INDY LIGHTS: Veach storms to Watkins Glen win

Zach Veach had a dream race Saturday at Watkins Glen, while points leader Santiago Urrutia had a very bad nightmare.

Veach drove from fifth to first on the first lap and led wire to wire for his second win of the season as Urrutia, who fought to stay toward the front of the field, blew a tire on lap 19 and finished last. His finish, coupled with Ed Jones' second place, cuts Urrutia's point lead from 16 to just one heading into the double-header finale at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.

“I saw an opportunity and I had to take it," Veach said. "I noticed that the inside lane was moving faster at the start so I knew I would be in a good position. When I found myself beside Negrao going into Turn 1, I thought I had a chance. I had to get off the corner well and get into Santi’s draft and I did just that. We knew how fast Santi was and I wasn’t sure I had the car to match him, so my goal was to get around him and lead as many laps as I could. My pace stayed the same and I saw him dropping off and then disappear, so I had to work on keeping the gap and just keep going.

“It’s so emotional. This is one of my happiest wins. In all my previous wins, we’ve been fast all weekend and here, we had clutch problems in qualifying, then had a starter problem just before the race and we had to come from fifth to win. I pushed hard to build up a gap and I managed my Cooper tires to the end.”

By the half-distance mark in the 25-lap race, Veach had extended his lead over Urrutia to over five seconds. Urrutia was clearly struggling, and several times telltale puffs of smoke emanated from his left-front tire as he locked up under braking.

On lap 15, Jones finally found a way past Urrutia at the Inner Loop for second place. Within another couple of laps, Urrutia had fallen to fifth, but worse was to come when his left-front tire gave up the ghost on lap 19 and he headed to pit lane for a replacement. 

“For sure, it is a little bit disappointing after taking the pole position," said Urrutia. "We started the race thinking we should win. The car was really fast, but we had a problem on the first lap with understeer. It was really strange. And then I was working with the tires and driving really slow, especially on the right-hand corners, but it is what it is. Today we lost but we are still leading the championship by one point. Everything is going to finish at Mazda Raceway next week so we are going to go with the same mindset that we came here and that is to win, so we are going to go for pole position and to win both races.”

Andre Negrao, Kyle Kaiser and Neil Alberico - who started last - rounded out the top five. 

“We got robbed of the pole in qualifying when Santi held us up deliberately, but otherwise, it was a fast racecar," said Jones, who now trails Urrutia in the points 319-318. "Veach got a great start, hats off to him, he made a gap while we were stuck behind. It was a really hard race, very different from what we’re used to with the degradation, so yeah, it was interesting. It was fun. And good to be second and back in the championship hunt.”

Tire wear also bit championship contender Dean Stoneman, who fell through the field when his tires fell away on lap 21. He chose to pit for fresh tires and came home 10th. He's now 23 points back.