Photo: Matt Fraver
Dennis Hauger is headed to IndyCar in 2026 after instant adaptation to the challenges of Indy Nxt this year
While rookie champions aren’t uncommon in IndyCar’s primary feeder series, they usually arrive in Indy Nxt with circuit knowledge and oval racing experience from the steps below on the road to Indy.
The last exceptions prior to 2025 were Jean-Karl Vernay and Josef Newgarden, who stepped up from the Formula 3 Euro Series and the Formula 1-supporting GP3 (now known as the FIA F3 Championship) respectively in 2010 and ’11.
Dennis Hauger was not making a step up when he arrived in Indy Nxt this year, since he had three Formula 2 seasons under his belt, but there was still a lot to learn. Yet F2, rather than Indy Nxt, experience may have been what rivals rued lacking.
“For sure coming over from F2, just having the experience with tyre degradation, that sort of stuff especially, has helped me,” said Hauger after winning the first two races of 2025 on the streets of St. Petersburg and at Barber Motorsports Park.
“But I’m still coming over here [and] it’s a new car, it’s a new tyre compound, new tracks. It’s all new. So definitely I think it helped me get up to speed quickly, but at the end of the day it’s also new for me. So I have to prepare as much as I can for the weekends and do the job to make sure I’m there. But really happy, it feels natural with the Indy Nxt car and it just clicks well so far, so I’m really happy we’re able to maximise that.”
Hauger said his Barber victory was “definitely a confidence boost and a good way to step into an intense season ahead”. Qualifying had taken place on a drying track so the conditions were changing constantly, and Hauger topped his group by 0.5964 seconds. In the race he was dominant, quickly opening up gaps after two pace car interruptions and winning by 11s.
As if to rub in his pace advantage in clean air, Hauger set the fastest lap by 0.4673s with two laps to go. While he lapped in the 1m12s, only three other drivers went sub-1m14s and his lead grew by 0.9437s on that lap alone. Hauger also got his mistakes out of the way long before the race.
Absolute pace
| Pos | Driver | Team | Pace | Pos | Driver | Team | Pace |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hauger | Andretti | 100.070% | 13 | Johnson | HMD | 101.600% |
| 2 | Collet | HMD | 100.506% | 14 | Sceats | HMD | 101.651% |
| 3 | Hughes | Andretti | 100.537% | 15 | Koolen | Ganassi | 101.665% |
| 4 | de Alba | Andretti | 100.655% | 16 | Aron | HMD/Ganassi | 101.767% |
| 5 | Rowe | HMD w/ Abel | 100.882% | 17 | Roe | Andretti | 101.821% |
| 6 | Hedge | Abel | 100.907% | 18 | Murray | Andretti Cape | 101.842% |
| 7 | Pierson | HMD | 100.992% | 19 | Miller | Abel w/ MVM | 101.879% |
| 8 | d’Orlando | Andretti Cape | 101.065% | 20 | Allaer | HMD | 101.981% |
| 9 | Papasavvas | HMD | 101.328% | 21 | Smith | HMD | 102.144% |
| 10 | Correa | HMD | 101.380% | 22 | Taylor | HMD | 102.225% |
| 11 | Escotto | Andretti Cape | 101.507% | 23 | Hamilton | HMD | 103.187% |
| 12 | Missig | Abel | 101.592% | 24 | Deegan | HMD | 103.452% |
Driver did less than three rounds. No average when only one event attended
“It’s just a few different things that are different here [to F2] that I’m still sort of getting properly into my mindset. But honestly it’s felt pretty natural since day one, and through the test days in the off-season I’ve really built up confidence with the car. And I think that showed when we went here in the off-season for the test day; I actually crashed and I got half a day. It was probably not my best test.
“But since then we’ve just really grown both confidence in the car and feeling super comfortable now, and we showed that this weekend. So I’m really looking forward to see how we get on for the rest of the season.”
