Louis Foster takes pole on his Indy Nxt debut

Photo: James Black

Louis Foster took pole position for his first ever race in Indy Nxt in a short, sharp qualifying session in St. Petersburg. 

The opening qualifying of the season had green flag action throughout. A new rule for 2023 means qualifying will be limited to either eight minutes of green flag running or 15 minutes total, whichever comes first once the session begins.  

Foster jumped to the top of the times late on with a 1m05.220s lap. The pace continued to improve, though, with most drivers setting personal bests every time they crossed the start-finish line. Foster went on to improve to 1m05.1103s.  

The Andretti Autosport driver ran into traffic in the final minutes, stuck behind team-mate Jamie Chadwick. Jacob Abel, who was second quickest, was also held up and unable to improve on his final lap. 

Christian Rasmussen and Rasmus Lindh both managed to improve as they took the chequered flag. Lindh jumped up to third on his final lap, 0.118s slower than Foster. He wouldn’t stay there long, with Rasmussen beating him moments later. He ended qualifying 0.1101s behind Foster. 

The late laps knocked Kyffin Simpson down to fifth ahead of Nolan Siegel, who briefly held provisional pole position early in the session. 

Danial Frost spent much of qualifying at the sharp end of the field, but couldn’t improve late on and dropped back to seventh. Reece Gold, Matteo Nannini and Josh Green completed the top 10. 

Three-time W Series champion Chadwick qualified 18th for her debut, but was only eight tenths off the pace.

Qualifying results