Herta becomes youngest-ever Indy Lights winner

He's only 16, but Colton Herta drove way beyond his years Sunday on the streets of St. Petersburg with an impressive victory in the second Indy Lights race of the season and second of his career.

Starting on the pole position, Herta withstood several challenges from Santi Urrutia and led every lap in his Steinbrenner/Andretti Dallara IL15 to give 20-year-old car George Michael Steinbrenner IV a great introduction into car ownership.

Combined with his second-place finish in Saturday's season opener, Herta now leads the point standings heading for Alabama next month.

"Good way to start, we wanted to get a pair of good finishes and I'm happy to be leading the points," said Herta, whose father Bryan spent 13 years in IndyCar racing. "I wish it would have been a little easier but it was good to get experience with all those restarts on cold tires."

There were three caution periods and Herta held off Urrutia every time.

Urrutia, who started second, stayed on Herta's tail all 45 laps and wound up 1.7 seconds behind.

“It was a tough race but a good one," Urrutia said. "I was trying to get to Colton but I had Pato right behind me. He was my teammate in 2015 in Pro Mazda, so I knew he was going to try to pass me. I tried to get Colton on the restarts but his car was really quick and he defended really well. I didn’t really get a clear chance to get by.”

Pato O'Ward finished third, Kyle Kaiser fourth and Saturday's winner, Aaron Telitz rallied from 10th to take fifth.