D’Orlando quickest in practice for Indy Nxt’s Nashville finale

Photo: Penske Entertainment / Chris Jones

Michael d’Orlando was quickest by a narrow margin in free practice for Indy Nxt’s season finale at Nashville Superspeedway.

The Andretti Cape driver impressed at the concrete oval last year as a part-timer, and came into this weekend with just two weekends of race experience in 2025 and only one on an oval.

It was Lochie Hughes who set the pace early on in the 45-minute morning session, posting a 25.8043s to narrowly lead Andretti Global team-mate Salvador de Alba.

After 11 minutes, Dennis Hauger made it an Andretti 1-2-3 by getting within 0.0113s of Hughes and ahead of de Alba.

HMD Motorsports’ Caio Collet was the next driver to lap sub-26s shortly after, then on his next lap went quickest with a 25.7052s. That put him 0.0956s ahead of de Alba, and nobody else was able to threaten them as yellow flags waved for a minute-and-a-half.

But Collet’s lap got deleted, and the next changes in the top 10 came at the 20-minute mark as d’Orlando improved to fifth and Abel Motorsports’ Jordan Missig went seventh fastest. Hauger then made a marginal gain in third, and Missig umproved again to sixth.

De Alba was usurped by Hauger, who posted a 25.7544s lap that d’Orlando got within 0.019s of half a minute later.

With just under 24 minutes to go Collet reclaimed first place with a 25.7473s, but almost immediately after d’Orlando set a 25.6766s that would not be beaten.

“Feels good to be back,” d’Orlando said after the session. “We’ve got a good starting point for the rest of the weekend.”

He “felt comfortable right from the start” but his pace was more reflective of a focus on familiarisation as he “didn’t get too many laps to do a quali sim” due to running in traffic and also “didn’t get to do the test [here] so I’m not sure what the high line was like at that point”.

Two minutes after the new benchmark was set and as the second half of practice began, Hughes got within 0.0439s of d’Orlando and de Alba came 0.0517s shy of his pace.

Rowe went seventh fastest with 20 minutes left on the clock, and became the eighth driver to break the 26s barrier. Three laps later on a busy track he became d’Orlando’s closest rival, lapping just 0.0363s slower than him.

Trips to the pits became more regular across the field thereon, with Andretti Global’s James Roe Jr in seventh one of only a few to improve.

Chip Ganassi Racing’s Niels Koolen broke into the top 10 with a few minutes to go, but also had several loose moments on the high line in traffic, and Josh Pierson’s successive improvements three minutes from the end put him seventh.

Everyone was pit-bound with two minutes of practice remaining, due to Collet slowing on track and causing yellow flags.

Free practice results