The Andretti Global driver entered his debut with confidence, and proceeded to take pole and victory, then to have a result on his second series start that sent his self-belief even higher made him unstoppable much of the time. Hauger credited his team for making him “get up to speed quickly – especially with my engineer”, and called it a “key point” for the season.
Being able to go into events anticipating he already had the pace to be at the front, it then became a case of finetuning a winning formula for Hauger. And at many rounds where that was the case, often on tracks he had tested on, conversations with media including Formula Scout repeating the comment “it’s feeling natural”. At least on the road and street courses.
After a valuable weekend of learning on Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s road course, that still included being the weekend’s fastest driver and winning, then nailing the challenge of cold tyres, hot tyres and the “awesome experience” of the Detroit street circuit where “you have to really be on the limit, and a bit over the limit to find the time around here”, came Gateway.
The season’s first oval was the only one which Indy Nxt did not host an in-season test at in advance, making it the most challenging for all. Rain delayed practice, and Hauger was fifth while HMD Motorsports’ Caio Collet set the pace. Drivers go out one at a time in qualifying, in reverse championship order, for two-lap runs so points leader Hauger had an advantage.
Absolute pace (Ovals)
| Pos. | Driver | Pace | Pos. | Driver | Pace |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | de Alba | 100.088% | 12 | Aron | 101.952% |
| 2 | Hauger | 100.186% | 13 | Allaer | 101.985% |
| 3 | Hughes | 100.535% | 14 | Roe | 102.007% |
| 4 | Collet | 100.615% | 15 | Missig | 102.053% |
| 5 | Rowe | 100.702% | 16 | Miller | 101.692% |
| 6 | Pierson | 101.004% | 17 | Deegan | 102.875% |
| 7 | d’Orlando | 101.035% | 18 | Murray | 102.879% |
| 8 | Hedge | 101.098% | 19 | Smith | 103.183% |
| 9 | Correa | 101.390% | 20 | Hamilton | 103.187% |
| 10 | Escotto | 101.511% | 21 | Taylor | 103.540% |
| 11 | Koolen | 101.875% | Driver did less than three ovals | ||
Collet had set the benchmark at an average speed of 165.735mph, setting the fastest lap with his first tour then making a big improvement to 166.341mph on his second. While Hauger could not beat that lap, both of his were over 166mph and he claimed pole by 0.427mph (0.1396s).
Hauger lost the lead to series sophomore Collet one-and-a-half minutes into the race on lap four, then kept with him until lap 34 of 75 when he began to be dropped. At this point the race’s winner was still in sixth, but an immense charge that frequently utilised the high line brought Andretti’s Lochie Hughes to the front with 13 laps to go and he romped to victory by 4.3521s.
The rookie was at this point Hauger’s closest title rival, but Gateway marked his last time leading a race and counterintuitively it was his worst circuit for race pace. Average laptimes were calculated from 10 laps of consecutive uninterrupted green flag running for road and street courses, and 20 laps for the short ovals. The race ran green throughout and the fastest period, despite high fuel loads and therefore heavier cars, was early on. Hughes was 9.6623s behind leader Collet after the first 24 laps.
The subsequent rise up the order left Hughes in shock. His only prior oval experience had been two races in lower series.
At the same point Hughes’ race took an upturn, Collet started finding it “a little bit tough to drive” having taken a “gamble on the downforce before the start of the race”. When he hit trouble he “started to really lose the balance” and was “just trying to survive” by the end. Collet and Hauger finished the race in third and fifth, 0.4271s apart. Formula Scout didn’t get the chance to speak to Hauger during the weekend, but did a month later during the next oval event at Iowa Speedway.
In the weekends between, Hauger had collected a further two poles. At Road America he led Collet until a single mistake with four laps to go was pounced on by his rival. Collet won by 1.7s, and everyone else was over 11s further behind.
