Foster’s fast form continues with a fifth Indy Nxt pole at Portland

Photo: Matt Fraver

Andretti Global’s Louis Foster pipped HMD Motorsports’ Caio Collet to the fastest lap in qualifying for Indy Nxt’s race at Portland, taking his fifth pole of the season.

The championship leader was just 0.1526 seconds quicker than Collet, who has a six-place grid penalty carried over from the previous round due to a blocking violation and for causing avoidable contact.

Collet set the pace in the first qualifying group. He immediately headed to the top of the times, with Abel Motorsports’ Yuven Sundaramoorthy close behind. He gradually lowered the pace to 1m02.2922s, a time that put him comfortably at the top of his group.

Andretti’s James Roe Jr, who was second in the session, was almost half a second off Collet’s pace.

Foster topped the times early on in the second group, but it was not until his final laps that he was able to better Collet’s benchmark. His closest rival in the group was his title rival Jacob Abel, who was three tenths of a second slower than him around a lap that is completed in little more than a minute. Abel will start on the front row due to Collet’s penalty, with Roe in third.

“Turn one is just absolutely bananas here,” said Foster after clinching pole. “My goal this weekend, honestly, was just to get through turn one safely. And the best way to do that is to sit on pole. Happy to have done that.”

Both groups’ sessions ran green throughout, although Juncos Hollinger Racing’s Ricardo Escotto did bring out a local yellow flag after a spin. HMD’s Myles Rowe also ran into problems after going off between turns 11 and 12, but managed to continue without causing a stoppage.

His team-mate Reece Gold was third quickest in the second group and will therefore line up fourth for the race, ahead of Sundaramoorthy, Andretti’s Bryce Aron and HMD’s Christian Brooks. 

Andretti Cape’s Salvador de Alba and Andretti Global’s Jamie Chadwick complete the top 10 on the grid behind Collet.

Qualifying results