Hauger obliterates St. Pete track record in Indy Nxt qualifying

Photo: James Black

Dennis Hauger obliterated the St. Petersburg track record in his debut Indy Nxt qualifying session.

The Andretti Global driver was already in the 1m04s by his second flying lap, going 0.7 seconds faster than HMD Motorsports’ Caio Collet. Andretti Cape’s Seb Murray was marginally behind Collet in third.

Hauger improved to 1m04.4812s, putting 0.4864s between himself and Collet who also lapped sub-1m05s. Andretti’s Salvador de Alba sat third, ahead of HMD’s Liam Sceats. Out of action was another HMD driver, Josh Pierson, who had technical issues that could neither be diagnosed or solved.

Collet got within 0.185s of Hauger’s pace on his fourth flying lap, as de Alba and Abel Motorsports’ Jordan Missig got into the 1m04s.

Hauger lowered the pace to 1m04.1065s next time by, then to 1m04.0639s as Collet did not improve. He now had a 0.4162s gap, and de Alba was 0.7752s behind.

The Norwegian kept on getting faster, setting the first ever sub-1m04s lap of the circuit in the championship – a 1m03.8888s – and lowering that benchmark by 0.0037s and then a further 0.05s.

Collet ended up half a second slower, Sceats was a further 0.16s back, and de Alba qualified eighth due to be fourth fastest in the group.

The second group on track knew it would be incredibly difficult to beat Hauger, and it proved as such.

His Andretti team-mate Lochie Hughes led the way at first, getting down into the 1m04.4s before failing to improve.

Rowe got within 0.0826s of him, then moved ahead by a similarly tiny 0.0992s.

Jack William Miller (Abel Motorsports with Miller Vinatieri Racing) both set 1m04.5s, both a tenth of a second off Hughes but way off Hauger’s pole pace.

Hughes got back ahead with a 1m04.1363s, and the pole fight looked alive again. He and Rowe found more pace on their next laps after that too, Hughes posting a 1m04.0209s and Rowe being just 0.1844s slower than him, but that proved to be their peak with nobody in the group’s top six making pace gains in their remaining laps and Hauger comfortably taking pole as a result.

“Thaty’s the most nerve-racking thing I’ve ever experienced in my whole life,” he said after watching half of the field try and fail to beat him. “Andretti gave me a great car out there in qualifying.”

Qualifying results