At Mid-Ohio, Hauger broke the track record in a hot qualifying session after “tuning things” from a very strong baseline, then “nailed the balance” with his race set-up to convert pole into victory. Rivals rued the difficulty of overtaking at the track for Hauger being mostly unopposed, a reccurring theme.
Rolling race pace average
| Pos. | Driver | Pace | Pos. | Driver | Pace |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hauger | 100.116% | 13 | Missig | 101.257% |
| 2 | Collet | 100.353% | 14 | Taylor | 101.331% |
| 3 | Rowe | 100.445% | 15 | Koolen | 101.390% |
| 4 | Hughes | 100.555% | 16 | Murray | 101.527% |
| 5 | d’Orlando | 100.672% | 17 | Aron | 101.533% |
| 6 | de Alba | 100.676% | 18 | Smith | 101.601% |
| 7 | Pierson | 100.749% | 19 | Roe | 101.658% |
| 8 | Hedge | 100.759% | 20 | Escotto | 101.659% |
| 9 | Sceats | 100.956% | 21 | Allaer | 101.719% |
| 10 | Johnson | 101.005% | 22 | Miller | 101.865% |
| 11 | Papasavvas | 101.017% | 23 | Hamilton | 102.519% |
| 12 | Correa | 101.100% | 24 | Deegan | 103.414% |
Iowa’s track record was also smashed, but during the in-season test there, so Indy Nxt chose to reduce engine power for its race event. Andretti’s Salvador de Alba set the practice pace by 0.01s, with Hauger 0.05s back in third, then rain led to qualifying being cancelled and Hauger being handed another pole due to being points leader. He proved to be the fastest driver anyway, since his fastest lap in the race beat de Alba’s practice benchmark.
He did not win however, since Abel Motorsports with Force Indy’s Myles Rowe passed him less than five minutes from the end to claim a landmark victory. Rowe also had the best race pace, marginally quicker than Hauger’s.
The season ended with two oval races, and Hauger was crowned in the first at the Milwaukee Mile. He topped practice by just 0.0265s, then set the pace in qualifying by a huge margin and with a different approach to his main rival for pole.
De Alba was the driver to beat, and Hauger was over 1mph slower than him on his first lap but over 4mph faster on his second to take pole by 0.9mph (0.2839s). The fastest lap of the weekend was de Alba’s first one in qualifying, and he was also quickest on race pace as he overtook Hauger on the opening lap and went on to take his maiden win. He had finished third at Iowa, repeating his 2024 podium, and Milwaukee proved to be his strongest track for the second year in a row.
Like Hughes’ win at Gateway, it was confidence with using the high line that set up de Alba for success, and he arrived at Milwaukee with a car where “just tuning” was needed to be quickest. Across the season’s four ovals, Andretti’s trio were the fastest drivers and de Alba actually was on average closer to the absolute pace over a lap than Hauger was. Which wasn’t surprising, given he had experience of them.
Hauger was stronger than anyone else in 2025 for race pace on ovals, despite no wins, courtesy of consistently being competitive. Rowe was the top scorer on ovals with 170 points, followed by de Alba on 164 and Hauger on 151. Hughes and Collet trailed on 130 and 128. On all other circuits, Hauger scored 448 points, with Collet and Hughes on 339 and 336. HMD’s Josh Pierson, who came sixth in the standings with only one weekend where he was on the podium, was next best on 290.
