(Pictured above, from left, are driver Sebastien Bourdais and team owners Dale Coyne, James "Sulli" Sullivan and Jimmy Vasser.)

AVONDALE, Arizona – Jimmy Vasser eased back into a golf cart, looked at the racing team logo on his new attire and nodded with modest approval.

“This is the first day I got my race shirt,” he said, still staring at the Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser-Sullivan logo. “But I’ve only got a temporary (track) pass.”

Consider the pass just that, temporary. Vasser doesn’t intend to stay away from the racetrack again now that he and former KV Racing Technology/KVSH Racing cohort James “Sulli” Sullivan have teamed with Coyne to support Sebastien Bourdais’ No. 18 SealMaster Honda.

“I like to see the new logo,” Vasser said. “It’s pretty cool.”

While this week’s testing at ISM Raceway was part of the offseason routine to prepare for the Verizon IndyCar Series season, Friday marked a meaningful return for Vasser and Sullivan, who enjoyed success with Bourdais at KVSH until majority owner Kevin Kalkhoven ran out of funding and was forced to sell the team’s equipment after 2016.

It was a harsh reality for a team that had celebrated an Indianapolis 500 victory with Tony Kanaan in 2013. Vasser enjoyed a 10-win driving career that included the 1996 CART championship while driving for Chip Ganassi Racing. He retired in 2008, but by then was already into team ownership to keep the racing juices flowing. 

After 2016, without a team to call home, Vasser admittedly struggled to adjust to life without race cars.

“I’m really excited to be back,” Vasser said. “To take a year off, what’s been more than a year, you don’t realize the void that was left in my life. I’ve been going to Indy car races every weekend from 1992 to 2016. I was excited to have some weekends off also, but having time to reflect, I miss this as part of my life, from driving to transitioning to ownership and strategizing, being on the radio with drivers and working with Sulli to do the things we were doing at KV.

“I didn’t even try to find something else to replace it because, really, it’s irreplaceable. It’s a hard transition from the driver’s seat even to the timing stand. You’re still not getting that adrenaline, that feedback. You don’t really get a lot of the adrenaline back.

“But being in the (racing) community and trying to win, not just participating but trying to win and being involved with Seb and Dale, they won races over the years with a very minimal amount of resources. They won a race last year. We won four races in three years with Seb. We know what can be done. We’re just excited to go out there and win.”

Bourdais, a four-time Champ Car World Series champion, respected Vasser as a driver when they were competitors. Then they celebrated four race wins from 2014-16 at KVSH. From the time that team was finished, Bourdais pushed to have Vasser stay with him.

“Jimmy, Sulli and I have had a privileged relationship,” Bourdais said. “It’s been a very productive relationship and they are very good friends. As soon as the KVSH adventure was kind of coming to an end, I tried everything I could to get them to transfer and come with me to Dale. Dale has been his own man and (having) more means is better than less. That was the whole idea from the get-go. 

“It took an extra year to make it happen, but ultimately, it’s what we’ve been working towards for a year now. Thanks to everyone’s efforts, it’s a reality. I’m really happy that it came together. Yeah, I’m pretty excited. You can always use a little extra. Hopefully it’s the beginning of a new adventure and a success story.”

Bourdais started 2017 with a victory in the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, his 36th career win, moving the Frenchman past Bobby Unser for sixth on the all-time list. Still a serious championship contender in May, Bourdais suffered a nightmarish Turn 2 crash during qualifying for the Indianapolis 500 presented by PennGrade Motor Oil. The 38-year-old driver missed eight races but recovered from multiple fractures to his pelvis and right hip to make the last three starts of the season.

“We’ve worked hard to put this engineering staff together,” Coyne said. “It paid off last year, but unfortunately Sebastien’s crash at Indy took the wind out of our sails there. But I think we’re back to pick up the pieces where we left off last year.”

Now Vasser and Sullivan are on board. Vasser deals with the competition aspect of racing while Sullivan handles business and sponsors. SealMaster will be a primary sponsor for nine of 17 races, including May’s Indianapolis 500.

“They bring a piece that complements what we do and I think we complement what they can do,” Coyne said. “Together, we can do good things.”

Vasser has the utmost confidence in Bourdais, too.

“He’s a great champion,” Vasser said. “I don’t want to say he was underrated because he’s a four-time champion and an elite driver in the world. He was never underrated. But sometimes people are quick to cast drivers aside.

“That’s true in all sports. And you see comebacks. I think Sebastien made a comeback. He’s not making one, he made one. He’s already made his comeback. He’s one of the elite in motorsports in the world and he’s still got it.”

Vasser, a 52-year-old Californian, sounds a lot like the no-nonsense Bourdais (minus the French accent) when it comes to expressing his intense passion for the bottom-line objective.

“I’m here to win races,” Vasser said. “That’s what I want to do. We win races together. Make no mistake, we’re not here just to participate. We came back to fill that void of being in victory lane.

“We want to grow with Dale. That’s the plan right now. This didn’t happen overnight. This was a year and a half of work. Trying to get the pieces and trying to help where we can, this is just the beginning of what we hope is the foundation for a very successful future.”

The race cars are just practicing this week at ISM Raceway, but it was still special.

“There really wasn’t ever a time when I was bored to go testing or go to the racetrack,” Vasser said. “A racer is like that. It’s not as glamorous. There are times when you’re the only car out here, but it’s still a passion to try to make the car better, make the team better, make myself better.

“When the sun goes down at night here in the desert in the winter prior to the season, it really is a magical time.”