Oriol Servia Champ Car driver has six top-three finishes in eight races with Newman-Haas Racing

Naming Saturday night's Champ Car World Series event the Hurricane Relief 400 and using the race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway as a catalyst to raise money to help disaster victims has added impact on driver Oriol Servia.

The six-year veteran of the series returned Monday after a week visiting his native Spain, and once he landed in Miami he was greeted by warnings to prepare for Hurricane Rita. The reality of a storm's power was on his mind as he drove to his Miami Beach home.

But he was confident he would be in Las Vegas for Thursday's Champ Car autograph session at the ESPN Zone in New York-New York that will lead to the series' second visit to Las Vegas. The 31-year-old driver said he's still saddened by the impact of Hurricane Katrina and was willing to do his part to help Champ Car's effort.

It's about the only bad news the affable driver has experienced this year.

Entering the season, he thought his Dale Coyne Racing team would continue to improve from last year's 10th-place performance, which included only two top-five finishes and nothing better than a third. Fortunately for Servia, his commitment with the team was based on a handshake.

A twist of fate gave Servia the chance of his racing lifetime when Newman-Haas Racing driver Bruno Junqueira crashed while driving for another team in the Indianapolis 500 and was going to miss up to six months of racing after surgery to repair an injury to his spine.

Servia was asked to fill in for Junqueira, who finished second to teammate Sebastien Bourdais in the championship standings last year. Junqueira was first in points after two races with runner-up and first-place finishes before the Indy crash, from which he has nearly fully recovered.

It wasn't the way Servia wanted to be elevated to a premier team, but chances like that don't happen often. He gave up a yearlong ride for what could have been a one-race deal.

"As a driver you always believe in yourself. I wanted this chance for a long time," Servia said. "I believed I could do a good job, and even if it was just for one race I deserved to be with Newman-Haas for at least one race.

"If it was going to be my only race (with the team), then I was going to enjoy it because I finally had all the right tools. It's been going pretty well since then."

In eight races with Newman-Haas, Servia has finished in the top three six times. In his first race with the team owned by Paul Newman and Carl Haas, he placed third. After 94 races, he posted the first victory of his Champ Car career four weeks ago in Montreal.

Servia said he knew he had talent, but the missing link had been a proven, consistently good team. He found that with Newman-Haas, which in 23 years has won 91 races and five championships in the series.

Servia said he hopes he can remain with the team next year after Junqueira returns.

"It's for sure what I want," he said. "They're working very hard to find the budget to add a third car. It's good to know they're working on that. With the success we've had so far, I hope they can put it together.

"But I don't want to start thinking too much about next year. There's still a lot of racing left this year."

One goal for the team is to repeat what it did last year when Bourdais and Junqueira finished first and second in points. They also finished in that order in last year's Champ Car race in Las Vegas, where Servia started 18th and finished 12th.

Servia has learned that there isn't any mystique to the team's accomplishments.

"Even in my case, when I joined the team for the third race and I was only joining for one race to start with, they gave me great support," he said. "When it comes to racing, they know what everybody needs.

"Once I was there and joined them, I felt how special the team is. They have a special way and special will -- very, very solid relationships between all of them. I've been very lucky to be part of it."