Rolling race pace (Ovals)
| Pos. | Driver | Pace | Pos. | Driver | Pace |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hauger | 100.168% | 12 | Aron | 101.492% |
| 2 | Collet | 100.249% | 13 | Murray | 101.532% |
| 3 | Rowe | 100.251% | 14 | Correa | 101.535% |
| 4 | de Alba | 100.314% | 15 | Taylor | 101.678% |
| 5 | d’Orlando | 100.590% | 16 | Allaer | 101.709% |
| 6 | Hedge | 100.663% | 17 | Smith | 102.308% |
| 7 | Hughes | 100.743% | 18 | Escotto | 102.364% |
| 8 | Pierson | 100.783% | 19 | Hamilton | 102.519% |
| 9 | Koolen | 101.087% | 20 | Deegan | 102.557% |
| 10 | Missig | 101.245% | 21 | Miller | 103.344% |
| 11 | Roe | 101.292% | Driver did less than three oval rounds | ||
The pressure was off for the finale at Nashville Superspeedway, the only superspeedway on the calendar, so Hauger went in “just trying to enjoy the weekend, learn as much as I could” about the high-speed layout. He was fifth in practice (0.0778s off top spot), qualified third as de Alba broke his pole position duck, and finished his sole Indy Nxt season with a third place.
“I think I’m good at adapting, but more than anything [it’s] just the preparation work we’ve done,” Hauger said about rapidly getting onto the pace at almost every circuit.
“The week before and the days before, working hard to be as prepared as possible has been a bigger part of it. I think that’s what made us be a step ahead on some tracks, especially.”
As for adapting to ovals specifically, he added: “In the pre-season watching ovals and just seeing how it looks, you never know really what to expect before you get on track. And I remember the first time I went out in Nashville, in the first test day it was just like ‘woah, this feels like I feel a superhero driving in a circle’.
“It can be the coolest thing and the craziest thing and most scary thing as well. So it’s been a really cool part of the year, and to go to so many different types of tracks has been a really cool part of this championship for me. Great learning curve in something completely new.”
There were two low points for Hauger during the season. The first followed his Barber win, during the IMS double-header. He qualified second for race one, had contact into the opening corner but stopped it from being a race-ending clash by taking to the escape road. It sent him down to 19th, and he recovered to eighth.
He had also missed out on pole for race two the next day, but after passing team-mate Lochie Hughes he controlled the race from the front. That was down to correctly predicting the track’s evolution between races, in his first double-header event.
Photo: Penske Entertainment
“Yesterday was a tough day. We didn’t have the best pace out there to be honest, but I think we sorted some things out for today and were able to fix the mistakes we did and get on with it,” Hauger said after victory.
He called it a “good bounceback” showing that mindset-wise “we’re not going to be put down so easily” by a bad day, which began on “the balance side” but ultimately only cost him one place in qualifying. And then gave him knowledge of being in the pack.
The next low point was at Laguna Seca, which followed Iowa on the schedule and was before Portland where his sixth win was claimed. Hauger topped free practice one, but in FP2 only did one lap before going off at turn six and into the barriers. It ended his day, but he bounced back in qualifying to be under 0.071s off poleman Collet on race one and two’s grids.
Collet held off Hauger by 0.2s to win race one, then won again in race two as Hauger was eliminated in a multi-car crash.
Overall, Hauger found his Indy Nxt switch “felt really fresh”, making him “super motivated and positive and energised the whole year” regardless of the results. After becoming champion, he reflected on how valuable his F2 experience proved.
“With F2 to Indy Nxt, you can say whatever you want, but those two cars are completely different. The weight is over 100kg or 200kg different. The horsepower is a bit different, and the driving style is completely different. I did feel really confident though in the Indy Nxt car straight away, which was nice, because it felt like a natural driving style for me.”
As for the two generations of F2 machinery he raced? “[It] didn’t feel as natural for me. It’s been going pretty natural for me and with these tyres, it’s been pretty cool. You can push them hard throughout the race with the Firestone tyres [compared to F2’s Pirellis]. There’s just been so many different factors in this series, which makes [it] really interesting and fun.”
Hauger secured his IndyCar promotion with Dale Coyne Racing, which is entering a technical alliance with Andretti. His step up has been in part funded by the $850,000 prize for winning the Indy Nxt title. That will be spent on a rookie oval test, the Indianapolis 500 open test and rookie orientation programme, his entry into the Indy 500 and one other race in 2026.