The team, which ran one car for American driver Ryan Hunter-Reay last season and won the race last July at Watkins Glen, will continue to seek sponsorship. RLR will concentrate on its sports car alliance with BMW in the American Le Mans Series.
RLR is co-owned by talk-show host David Letterman.
Patrick left the team after the 2006 season and now races for a team co-owned by Michael Andretti.
“Bruno’s over-aggressive move to try and pass during the first lap forced me to hit the wall,” Duno said. “As a result, my rear wing was damaged and some suspension components, too. Unfortunately, I couldn’t maintain my race pace, and the race was over for me early.”
Junqueira remained aggressive throughout the race while driving the No. 18 car for Dale Coyne Racing. He was 14th on lap 22, ninth on lap 48, and then took advantage of a collision between Ryan Hunter-Reay and Will Power on lap 55 to take sixth.
Junqueira ran as high as fifth.
“I’m very pleased with our results today,” Junqueira said. “We didn’t have the fastest car out there, but we did what we could with it. We worked our way up with lots of passes and took every chance we could on the track. I’m very happy with our results, especially after what happened yesterday. The team worked all night repairing the car, so it’s nice to be able to repay them with a good result.”
Junqueira spun and made contact with the wall during qualifying Saturday. The car suffered substantial damage to its right side.
Junqueira’s season’s best finish is sixth at Watkins Glen.
Danica Patrick ‘s tough times continued on Belle Isle, the track where she finished second a year ago.
Patrick was involved in a crash with Vitor Meira on lap 33 when the cars touched wheels entering turn eight. Meira suffered damage to the right front suspension. Patrick suffered a flat left front tire and fell a lap down.
“It is a very disappointing day for the Motorola team because we were doing so well today,” said Patrick, who settled for 16th.
The Detroit Grand Prix will be held during Labor Day weekend again next year. The race will be held on Sept. 6, the 16th race of the 18-event season.
Sunday’s crowd was estimated at 40,000.
Kris Draper of the Stanley Cup champion Red Wings gave the command of “Drivers, start your engines” to get the race under way.
Draper has helped the Red Wings win four Stanley Cups during his career. Training camp starts later this month in Traverse City.
Pole-sitter Randy Pobst led the SPEED GT Championship race from start to finish Sunday afternoon to earn his third win of the season and extend his points lead over Andy Pilgrim .
Pobst, the defending series champion, won in a Porsche 911 GT3. Pilgrim (Cadillac CTS-V) finished second, followed by Brandon Davis (Ford Mustang Cobra) and Michael McCann (Cadillac CTS-V).
The team of Emanuele Pirro and Marcel Fassler had their celebration cut short when they were disqualified from the American Le Mans Series race on Belle Isle for having its LMP1 class car underweight.
As a result, the Intersport Racing team received the win with drivers Jon Field , Clint Field and Richard Berry .
The team of Franck Montagny and James Rossiter (Acura ARX-01B) won the LMP2 class and overall race.