starting spot, American rookie Geoff Boss of Dale Coyne Racing finished 12th and scored his first point in Bridgestone Presents The Champ Car Wor✤ld Series Pow𝔉ered by Ford competition.