Foster tops Indy Nxt FP1 at Road America as Siegel gets IndyCar call-up

Photo: Chris Owens

Louis Foster was fastest by 0.2031 seconds in Indy Nxt’s opening practice session at Road America on Friday, as rival Nolan Siegel got called up to race in IndyCar.

There were four Andretti Global drivers in the top six, with HMD Motorsports’ Caio Collet and Abel Motorsports’ Jacob Abel being the exceptions in second and third. Championship leader Abel was over half a second slower than title rival Foster.

“The car was good,” said Foster afterwards. “We struggled here a bit last year, especially with front [tyre] degradation. So, it’s nice to start on the right foot. Made some good changes during that session. We’ve still got to do it tomorrow, haven’t we? It’s only practice, so let’s not get too excited.”

James Roe Jr was 0.6418s behind in fourth, and had an off during FP1, with Bryce Aron and Jamie Chadwick the only other two drivers within a second of the pace.

In 10th place and 1.3332s off the top was HMD’s title contender Siegel, who while out on track was announced as replacing Augustin Canapino at Juncos Hollinger Racing for IndyCar’s Grand Prix of Road America this weekend.

Siegel will replace full-time driver Agustin Canapino in the No. 78 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet in the aftermath of online abuse directed toward Theo Pourchaire of Arrow McLaren after he made contact with Canapino’s car Sunday, June 7 during the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix presented by Lear.

The Canapino-driven car had been run in a commercial alliance with McLaren, which ended this week following death threats made to McLaren driver Theo Pourchaire online by a section of Canapino’s fanbase. The subsequent fallout of that has been Canapino stepping back from IndyCar, for at least one event, and Siegel being called up for a weekend of double duty.

Siegel is currently third in the Indy Nxt standings with one win, and the 19-year-old American is signed to Dale Coyne Racing on a four-event IndyCar deal which does not clash with his commitments in its support series.

He started off with the non-championship $1 Million Challenge at The Thermal Club, was a lapped 20th in the Long Beach Grand Prix then failed to qualify for the Indianapolis 500. His next and final outing with DCR will be in Toronto next month.

Propping up Indy Nxt’s FP1 timesheet was Yuven Sundaramoothy (Abel Motorsports), who managed to go into the tyre barriers at turn 12 a quarter of the way into the 45-minute session. He had only completed three laps before his day ended.

Free practice 1 results