Guerrieri nips Yacaman to win Sukup 100

Esteban Guerrieri

IndyCar/LAT USA

Esteban Guerrieri held off Gustavo Yacaman by 0.4005 of a second to win the Sukup 100 at Iowa Speedway.

It was the third victory of the season for the driver of the No. 11 Pistas Argentinas/Sam Schmidt Motorsports with Curb Agajanian car. Guerrieri has finished in the top five in all but one race (seventh at Belle Isle), which has led him to the Firestone Indy Lights championship points lead.

Guerrieri, running second to teammate Tristan Vautier, inherited the lead on Lap 71 of 115 as Vautier was metered a drive-through penalty for blocking. He rallied to finish fourth (3.9 seconds back) in the No. 77 Mazda Road to Indy/SSM with Curb Agajanian car.

Victor Carbone, driving the No. 3 Mav TV/Nevoni/SSM with Curb Agajanian car, finished a season-high third.

POST-RACE QUOTES:

ESTEBAN GUERRIERI (No. 11 Pistas Argentinas SSM w/Curb-Agajanian, Sukup 100 winner): ""It was a race where I didn't have a great start – Tristan took off early and I lost my second position – I was actually back to third. The key was to then be patient – I was close to first but I was burning my front tires trying to get there too fast. I tried to save the tires – I got to second behind Tristan and I was patient. It is clear the man in front can't block and he blocked me so they had to give him the penalty. He unfortunately got the penalty, and I was up front. I am very happy with my third win of the season. I tried to get away from the lapped traffic and stay up front and I that is where I stayed."

OLIVER WEBB (No. 7 Lucas Oil/Sam Schmidt Motorsports): "My first start was really good, but unfortunately I was swarmed by about five cars. I settled in and was clicking good lap times compared to the leaders though. My race was pretty much lost from there so I just tried to help my teammates. When Victor was passing me I caught his air and maybe I was a little too nice to him. Unfortunately it ended up costing me because I touched the wall with my right front tire."

TRISTAN VAUTIER (No. 77 Mazda Road to Indy/SSM with Curb-Agajanian): "The car was fantastic. I built a one and a half second lead but had some trouble with lapped traffic when I came up on it. Esteban caught me and I accidentally squeezed him. I got a drive thru for that. My car was so great that I was able to get back on the lead lap and make a late pass for P-4, which was great. It's disappointing when we had such a dominant race going."

VICTOR CARBONE (No. 3 Mav TV/Nevoni/SSM with Curb-Agajanian): "Our start wasn't great, I fell back to sixth or something like that and I just didn't have the pace to be honest at the beginning of the race. I just saw the guys in front of me, Gus and his teammate, the Andretti car was struggling a little bit with the handling of the car so I just took my time. I just waited a little bit because my car was handling pretty good, so I just waited a little bit and started to pick one by one, made it around Gus when we went through traffic so I was up to second, but then I just, I don't know we were missing a little bit somewhere. When I was behind Tristan he opened up, so yeah it was a good race.[On gaining in the point standings] That's why I wanted to finish in front of Gus, but yeah it's just being consistent and bringing it home as much as I can and for most of the time I have done that. So just try to build up from here on."

GUSTAVO YACAMAN (No. 2 TMR-Tuvacol-Xtreme Coil Drilling): "The yellow didn't help me, I had gained two seconds the previous lap and I got held up by traffic. His car wasn't too good when he got into that big pack, my car was so, you know, lucky break for him. By the time the restart came, honestly it's just too late for me. I normally go to bed at 11, it's past my curfew. I mean I just, my mistake on the restart. He just got going by the middle of the straight and by the back straight he was nowhere to be seen. You know, still happy to bring him a second place, two years in a row not too bad. We made up some good points on Sebastian and Tristan, so yeah, I tried to get back in the championship standings.

JORGE GONCALVEZ (NO. 4 Belardi Auto Racing): "I really have to say thank you to the team. We really improved since practice and qualifying. I only lost a couple positions on the start…I wanted to feel the car out because it was so different tonight than it was this morning. Right now I'm pretty happy because I finished the race! There have been too many races I haven't finished lately and I think tonight we did a really, really good job. I went down to P13 and finished P6, so I'm pretty happy. We will keep working hard [to prepare] for Toronto."

MIKE LARRISON (NO. 19 Belardi-TruFuel-Royal Oak Charcoal): "Tonight was really about finishing the race, not tearing anything up and building our confidence back up. The car didn't have a lot of straightaway speed, but we finished! We turned all the laps and got a lot of experience. Wouldn't be here without my team, so thanks so much to all of them."

Results

1. (2) Esteban Guerrieri, 115, Running
2. (8) Gustavo Yacaman, 115, Running
3. (3) Victor Carbone, 115, Running
4. (1) Tristan Vautier, 115, Running
5. (5) David Ostella, 115, Running
6. (11) Jorge Goncalvez, 114, Running
7. (7) Carlos Munoz, 114, Running
8. (12) Chase Austin, 114, Running
9. (10) Anders Krohn, 114, Running
10. (13) Bryan Clauson, 113, Running
11. (15) Mike Larrison, 109, Running
12. (6) Oliver Webb, 106, Contact
13. (4) Sebastian Saavedra, 56, Mechanical
14. (14) Juan Pablo Garcia, 50, Mechanical
Race Statistics
Winners average speed: 150.530
Time of Race: 00:40:58.7488
Margin of victory: 0.4005
Cautions: 4
Lead changes: 1
Lap Leaders:
Vautier 1 – 70
Guerrieri 71 – 115