Kaiser crowned Indy Lights champion as Telitz wins Glen finale

Sunday's Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tires season finale at Watkins Glen featured some of the best rain racing in memory, with Wisconsin's Aaron Telitz bookending the season with his first win since St. Petersburg and Kyle Kaiser clinching the 2017 championship for Juncos Racing.

• RACER video: Kaiser wins Indy Lights crown

Kaiser, who needed only to start the race to win the title, finished seventh, earning a $1 million Mazda scholarship to get him into three Verizon IndyCar Series races in 2018, including the Indianapolis 500.

“I never could have imagined this at age 7, getting into a kart for the first time," Kaiser said. "It has been an absolute dream. But it’s been a strange feeling today, because it wasn’t the best race. The championship never entered my mind during the race – I was just trying to manage the conditions. I think these were the trickiest conditions we’ve had all year. I tried pushing and that’s why I spun. But I just really wanted to bring the car home.

"We just won the Indy Lights championship and it’s time to celebrate. When I got to the podium and Dan Andersen, John Doonan and Chris Pantani were there to give me the champion’s trophy, I started to realize that it was real."

Starting third, the 25-year-old Telitz locked horns with pole-sitter Colton Herta and traded the lead for the first eight laps in a driving rainstorm with Santi Urrutia mixing up as the trio raced hard, fast and clean in terrible conditions around the legendary 3.3-mile road course.

After Telitz finally got past Herta on Lap 8 he jumped out to a nearly seven-second lead and held onto first place for the closing 17 laps. 

“I think relief is my primary emotion – the team joked with me that I might not remember how to get to Victory Lane," Telitz said. "But it was a great way to end the year. It gives me a lot of confidence going into the off season, thinking that all the hard work was worth it. But it was pretty slippery out there! The start was tricky but I had some rain experience here earlier in the year – we did a Cooper Tire test and it was raining in the afternoon, so I thought I would go out and run in the rain. I did about 10 laps, so I knew where the grip was going to be on the track, whereas everyone else was still figuring it out.

"But by the end of the race, Santi figured it out. I knew the red flag would be coming but I didn’t want to win it in the pits. The team was telling us that if we finished 1-2 we would win the team championship, so ‘don’t crash’ was definitely coming through on the radio.

"I opened the season with a win and closed it with a win, so I'm really happy. I want to come back [to Indy Lights] next year so I can be where [new champion Kyle Kaiser] is today."

Urrutia and Herta staged a great battle for second until the 21-year-old native of Uruguay pulled away from the 17-year-old American rookie.

The race was red-flagged on Lap 14 to remove Dalton Kellett's crashed machine.