LONG BEACH, Calif. -- Zach Veach ducked inside the car driven by pole sitter Gabby Chaves in the looping right-hand Turn 1 in the St. Petersburg 100 and went on to his maiden Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tires victory March 30.
On April 13, the 19-year-old Ohioan will have to guard against Chaves reciprocating in the tight left-hand Turn 1 -- and other locations throughout the 45-lap race -- on the streets of Long Beach.
Veach earned the Sunoco Pole Award with a quick lap of 1 minute, 15.0074 seconds -- his final lap of the 40-minute session on the 1.968-mile, 11-turn circuit -- bumping Chaves from the provisional pole to the second starting position.
Click it: Qualifying results
"We came around the second-to-last lap and my engineer said, 'This is going to be your last lap, squeeze everything you have out of it,' and I thought I don't have anything to loose at this point so I just pushed as hard as I could," said Veach, driver of the No. 26 RePLAY XD/The Young Marines/Ads IT Solutions/Zakosi Data Back Up car. "I didn't hit the beacon on my way in so I didn't know what time I had. I was coming down pit lane a little disappointed, but my engineer came on the radio yelling, 'Nice job, man.' It was a cool experience.
"Gabby is going to be very tough and we just have to make sure we race as well as we can."
Chaves, driving the No. 5 Marca Colombia/Coldeportes for Belardi Auto Racing, was .0275 of a second back. A half-dozen of his 24 total laps were within one-tenth of the pole-winning time, lessening the sting of being pipped in qualifying.
"We fought for pole position the whole session. Tomorrow is another day," said Chaves, the 2013 series championship runner-up. "I'm confident in our race pace and consistency, which is something that we need to work on. At St. Pete, we were quickest in practice and had the quickest race lap but couldn't get the car consistent through the race length. We had some new ideas for this weekend and it seems to be working out pretty well."
Veach's Andretti Autosport teammate, Matthew Brabham, will occupy Row 2 in the No. 83 MAZDASPEED/United Fiber & Data car along with fellow series rookie Alex Baron (Chaves' teammate) in the No. 4 Liberty Engineering/13th Avenue entry. Luiz Razia, driving the No. 7 Lucas Oil Schmidt Peterson Motorsports with Curb/Agajanian car and teammate Jack Harvey in the No. 42 The Racing Steps Foundation car will be on Row 3.