Karam gets his maiden win on the Milwaukee Mile

Sage Karam overtook Zach Veach on Lap 57 of the Milwaukee 100 and went on to become the third first-time winner and fourth in five Firestone Indy Lights races this season.

Karam, 18, of Nazareth, Pa., led Carlos Munoz across the start-finish line by 1.0808 seconds. Veach earned his first podium finish.

"The first one is always big. Star Mazda, my first win was Milwaukee also," said Karam, the pole sitter who drove the No. 8 Schmidt Peterson with Curb-Agajanian car. "I had to stay mentally strong and that's what we did. I saved my tires pretty well in the beginning and ran him down and made a good move."

Karam closed to 18 points of Munoz in the standings with the series heading to Iowa Speedway next week and then to Pocono Raceway on July 7.

SAGE KARAM (No. 8 Schmidt Peterson Motorsports c/w Curb-Agajanian): "In my opinion I think he (Zach Veach) jumped the start a little bit. He went way before I did and the green wasn't even out. As the pole sitter, I thought it was my job to pace the start. I was disappointed about that but I couldn't let it get to me. I had to stay mentally strong, and that's what we did. I saved my tires pretty well in the beginning and ran him down and made a good move. And the traffic, we worked well with them and they worked well with us. So I have to give a big hats off to all of the lapped traffic out there for really being polite."

CARLOS MUNOZ (No. 26 Daily-Ser/Andretti Autosport): "It was a second place, but it tastes like a win, more or less. Over the weekend we had a couple of problems with the car, but second place is nice. It's really good for the championship. I think I lead the points by even more now, so as we go race by race from here, we aim to get more and more podiums."

ZACH VEACH (No. 12 K12/Andretti Autosport): "I think it was a really good weekend for us. We qualified second, which was our best qualifying position, and we led a lot of laps today. I just made a rookie mistake by pushing too hard on the tires in the early laps. We learned a lot from this, and I'm just happy to come home third. Those last 20 laps I was just hanging on hoping there was no one behind us. I am very thankful for the K12 Andretti Autosport guys for working so hard, and we'll hopefully get the win in Iowa. We'll keep digging."

PETER DEMPSEY (No. 5 Belardi Auto Racing): "It was a tough day for us because the race didn't go as great as we were hoping for. I'm happy to finish the race and take the points but now we're sitting in fourth for the championship. We just got caught up in traffic there at the end. I got too loose coming out of two and spun. Overall, it was a good effort by the team this weekend. It was tough for us to come here with no testing and it being my first time here with the team. This track hasn't been great in the past so to qualify upfront was good. Unfortunately we just need to keep working at it, move on to Iowa, and come back stronger."

JORGE GONCALVEZ (No. 4. Belardi Auto Racing): "We didn't qualify well yesterday which really put us at a disadvantage in the beginning, being behind everyone. It was pretty hard for me in the beginning to pass the 77 and using so much time to do that made a large gap between me and those who were in front. Halfway through the race, the car was really fast. We were running 3rd fastest but it was just too late to catch up. The caution came out but I just didn't have the chance to improve any positions. I did the best I could and now I'm focusing on Iowa next weekend. I've already talked to my engineer and we're already trying to figure out what will be best there to have better results."

GABBY CHAVES (No. 7 Schmidt Peterson Motorsports c/w Curb-Agajanian): "We had a crazy start today. We went, then we stopped and I got a little sideways there. Thankfully we got through the first lap and we had a strong car. It's very difficult to get around traffic here in Milwaukee. Our car had the pace to run up front with the leaders. Great job to the Schmidt Peterson Motorsports guys and we'll keep moving forward from here."

INDYCAR