Victor Carbone scored his first Firestone Indy Lights Series victory in the final race of the 2011 season, the fourth driver from Sam Schmidt Motorsports to score a win this year.
The 19-year-old Brazilian started from pole, also his first, but wasn't able to hold the top spot. He fell into second behind teammate and series champion Josef Newgarden – who rode the high line from eighth on the grid to the lead – for most of the race.
On the final lap, Carbone attempted to pass Newgarden but contacted Newgarden's tire, which cut it and sent him to ninth as the last car on the lead lap.
"I tried to get spots from him and touched him twice. I didn't mean to," Carbone said. "I think I cut his tire. I wanted to win but not like this. I wanted the team to be 1-2-3. This win is for (the late) Chris Griffis (former SSM team manager) and the entire team."
Esteban Guerrieri ended his recent string of poor results with second, his first podium since winning at Trois-Rivieres in early August. Jorge Goncalvez recorded his fourth podium of the year in third – all on ovals.
Gustavo Yacaman and Jacob Wilson completed the top five.
A three-car accident on lap nine took out Rusty Mitchell, Duarte Ferreira and Bryan Clauson. The first two were side-by-side before coming together through turn one, with Clauson left behind and with nowhere to go.
Ferreira was frustrated with the accident but Mitchell basically tore into him in his radio interview shortly thereafter.
“It was a case of him being an idiot,” Mitchell said. “He was driving like that in Kentucky, too. I (got out and) told him he was a moron and an idiot. He was being pretty aggressive. I was here to race, too. You're not gonna win on the high side on lap nine. He's been that way all year.”
Clauson, the defending USAC national champion who had a detour to race in Toledo on Saturday while battling Kyle Larson for that crown this year, was taken out of an Indy Lights race for the first time in six starts.