Photo: Penske Entertainment
Dennis Hauger’s domination of the Indy Nxt season came to an end on Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s road course, although he still left the track with a win.
In both races of the double-header Hauger qualified second, and said he had a “bit of a weird qualifying” in which he “didn’t quite nail everything from my end, and the balance side” which contributed to a “tough day”.
Rather than his start position, it was turn one where Hauger’s fate in each race was settled. In the first he went off there on lap one to avoid a clash and by taking an escape road dropped to 19th. Over 35 laps, he was able to recover to eighth place.
The next day he navigated the first corner of race two safely, and on lap six passed Andretti Global team-mate Lochie Hughes for the lead by hanging on around the outside at turn one to then have the inside line for turn two.
“It’s a good bounceback from yesterday. It shows we’re not going to be put down so easily. So I’m really happy we made those [corrective] steps as a team,” said Hauger.
He went into more detail, saying his car’s balance “was not ideal” in race one, that he and Andretti “did a good job” with predicting how to adjust their set-up for the far hotter conditions anticipated in race two, and knowing to “just brake a bit later for turn one as well instead of being caught up in something in that first lap”.
That same detail was key to his race-winning move: “Stayed in the slipstream, until turn one. [Then] went deeper on the brakes, tried to hang on around the outside. It was really tight. Lochie didn’t make it easy on the outside there. But got the inside for turn two, so it was just about hanging on. And from then on it was about managing tyres for everyone. Trying to take it easy and not overdo it.”
He “maximised” his pace by avoiding overheating his tyres, for which being up front was crucial for his plan.
“Sort of the goal was to get ahead earlier to get the clean air. That was an important part of it. And in the last couple of laps we were pushing a bit more, but I didn’t want to overdo it beginning to mid[-race], because I knew it would be about managing.”
Having led lights-to-flag in the first two races of 2025, that awareness was only accessible to the rookie due to being deep in the pack in race one at IMS.
“Being for the first time in these cars in dirty air, actually having to use the push-to-pass strategically. Coming from the back, going up, was definitely a good experience. I hope I didn’t have to experience it, to be honest, because we lost some points in the championship with that. That’s not what you want. But I think it’s a good experience to bring forward.”