Hauger earns eighth Indy Nxt pole ahead of de Alba at Milwaukee Mile

Photo: Paul Hurley

Dennis Hauger was fastest by a big margin in qualifying around the Milwaukee Mile for the penultimate race of the Indy Nxt season.

He was the last the driver to take to the oval for his two-lap run, with Andretti Global team-mate Salvador de Alba on provisional pole at that point with an average speed of 151.73mph.

Hauger was over 1mph slower than de Alba on his first lap, but the champion-elect made a significant improvement on his second lap and that was completed at a speed over 4mph higher than de Alba’s. With the laps combined for the qualifying average, Hauger earned pole with his run coming in at 152.639 mph.

HMD Motorsports’ Caio Collet is the only driver who can deny Hauger the title. However, he could only manage to go seventh fastest and was 1.8mph slower than his rival.

Wind played a significant factor throughout qualifying. Drivers had a tailwind as they ran down the start-finish straight, and faced a headwind heading down the back straight. It became stronger later in the session as drivers headed out one by one, but no gusts caught anyone out.

Abel Motorsports’ Callum Hedge was third quickest joining the front row starters in averaging over 151mph across his two laps, ahead of Lochie Hughes (Andretti), Myles Rowe (Abel with Force Indy) and Bryce Aron (Chip Ganassi Racing).

Michael d’Orlando was one of the quickest early on, his part-time campaign putting him towards the bottom of the points table which is used in reverse to set the order for qualifying runs. He ended up eighth fastest overall, with the top half of the field enjoying a sizeable pace advantage over the bottom half.

Qualifying results