Photo: James Black
Newly crowned Indy Nxt champion Louis Foster topped the order in the opening practice session of the final round of the 2024 season at Nashville Superspeedway.
Two caution periods disrupted running, and those at the top of the times put in their fastest laps early on.
Jacob Abel set the pace after the opening tours with a speed of 184.479mph. Before anybody could challenge his benchmark, an incident for HMD Motorsports’ Christian Brooks brought out the yellow flags and everyone returned to the pits.
After a lengthy stoppage, the session resumed and Foster jumped to the top of the order. He lapped at 185.370mph, which would not be beaten in the second half of the session.
Abel’s early pace would not be beaten by anybody else, meaning he ended FP1 in second, but Foster’s Andretti Global team-mate Bryce Aron came close when he jumped up to third. HMD’s Caio Collet improved to go fourth fastest ahead of Andretti’s Jamie Chadwick, who set her best lap in the early stages of the session.
The second caution period was caused by Andretti Cape’s Salvador de Alba, and there were about 10 minutes left on the clock when green flag action resumed. Nobody could come close to the early speeds after that.
Abel Motorsports’ Yuvan Sundararamoorthy was the best of the late improvers and went sixth fastest, ahead of HMD du Josh Pierson and Myles Rowe. Michael d’Orlando, returning to the grid with Andretti Cape, placed ninth and HMD’s Jonathan Browne completed the top 10.
Free practice 1 results
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Louis Foster | Andretti Global | 25.8294s | 32 |
| 2 | Jacob Abel | Abel Motorsports | +0.1248s | 34 |
| 3 | Bryce Aron | Andretti Global | +0.1471s | 35 |
| 4 | Caio Collet | HMD Motorsports | +0.2821s | 29 |
| 5 | Jamie Chadwick | Andretti Global | +0.3053s | 34 |
| 6 | Yuven Sundaramoorthy | Abel Motorsports | +0.3186s | 38 |
| 7 | Josh Pierson | HMD Motorsports | +0.3428s | 37 |
| 8 | Myles Rowe | HMD Motorsports | +0.3441s | 36 |
| 9 | Michael d’Orlando | Andretti Cape | +0.3502s | 34 |
| 10 | Jonathan Browne | HMD Motorsports | +0.4865s | 36 |
| 11 | Salvador de Alba | Andretti Cape | +0.4924s | 9 |
| 12 | Callum Hedge | HMD Motorsports | +0.5710s | 30 |
| 13 | Nolan Allaer | HMD Motorports | +0.8429s | 28 |
| 14 | James Roe Jr | Andretti Global | +0.8983s | 23 |
| 15 | Christian Bogle | HMD Motorsports | +0.9901s | 28 |
| 16 | Jack William Miller | Miller Vintatieri Racing | +1.7082s | 22 |
| 17 | Christian Brooks | HMD Motorsports | +2.9262s | 2 |
| 18 | Taylor Ferns | Abel Motorsports | +3.0837s | 29 |