SAO PAULO -- If anyone wants to hold claim to having “the momentum” heading into the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race, it’s difficult to argue that the owner isn’t Oriol Servia.

The 38-year-old Spaniard made a commanding march through the field in the Itaipava Sao Paulo Indy 300 presented by Nestle to finish fourth in the No. 22 Panther DRR Chevrolet, his best result of the season.

Servia started 13th in the race after just missing out on the second round of knock-out qualifying. After flying through the field in the early laps of the race, he had worked his way up to fourth for the restart on Lap 40.

Following the restart he was passed by Marco Andretti, and the pair followed each other up to the front of the field before Servia pitted on Lap 51. He re-emerged in 18th place and quickly found himself 10th after a yellow to collect the slowed car of Tony Kanaan led to multiple cars ahead pitting. He looked to be in prime position to finish fifth before getting around Josef Newgarden on the last lap to clinch fourth.

“Yeah, it was a great car,” Servia said.  “The last two races I had a great car in qualifying. The way the wrecks in qualifying have gone, we have started at the back, but we have gone through the field twice today and finished fourth.”

Servia’s previous best 2013 finish was sixth place at Long Beach. His qualifying effort of 13th was his best of the season. This is also his highest finish on the streets of Sao Paulo, having finished fifth in 2011. With the result, he moves from 14th to eighth in the standings.

Servia will head into the 97th Running of the Indianapolis 500, in which he finished fourth in 2012, with the wind at his back, but uncertainty ahead. On May 1, Panther DRR announced it would be scaling back its participation in the series after the '500.' He is hopeful for the future.

“We work so hard to have the car and the team we have,” he said. “We are contenders.  We just need to find a little more money to continue, but I’m very happy today.  We are working well we are doing our jobs right and something is going to happen.”