By alley - Jun 24, 2017, 2:07 PM ET

IndyCar video: Aleshin on Road America saga

Mikhail Aleshin looked relieved to put a strange week of visa-related issues behind him on pit lane Saturday morning.

Stuck in France since the 24 Hours of Le Mans ended on Sunday, the Russian finally got the matter handled on Friday and caught a flight to Wisconsin for this weekend's Kohler Grand Prix IndyCar race.

DTM driver Robert Wickens deputized for Aleshin

in the No. 7 Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda on Friday, and after a run to 20th during his first outing in the car, he stepped out of the car and detailed his whirlwind journey.

"I've been rolling and rolling," he told RACER. "I needed to do a new visa stamp to come back here, which is a routine thing, but it took too long. For me, I'm fine; I'm a little bit jet-lagged, but that's fine, that's part of the job. I have this situation, nothing I could do here, [and] I'm happy I could make it up here and drive for my team and not leave them alone."

Aleshin also credited Wickens – his former World Series by Renault 3.5 teammate – for stepping in on short notice, and made it clear on who he wanted to see in the No. 7 for tomorrow's 55-lap race.

"It's good that they chose Robert because he's quite an experienced guy, but I'm happy to be here and to do the race instead of him; I'll be honest," he said.