INDY LIGHTS: Serralles wins Iowa thriller

Iowa Speedway, billed as the fastest short track on the planet, provided an exciting stage for the final oval race of the calendar for the Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tires series on Sunday afternoon. The 100-lap all-green Indy Lights Iowa Challenge Presented by Cooper Tires came down to a battle at the end with Felix Serralles of Carlin scoring the win in the closing minute on the 0.686-mile oval.

This is the second win and fourth podium of the season for Serralles, 24, of Ponce, Puerto Rico, who won the season opener on the streets of St. Petersburg.

Rain forced the cancellation of qualifying with the grid set on championship points, giving Carlin's Ed Jones his seventh pole in the last eight races. Championship rivals Dean Stoneman, Santi Urrutia and Kyle Kaiser lined up second, third and fourth respectively with Serralles in fifth.

Jones held the lead until lap 57 when Serralles, who had charged into third on the opening lap and maneuvered past Andretti Autosport's Stoneman on lap 26, made his move. He appeared poised to take the checkered flag with only 20 laps remaining until a hard-charging Zach Veach of Belardi Auto Racing took the point.

Veach had started sixth and clearly had a car that was capable of winning, proven by setting the fastest lap of the race. The 21-year-old from Stockdale, Ohio, appeared to have his second win of the season in hand until the closing moments as he and Serralles fought their way through lapped traffic. Serralles emerged the victor by 0.6681 seconds with Jones, Stoneman and Urrutia rounding out the top five.

"It feels great to finally be on the podium again and to win a race! I was really confident today," said Serrales. "I had the memory of how confident I was when I won at Milwaukee last year and I felt that way again today. I knew we could get to the front but the Carlin team gave me a car that could help me pull away.

"One of the biggest parts of ovals is dealing with the lapped traffic and today, that was really difficult. Once I was able to catch Zach, he caught traffic. Some of the drivers were kind enough to let us by but a few others didn't. But I really have to say the Cooper Tires lasted really well, I pushed all the way through the race and the tires did a great job."

"My day changed completely when I came up on lapped traffic," agreed Veach. "In my view, if you're a lap down and it's coming down to the end of the race, you need to make way for the leaders coming through."

Jones slightly extended his lead in the point standings over Stoneman, 236-213, with Urrutia holding third at 206 points. Serralles' win has vaulted him to fourth in the standings at 199 with Veach in fifth at 194.

Today's Indy Lights Iowa Challenge Presented by Cooper Tires will air on NBCSN at 7:00 pm EDT on Tuesday, July 12.

Indy Lights will head to Toronto next week for Rounds 12 and 13 of the championship.