Siegel moves into Indy Nxt lead with Road America victory

Photo: Travis Hinkle

Nolan Siegel claimed his second Indy Nxt win in a row at Road America, and as a result moved into the points lead.

The HMD Motorsports driver won last time out in Detroit, and qualified fourth on Saturday as Kyffin Simpson claimed his first series pole.

The track was slightly damp as the race began on Sunday, and Simpson hit the grass exiting turn one and his car jumped into the air.

Reece Gold took the lead, with Louis Foster moving into second ahead of Siegel while Simpson dropped to seventh.

There was drama on lap two as Jamie Chadwick went off after making contact with Josh Pierson, then on lap three Foster attacked Gold for the lead.

He could not got a move done and tucked back in behind, with Gold then growing his lead as Siegel pressured Foster then passed him around the outside on lap five.

Foster suddenly dropped back into the clutches of Jacob Abel too, and he took third place from him on the next lap.

Siegel hunted down Gold and executed a clean pass around the outside of him at turn five on lap eight.

The race was interrupted two laps later as Christian Rasmussen, who had flat-spotted his front-left tyre by trying to pass Hunter McElrea for fifth, hurtled off the track just after the Kink and rode the wall before eventually coming to a stop.

Racing resumed on lap 14 and Abel took second from Gold on the inside of turn one. Foster almost passed Gold too later in the lap but a lock-up for the early leader led to McElrea going past both of them.

Siegel quickly stretched out a lead and managed his pace to the end of the 20-lap race, and Abel also put himself clear of McElrea.

Over 10 seconds opened up between the podiim trio and the rest of the pack, with Gold finishing fourth and James Roe Jr beating Andretti Autosport team-mate Foster to fifth after a radio warning about blocking.

Danial Frost pipped Simpson to seventh, while Jagger Jones went from 17th to 12th at the restart and then passed three more cars to finish ninth.

Colin Kaminsky was 10th despite several major offs, and Ernie Francis Jr finished 12th after being shuffled down the pack in the last five laps. He had been trying to pass Roe but ended up losing two spots, then a turn six off relegated him to outside the top 10.

Race result (20 laps)