Home Road to IndyIndy Nxt Foster on top again in Indy Nxt’s second Portland practice session

Foster on top again in Indy Nxt’s second Portland practice session

by Bethonie Waring

Photo: Matt Fraver

Andretti Global’s Louis Foster topped the times once again in the final Indy Nxt practice before qualifying at Portland.

It was a relatively trouble-free session, with only a few minor incidents, none of which resulted in circuit-wide yellow flags.

Foster jumped to the top of the times early on, and gradually lowered the benchmark pace throughout the remainder of FP2.

In the closing stages of the session, HMD Motorsports’ Caio Collet and Abel Motorsports’ Jacob Abel were able to get close to what was then the fastest lap, but another improvement from Foster left him comfortably ahead.

He ended practice with a 1m02.3358s as his personal best, with a pace advantage of 0.2885 seconds over Collet.

Abel was third quickest ahead of Andretti’s James Roe Jr and HMD’s Reece Gold. Foster’s team-mate Jamie Chadwick, who briefly held the fastest lap early on, was sixth quickest.

One driver who did have an interrupted morning was Josh Pierson. The HMD driver spent most of the session in the pits, and at the end of practice told media that he had suspected engine issues and felt his lack of running would put him at a disadvantage going into qualifying.

His team-mate Myles Rowe suffered a spin during FP2, but he managed to avoid making contact with any other cars or the barriers and went on to end the session in ninth. The top 12 were covered by less than a second around what is a short lap, and the pace was faster than in the previous day’s practice session.

Free practice results
Pos Driver Team Time Gap Laps
1 Louis Foster Andretti Global 1m02.3358s 29
2 Caio Collet HMD Motorsports 1m02.6243s +0.2885s 27
3 Jacob Abel Abel Motorsports 1m02.7047s +0.3689s 31
4 James Roe Jr Andretti Global 1m02.8308s +0.4950s 31
5 Reece Gold HMD Motorsports 1m02.8696s +0.5338s 28
6 Jamie Chadwick Andretti Global 1m02.9218s +0.5860s 29
7 Bryce Aron Andretti Global 1m02.9461s +0.6103s 31
8 Christian Brooks HMD Motorsports 1m03.0280s +0.6922s 30
9 Myles Rowe HMD Motorsports 1m03.0436s +0.7078s 30
10 Jonathan Browne HMD Motorsports 1m03.0653s +0.7295s 30
11 Ricardo Escotto Juncos Hollinger Racing 1m03.1186s +0.7828s 26
12 Yuven Sundaramoorthy Abel Motorsports 1m03.3203s +0.9845s 24
13 Salvador de Alba Andretti Cape 1m03.3451s +1.0093s 31
14 Christian Bogle HMD Motorsports 1m03.4099s +1.0741s 30
15 Callum Hedge HMD Motorsports 1m03.5378s +1.2020s 2
16 Jack William Miller Miller Vinatieri Racing 1m03.9702s +1.6344s 31
17 Josh Pierson HMD Motorsports 1m05.0440s +2.7082s 8