Gustavo Yacaman's second celebration of the weekend lasted considerably longer and meant a whole lot more.
Yacaman's quickest qualifying lap a day earlier that would have generated his first pole position was disallowed because it came under a local yellow, but he celebrated his first Firestone Indy Lights victory in a 35-lap race of attrition on the 2.04-mile, 12-turn Baltimore temporary street circuit.
"This is an amazing feeling and I hope we can do this again," said the 20-year-old from Colombia, who started his 39th race. "I want to thank my team. They did just an amazing job to put this car together. I made a mistake early on (spin that dropped him three spots) but I was able to fight back."
Yacaman started third in the No. 2 TMR-Tuvacol-Xtreme Oil Drilling and was running second when he inherited the lead on a lap 31 restart when race leader Anders Krohn overshot the tight Turn 1 right-hander and slid into the runoff. Yacaman then had to hold off series championship points leader Josef Newgarden, who closed to 0.4500 of a second at the checkered flag.
"A great race by Gustavo," said Newgarden, who started a season-low 14th in the No. 11 Copart/Score Big/Robo-Pong/Sam Schmidt Motorsports car and charged to his ninth top-five finish. "He showed no mercy and definitely made no mistakes. It's a tribute to their team and to him."
Yacaman, who recorded his third consecutive top-five finish, is the sixth different winner this season. Newgarden increased his lead over teammate Esteban Guerrieri to 90 points with two races remaining.
"We're focused on the championship," he said. "I would like to have another win for us but that is a great way to rebound after having a very tough time on Saturday. I was really disappointed with how qualifying went. To finish off the weekend like this hopefully can help us at the end of the year."
Guerrieri, driving the No. 7 Lucas Oil/SSM car, had a five-second advantage over Krohn's No. 9 Liberty Engineering Racing Special for Belardi Auto Racing as they cross the start/finish line for lap 26. Two laps later, Guerrieri's hopes of closing the points gap vanished as his car was stopped in Turn 3 because of a bent front suspension. That gave the lead to Krohn.
Guerrieri had overtaken polesitter Conor Daly for the lead in the T3 hairpin on lap 23. Daly's race ended abruptly on lap 26 as the No. 77 Mazda Road to Indy/SSM car sustained front-wing damage when he was running second.
Victor Carbone finished a season-best third in the No. 3 Nevoni/SSS casr and Bruno Andrade advanced eight positions to finish fourth – also a season high – in the No. 29 Bryan Herta Autosport entry.
"We wanted to be consistent and get up front, and just fight each other," Carbone said. "I was able to take advantage of (the others' mistakes), so it's very good. Now it's back to the ovals."
Stefan Wilson in the No. 5 Andretti Autosport car recovered from an adventure in the Turn 1 runoff on lap 18 while running seventh to finish fifth.