Hauger leads interrupted Indy Nxt practice on Indianapolis road course

Photo: Paul Hurley

Dennis Hauger’s superb start to his rookie Indy Nxt season looks set to continue at Indianapolis Motor Speedway after topping free practice on its road course layout.

The Andretti Global driver jumped to the top of the times late in the session with a 1m14.2482s lap.

Practice was brought to an end a few minutes early after an incident between Abel Motorsports with Force Indy driver Myles Rowe and HMD Motorsports’ Josh Pierson brought out red flags. 

Hauger had sat in first place early on in what was scheduled to be a 50-minute session, ahead of Abel’s Callum Hedge and HMD’s Caio Collet.

In the second half of practice, Andretti team-mate Lochie Hughes jumped to the top of the order and became the first driver to set a sub-1m15s lap. He remained unbeaten until the final five minutes, when Hauger put in his personal best.

Hedge and Andretti’s Salvador de Alba both found improvements to move ahead of Hughes before the session-ending red flags.

Rowe had come into the pits for fresh tyres before a final run and came back on track behind Pierson. When he tried to get alongside him he ended up spinning wide into the grass, where he came to a stop.

There was an earlier red flag period, when HMD’s debutant Juan Manuel Correa stopped on track with a fuel pressure problem. He was able to get going again, but not before the session was stopped in anticipation that his car would need retrieving. Correa made his way back to the pits, where mechanics fixed the problem and sent him back out for further laps.

Caio Collet was HMD’s fastest driver, ending practice in fifth place ahead of Rowe and Pierson.

Completing the top 10 was Evagoras Papasavvas, who had originally been down for just three races in Indy Nxt with HMD this year but made an early debut at Barber Motorsports Park last weekend after it lost Sophia Floersch from its line-up.

A starring performance led to an “unbelievable” second place finish, and he was due to sit on the sidelines for a month before his next outing. However he and HMD decided to earlier this week to race at IMS too, with Correa taking over the #39 car that Bryce Aron drove in the season opener before switching to Chip Ganassi Racing.

Free practice results