By alley - May 21, 2017, 12:30 PM ET

Davison to sub for Bourdais in Indy 500

Two-time Indy 500 starter James Davison will replace Sebastien Bourdais in the No. 18 Dale Coyne Racing Honda.

The 30-year-old Australian, who made his IndyCar debut with DCR in 2013 and returned to race with the team at the Indy 500 in 2015, had the injured Frenchman in mind when asked about standing in for the Champ Car champion.

"First off my thoughts are with Sebastien and Claire Bourdais in this unfortunate time," Davison told RACER. "This is the last way a driver awants to secure an opportunity."

Bourdais underwent successful surgery Saturday night for pelvic injuries and a fracture to his right hip.

"Surgery went well," INDYCAR Medical Director Dr. Geoffrey Billows said. "I've met with Sebastien this morning and he was doing even better than I expected."

DCR had a backup car on site to replace the chassis that was destroyed

in Bourdais's wicked Turn 2 crash on Saturday

, but it is not in speedway trim. The spare car, which is in full road course configuration, will take some time to convert over to speedway componentry.

The DCR team is expected to make as much progress as possible to get the car out for practice on Monday, but with the big task at hand – and the need to run DCR's Ed Jones and Pippa Mann – today in qualifying and again tomorrow in final practice, very few spare hands will be available to expedite the spare car conversion.

Like Ryan Briscoe's special dispensation to turn refresher laps in 2015 after James Hinchcliffe's big crash, it would not be a surprise to see Davison's debut in the No. 18 Honda take place on Tuesday or Wednesday.

"We're certainly going to do the best we can with the time and equipment we have," Davison said. "We only have the road course car to build from, so we'll be starting last and Dale has the best mechanics and crew guys here, so I'll be ready to go as soon as they tell me it's time."

Davison's last IndyCar start came with DCR at Indy two years ago, and with an active career in sports cars, the former Indy Lights race winner has kept busy; his best finish in 2017 came at St. Petersburg where he placed second in one of the Pirelli World Challenge rounds.

Of interest on the sponsor side, Davison will welcome Vibra Healthcare to the program along with his regular sponsor Cruz Associates.

The Vibra angle is timely as the company is owned by Brad Hollinger, who also owns 15 percent of the Williams Grand Prix Formula 1 team. Along with the official entry by the McLaren F1 team with Andretti Autosport, the 101st Indy 500 will have the presence of two F1 entities in the field.

Other than Davison, former DCR drivers Tristan Vautier and Stefan Wilson, Matthew Brabham, Ryan Briscoe and Townsend Bell were mentioned as options for the seat.