INDY LIGHTS: Jones survives restart for Indy win

Ed Jones survived a wild restart on the IMS road course to become the first repeat winner of the 2016 Indy Lights season on Friday.

Jones started from pole and looked comfortable in front for most of the race, maintaining a lead of around 1.0s. That went out the window when Scott Hargrove drove into Scott Anderson on lap 22, bringing out the yellows and erasing the gap that Jones had spent all afternoon building.

After the first attempted restart was waved off, the race returned to green with four laps to run. Dean Stoneman and Santi Urrutia, who were running second and third, both stayed glued to Jones on the run down to the first corner, and pounced when the Carlin driver locked a wheel.

By the time he gathered himself together he'd fallen to third, but was able to regain the lead almost immediately when an aggressive lunge from Urrutia on Stoneman at Turn 7 resulted in both cars running wide.

Jones swept past them, and this time was able to maintain his advantage to the end.

"After the restart it was always going to be difficult, with such a long run down the straight, and I was in the middle," said Jones. "It was frustrating because I'd done all that work during the whole race and then in the last two laps I was stuck down in third. But I tried to be patient, and Santiago made another risky move [on Stoneman] and I was able to get the lead back."

Urrutia finished second, 0.9s behind Jones, with Stoneman in third.

"It was very exciting going down to Turn 1 [on the restart]," said Stoneman. "I did a great move at Turn 1, got a great exit. And then going down to T7 Santi did one of those moves that was never on – it cost me a position, as well as himself. It's a shame; I still had a lot of boost left and I'm sure I could have won. [But] it's been a great weekend so far."

Stoneman was unlikely to have been the only driver grumbling about a rival afterward, given what looked like some fairly robust blocks during the final few laps. It was also a minor surprise that there was just the one yellow: a clash between Dalton Kellett and Juan Piedrahita at the first corner put both cars out of the race, although the mess was cleaned up without a caution.

"I don't know what happened," said Piedrahita. "He wasn't even close. I don't know what he was trying to do. I was already in [the corner] and he just kamikazed in and ruined our day."