Photo: Chris Jones
Nolan Allaer will return to HMD Motorsports’ Indy Nxt line-up for this weekend’s season finale at Nashville Superspeedway.
The 22-year-old made an ambitious leap up the single-seater ladder to IndyCar’s primary feeder series at the start of this year, and contested the first nine races of the Indy Nxt campaign with HMD before pulling out as he switched focus to 2025.
He had been the SCCA National Runoff winner in Formula Continental and Formula F in 2023, but primarily raced wingless cars in the UK, coming came sixth in BRSCC National Formula Ford 1600 and 16th in the FFord Festival.
Allaer managed to get two top-10 finishes in Indy Nxt before putting his season on pause, although did comment at the time that he planned to do one of the remaining five races with HMD to warm-up for a full season next year.
This weekend’s race will be his first ever on an oval, and he will take over the car previously driven by Reece Gold which means HMD’s line-up will remain at seven cars.
“I am eager and excited to make my oval debut this weekend at the Nashville Superspeedway,” said Allaer. “I had a test of the ovals at the Milwaukee Mile test earlier this year and loved it. When the opportunity to get behind the wheel was made available, it was a quick decision to return to the grid.”
He added: “The goal is to return to the grid full-time in 2025, and this is the perfect opportunity to gain some valuable oval laps.”
HMD boss Mike Maurini confirmed that Allaer, who is currently 19th in the standings, “has been present at every race that he has not been in the car and is working hard to obtain a seat in 2025”.
Goldhad a crash at turn two in practice for the most recent round at the Milwaukee Mile, and as the “the g-force prompted a reexamination” of his condition, he was subsequently not cleared to qualify or race. No reason has been given for why Gold is unable to race this weekend, and he was in contention to end the season fourth in the standings.