After qualifying was rained out, the Indy Lights Series would start their race at the Iowa Speedway by points standings. That put Ed Jones on the pole followed by Dean Stoneman. Of course, the race would not finish like that.
Indy Lights: Veach Hits Lapped Traffic, Serralles Takes Win
Jones pulled away from the pack right from the start, as he was chased by Stoneman, Felix Serralles, and Zach Veach. Those four stayed in that order for about 30 laps, the time it took Serralles to make a pass on Stoneman. Veach followed suit, but both had a battle with Stoneman.
“I think if anybody watched, you could see I had some hand-gestures toward Stoneman,” Veach said. “I think he was fighting with a car that was a little off base so I understand why he was trying so hard to keep us behind him, but I saw some characteristics from him that on an oval aren’t too cool to have.”
Stoneman was a big subject in the post race media conference. As Ed Jones put, “Getting past Stoneman without losing your front wing is an achievement in itself.”
After Serralles got by Stoneman, he started working up to points leader Ed Jones. He passed him for the lead with 44 laps to go. Again, Veach followed shortly after.
Veach said his car started to come to him as the race kept going, and it was easy to see. Veach worked his way up to Serralles and made the move with just 20 laps to go.
It looked as though Veach had the win in the bag. However, with two laps to go he was forced to a different line by Neil Alberico and was passed by Serralles for the lead.
“My view on that is if you’re already a lap down and it is coming to the end of the race, you need to make way for the lead coming through,” Veach said. “It seemed like Neil was more about getting in my way than staying out of it.”
Main Photo Credit: Getty Images, Darrell Ingham
