Photo: Karl Zemlin
Louis Foster took his first Indy Nxt victory of the season ahead of Jacob Abel in the second race on Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s road course.
Foster started from row two of the grid but came through to take a dominant win by more than two seconds. However, it was Caio Collet who led for most of the race.
The field ran four-wide at the start, with HMD Motorsports’ Collet coming out on top ahead of Abel Motorsports’ poleman Jacob Abel. Foster hung back in third while a strong start for Andretti Global team-mate Jamie Chadwick put her fourth.
The top three were relatively evenly matched, with the early battles happening further down the order. Foster was the first to break that up, passing Abel to take second and putting pressure on Collet for the lead.
Foster attempted a move around turn one, only to run wide and give Collet breathing room for a moment. He went back on the attack and managed to take the lead in the second half of the race. Championship leader Abel followed him past to knock Collet down to third.
Once Foster was up front, he quickly broke away. Abel could not keep up and finished 2.3688 seconds behind but extended his points lead.
After her strong start, Chadwick dropped backwards with gear-shifting issues limiting her pace. That promoted her team-mate James Roe Jr to fourth, and he closed in on Collet, finishing less than a second behind.
The closest and longest-lasting battle for most of the race was between Nolan Siegel, Myles Rowe and Michael d’Orlando. Siegel had briefly challenged Roe early on in the race, only to slip behind Rowe into what was then seventh place. He kept on the back of Rowe, but had d’Orlando close behind. A moment on the grass for Siegel after going side-by-side with another car almost took him out of the fight, but he managed to hold on. He came through to take the lead of the battle, finishing fifth with d’Orlando taking sixth in what could be his last Indy Nxt start as he is on a race-by-race deal.
Jonathan Browne came home eighth, just ahead of Salvador de Alba and Callum Hedge.
Race result (35 laps)
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Louis Foster | Andretti Global | 45m08.4692s |
| 2 | Jacob Abel | Abel Motorsports | +2.3688s |
| 3 | Caio Collet | HMD Motorsports | +9.6159s |
| 4 | James Roe Jr | Andetti Global | +10.3576s |
| 5 | Nolan Siegel | HMD Motorsports | +10.4305s |
| 6 | Michael d’Orlando | Andretti Cape | +11.0124s |
| 7 | Myles Rowe | HMD Motorsports | +17.2272s |
| 8 | Jonathan Browne | HMD Motorsports | +21.1197s |
| 9 | Salvador de Alba | Andretti Cape | +22.0160s |
| 10 | Callum Hedge | HMD Motorsports | +25.1580s |
| 11 | Reece Gold | HMD Motorsports | +25.5394s |
| 12 | Josh Pierson | HMD Motorsports | +27.9732s |
| 13 | Jordan Missig | Abel Motorsports | +28.4549s |
| 14 | Niels Koolen | HMD Motorsports | +28.8641s |
| 15 | Christian Bogle | HMD Motorsports | +37.2777s |
| 16 | Jamie Chadwick | Andretti Global | +42.5072s |
| 17 | Nolan Allaer | HMD Motorsports | +44.7596s |
| 18 | Jack William Miller | Miller Vinatieri Racing | +46.9636s |
| 19 | Bryce Aron | Andretti Global | +46.4279s |
| 20 | Lindsay Brewer | Juncos Hollinger Racing | +1m02.7071s |
| Ret | Yuven Sundaramoorthy | Abel Motorsports | +1m17.0366s |
| Fastest lap: Foster, 1m16.4351s
Championship standings |
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