INDIANAPOLIS – Robert Megennis picked perhaps the perfect place to claim his first Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tires victory: Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Megennis began his day by securing the pole position for the Indy Lights Grand Prix of Indianapolis Friday morning, and even though he was briefly headed in the 30-lap race by Andretti Autosport teammate – and championship leader – Oliver Askew, Megennis fought back with a decisive maneuver in turn one, then edged clear of Askew to secure his first victory.
Askew found some extra pace in the closing stages to set the fastest race lap at 1:15.6953, an average speed of 115.997 mph, narrowly beating the old track record set by current NTT IndyCar Series driver Felix Rosenqvist in 2016. Askew, from Jupiter, Fla., thereby cemented second place ahead of his closest championship rival, Rinus VeeKay.
Cool, crisp conditions ensured the 2.439-mile, 14-turn road course was in good shape for this afternoon’s fifth race of the season, and Megennis made good use of his pole position to make a jump on the field. By contrast, outside front row qualifier VeeKay encountered heavy wheelspin and instantly slipped back into the pack.
Askew put the pressure on Megennis through the first couple of laps before using the extra horsepower offered by the push-to-pass feature on his AER turbo engine to accentuate the draft heading down the long front straight and then slip through into the lead at Turn One. But Megennis wasn’t about to throw in the towel. Not by any means. Two laps later, he pulled off a very similar maneuver at Turn Four to regain the lead.
Megennis then inched away from his rival, setting a string of fastest race laps to extend his margin to as much as 2.7 seconds. Askew discovered a little more speed in the closing stages but it was too little, too late as Megennis crossed the finishing stripe just over two seconds to the good. Askew instead had to settle for second, a new lap record and a slightly increased championship lead.
“I was pushing as hard as I could in the beginning to get out of that push-to-pass range,” said Megennis. “After that, Oliver and I had a pretty consistent pace. It’s great racing against him. He’s always super clean, and we respect each other and work well together. I didn’t end up on the right side of that at COTA (Circuit of The Americas) so it’s nice to change that here.
“But it hasn’t sunk in yet. If there’s anywhere you want to win, it’s Indy, with all the drivers who have stood on the podium before me. I can’t thank Andretti Autosport and my sponsors enough for the chance to be here.”
VeeKay, after slipping from second to fourth at the first corner, fought his way back past Ryan Norman to reclaim third on lap six. David Malukas also snuck past Norman but began to struggle for speed in the late stages and fell behind Zachary Claman to finish sixth.