ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- Zach Veach had to be content starting from the outside of the front row when qualifying for the St. Petersburg 100 was canceled because of inclement weather. He more than made amends at the start of the race by overtaking pole sitter Gabby Chaves and going on to win his first Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tires race.
Veach, 19, from Stockdale, Ohio, began his second season in Indy Lights with Andretti Autosport precisely as he would have wished by taking advantage of a slight mistake by Belardi Auto Racing's Chaves in Turn 1. The caution lights flashed moments later after when the car driven by Scott Anderson of Fan Force United made contact with the Turn 3 concrete barrier.
After six laps behind the pace car, Veach's strong restart left him clear of Chaves and he went on to win by 5.4610 seconds.
"Last year didn't go exactly how we wanted it to, but my engineer (Doug Zister) never stopped helping me," Veach said. "This winter I spent a lot of time trying to get more physically strong because I felt that was my weakness, and spent a lot of time doing mental things and came into the season with a whole new attitude. I think it paid off for us.
"My engineer definitely was on me a lot about saving tires. In my mind I was thinking, 'Just don't mess up, just hit my marks, have clean laps,' and we were able to do that. I took the lead early and were able to keep it from there. I want to thank everyone on the RePLAY XD team for all their hard work and support in getting me to victory lane. Big thanks to Cooper Tires, Mazda and the Mazda Road to Indy for this amazing start to 2014."
Jack Harvey, driving a Schmidt Peterson Motorsports car, claimed third place, while Vittorio Ghirelli of Team Moore Racing was fourth and Luiz Razia finishing fifth in a Schmidt Peterson Motorsports entry.
Contingency Awards included the Replay XD Move of the Race, which was awarded to Harvey for a Turn 13 pass on Lap 25. The winning team of Andretti Autosport was presented with a customized Race Energy BCM21 charger -- the official battery of the Mazda Road to Indy.