BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – J.K. Vernay picked up a $5,000 bonus from Firestone for winning two races in a row. He also picked up valuable championship points, which might prove more valuable long term.
Vernay, starting from the pole in the No. 7 Lucas Slick Mist/Sam Schmidt Motorsports car, held off Charlie Kimball by 1.1542 seconds to win the inaugural Indy Grand Prix of Alabama on the 2.38-mile Barber Motorsports Park.
Vernay, who won the season opener on the temporary St. Petersburg street circuit two weeks earlier, joined Junior Strous (2009) in earning the bonus since its inception. Vernay also became the fourth driver in series history to win the first two races at season’s outset (Mark Taylor 2003; Raphael Matos 2006; Alex Lloyd 2007, won the first five; and Strous).
He takes a 33-point lead over Kimball in the Firestone Indy Lights championship standings heading to Long Beach.
“I was confident that we'd be able to do well since the beginning of the championship,” said Vernay, a native of France. “To say yes, for sure, we'd win the first two races, no, nobody can say that. The competition level in Indy Lights is very high, and you have to work very hard if you want to get the pole or win the race.
“So I'm just very happy because everything worked well. I worked well with my team, my engineer, the crew, everything. The car was great at the beginning, middle and at the end of the race. I was always able to push and to do a good gap with Charlie. We just have to continue to work like that and to do the same next weekend.”
Kimball, driving the No. 26 Levemir FlexPen car for AFS Racing/Andretti Autosport, recorded a career best.
“When you're out front, you obviously have clean air and that makes a huge difference the way the car handles as hot as the track is,” he said. “Even behind J.K. in traffic, the 26 Levemir FlexPen car was quick. I think we were sort of pacing each other, staying tight, knowing that I couldn't run right up behind him because of the downforce. But it was just running together.
“He tried to get a gap, and I could close that down, run a couple of quick laps and close that down. I was just waiting for a mistake, because honestly there is not a huge opportunity to pass around here.
“All credit to him. He ran 35 laps or 30 laps at green with no mistakes. Not big enough for me to capitalize on, at least, even as close as I was.”
Following a Lap 27 restart, Kimball was no further than 1.8222 seconds behind Vernay but no closer than the final margin.
Sebastian Saavedra in the No. 29 William Rast/Bryan Herta Autosport entry, advanced from the fourth starting position to third (5.7 seconds back). Martin Plowman finished a career-best fourth in the No. 27 Automatic Fire Sprinklers Inc. car for AFS Racing/Andretti Autosport, and James Hinchcliffe was fifth in the No. 2 TMR-Xtreme Coil Drilling car.
Stefan Wilson finished sixth in the No. 28 Bryan Herta Autosport car. Dan Clarke, making his series debut in the No. 40 Wasteco Deans Knight Special for Walker Racing, moved up four positions to finish seventh. Strous was eighth in the No. 6 Shell/HVM Racing car and Gustavo Yacaman moved up one spot to ninth in the No. 10 Cape Motorsports with Wayne Taylor Racing entry.
“At the end of the day, it is another top-10 finish and good for the championship, and we will leave the track with no crash damage," Yacaman said. "Now we can turn the page and start thinking about the next race at Long Beach."
Phillip Major, whose first race in the series ended early, advanced three positions to finish 10th. Also making progress was Nic LeDuc, driving the No. 37 Palm Beach Indy Racing car, who advanced six spots to finish 11th.
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