Following an unlucky incident during Saturday's qualifying session, Canadian IndyCar driver, James Hinchcliffe, started from last place at this weekend’s Kohler Grand Prix as part of the Verizon IndyCar Series.

Hinchcliffe, who is a brand ambassador for Petro-Canada Lubricants, had to adapt his usual driving strategy to compensate for his qualifying position. However, his calculation paid off and the Canadian driver was able to advance a respectable eight spots by the end of the race.

"It was kind of a bittersweet day in the Arrow Electronics car," said Hinchcliffe. "We had a really quick car and went off sequence a little bit to try to get some clean track. We pumped out a lot of quick laps - I think we had the third-quickest race lap."

"I had a spin early in the race, which really exacerbated with not having a yellow to catch that back up. We weren't quite as strong on the blacks as we were on the reds. On the last stint, if it had stayed green, I think we'd have been okay."

"We had just put sticker blacks on but then on the restart we kind of got swallowed up by the guys on reds. It was just bad timing on the yellow and we just weren't able to make quite as much progress as we were hoping today."

Off the track, the Petro-Canada Lubricants sales team treated guests to a visit from Hinchcliffe on the morning of the race and trackside motor coach hospitality in conjunction with Pinkerton Distributing.

Although Petro-Canada Lubricants has previously participated in Canadian and European IndyCar seasons, the 2016 partnership with Hinchcliffe marks the company’s first venture into the United States motorsports space.

Howard McIntyre, vice president, lubricants, commented: "James’ performance really stood out today and we’re proud to support him. Unfortunately, luck wasn’t on his side this weekend; but that’s racing".

"Our partnership with James is all about demonstrating great efficiency and gaining the competitive edge. Both he and the team will take away lessons from Kohler and I’m sure he’ll be a strong contender at the next race."

In two weeks, the Verizon IndyCar Series heads to Iowa for the tenth race of the 2016 season. The Iowa Corn 300 will take place at Iowa Speedway on Sunday, July 10 at 5:00 p.m. ET. The 300-lap competition will be broadcast live on NBC Sports Network.