Target Chip Ganassi Racing's Scott Dixon was exultant after charging from 23rd place to third at Iowa Speedway.
"Yeah, it actually felt like a win today," said Dixon. "It was a tough weekend. You know, we missed obviously big time in qualifying and nearly crashed on the first lap, so had to lift, and once you lose some momentum at this place you really lose a lot of speed and obviously a lot of positions.
"It was a bit of mayhem to start with. It's always fairly easy to get past the first 10 cars or so, sort of like Texas a few weeks ago, but once you get up to the competitive cars and people jostle for position, it was extremely tough, and we didn't have the best car. We had to work on it all night. Started out with quite a bit of understeer and then got a bit worse in the middle stints and started to fall back at the second to last stint just because the car was so loose.
"Luckily we caught the yellow there, made adjustments to the car. At the end, was the best it was all night, still not as good to obviously compete with maybe TK [Kanaan] or Marco [Andretti]. But, huge credit to Marco; it was a hell of a race he drove and it's a very deserving win.
Dixon added that the solid points haul ahead of teammate Dario Franchitti and Will Power, who crashed out, was a big satisfaction
"When you have your bad weekends, if you can sort of extract the best points or the best finishing position, that's what you need to do," said the New Zealander. "I think that's what Dario has been very strong at throughout the last few years; where they maybe haven't had the best car, they've still come up with a hell of a good finish at the end.
"For us, it was a lot of work. This track is evolving to be a very difficult circuit with all the low grip, or the lack of grip throughout the winters and obviously the years where the tarmac has just lost grip and, obviously, the bumps over the tunnel are getting more challenging and caught a few people out tonight.
Dixon added, however, that he didn't think the bump should be removed.
"It adds character to the track," he said. "You know, there's a lot of tracks that could have things fixed or improved, but it doesn't always make the racing better. It's a challenge of what this place is.
"I think everyone remembers when we came here in 2007 everybody just sat on the bottom and followed the leader. It's nice that the track has actually had a bit of wear and tear, and it makes it tough to drive around. As you can see, it's catching out the best of people, and the good cars go to the front and the cars that are slightly off balance are quite challenging.
I think this year, obviously, with the bump getting a bit bigger, the lack of grip from the track, and Firestone bringing a harder tire, it's a tough race to drive."