Foster denies Chadwick by taking his first Indy Nxt oval pole at Gateway

Photo: Penke Entertainment

Louis Foster took his first Indy Nxt oval pole position ahead of Andretti Global team-mate Jamie Chadwick at Gateway.

The pole was Foster’s fourth of the season, and first since the Laguna Seca double-header in June. Qualifying took place in sunny conditions, but with much of the high line of the track in shadow due to the session being late in the day.

As the points leader, Foster was the last driver on track. Chadwick was sitting top of the order with an average speed of 163.505mph after her two-lap run, and HMD Motorsports’ Christian Brooks had the fastest single-lap speed up to that point but was only third overall in the qualifying classification behind team-mate Caio Collet.

Foster was quicker than Brooks’ fastest lap on both of his, managing an average speed of 164.109mph to take pole by 0.604mph, or 0.2025s as a time advantage.

“I just want to keep winning races, man,” said Foster after clinching pole. “We’ll see what happens. Obviously, make good decisions in the race and finish with the [maximum] points, but my main goal is to win.”

Foster’s main title rival Jacob Abel could only manage to go sixth quickest, sandwiched between practice pace-setter Christian Bogle and his HMD team-mate Callum Hedge.

Abel Motorsports’ Yuven Sundaramoorthy and Andretti Cape’s Salvador de Alba both set the exact same speed, placing eighth and ninth respectively, with HMD’s Reece Gold in 10th. The old qualifying track record was beaten by the top 13 drivers.

HMD’s Jonathan Browne and Miller Vinatieri Racing’s Jack William Miller failed to complete qualifying runs but should be allowed to race.

Qualifying results