Indy Lights: Chaves earns redemption at the Freedom 100

Gabby Chaves was the wrong end of a ridiculously close finish at the Freedom 100 last year, but this time he had the edge, beating Matt Brabham to Indianapolis Motor Speedway's Victory Lane by 0.005sec in another slipstreaming thriller.

The Colombian was in the mix from the start of the race, as he and Andretti Autosport pairing Matt Brabham and Zach Veach swiftly banished polesitter Luis Razia to their rear-view mirrors. Although the top five were frequently covered by far less than one second, Razia didn't appear to have the right gears to draft onto the lead trio.

The race was interrupted by a huge crash for Chase Austin who hit the inside wall on the short chute between Turns 1 and 2. The full course caution flew for nine laps while the mess was cleaned up, but thankfully Austin – in his first Lights race of the season – was diagnosed at the infield medical center with a fractured left wrist. He was transferred to Methodist Hospital for further evaluation.

Following the restart, Brabham, Chaves and Veach again edged away, squabbling over lines and discovering that each time they were blocked on the inside, they had the grip to try the outside, too. In one great move at Turn 3 on lap 29, Brabham managed to pass both his rivals in one maneuver down the inside.

Two laps from the end, the grandson of the recently deceased legend Sir Jack Brabham appeared to have enough of a gap, especially as Veach and Chaves were dueling so hard they appeared to be holding each other up. However, the nature of the long straights here at IMS allowed them back onto the No.83 car's tail. Chaves then tried to make a move on Brabham at Turn 1 on the last lap, and Brabham (legitimately) closed the door so hard that the Belardi Auto Racing driver had to check up, allowing Veach around his outside. Yet Chaves kept his cool, repassed Veach and then drafted Brabham by a few inches on the final run to the yard of bricks.

Behind the top three, Razia held onto fourth ahead of Hack Harvey and Juan Pablo Garcia.