Photo: Paul Hurley
Indy Nxt points leader Dennis Hauger led the first practice session of the weekend in Detroit on Friday afternoon.
The Andretti Global driver topped the order with his final lap, knocking HMD Motorsports’ Caio Collet down from first place just moments after he had reached it. The duo were separated by 0.3803 seconds around the city street circuit.
FP1 was significantly impacted by red flags that stopped running twice. The first red flag came out 10 minutes into the scheduled 50-minute run time when Andretti’s James Roe Jr ran into the barriers at turn six.
Collet was atop the times at this point, having completed seven laps, with Andretti’s Salvador de Alba and Andretti Cape’s Seb Murray in second and third.
The track turned green again seven minutes later, but the red flag was almost immediately thrown when HMD’s Liam Sceats ran off at turn four and found the tyre barriers there. His team-mate Max Taylor followed him off but managed to avoid nosing his car into anything and returned to the pits.
Just 20 minutes remained when FP1 restarted again. Laptimes quickly dropped and the order at the top of the field changed rapidly. Andretti’s Lochie Hughes and de Alba traded second place as Collet set a new benchmark time to beat.
He was then knocked off the top spot by HMD’s Juan Manuel Correa, who went just a tenth of a second faster. But Correa would not remain there long. HMD’s Josh Pierson, Hauger and Taylor all swapped fastest laps, and the inexperienced Taylor was the driver to beat as the field began their final laps.
Collet jumped to the top of the times as he took the chequered flag, only to be bettered by Hauger moments later. Hauger was the only driver to lap sub-1m07s, setting a 1m06.8158s to lead the way by 0.3803s.
Taylor was third fastest on what is his second Indy Nxt outing, ahead of Abel Motorsports with Force Indy’s Myles Rowe and de Alba. Hughes was demoted to sixth at the end.
Away from the sharp end of the field, there were mechanical issues for Abel’s Jordan Missig who spent most of the session in the pits. There were also mistakes that resulted in damage for Correa, HMD’s Tommy Smith and Chip Ganassi Racing’s Niels Koolen, with all losing track time as a further consequence of that.
Free practice results
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dennis Hauger | Andretti Global | 1m06.8158s | 23 | |
| 2 | Caio Collet | HMD Motorsports | 1m07.1961s | +0.3803s | 26 |
| 3 | Max Taylor | HMD Motorsports | 1m07.2210s | +0.4052s | 27 |
| 4 | Myles Rowe | Abel w/ Force Indy | 1m07.3022s | +0.4864s | 24 |
| 5 | Salvador de Alba | Andretti Global | 1m07.3826s | +0.5668s | 25 |
| 6 | Lochie Hughes | Andretti Global | 1m07.4375s | +0.6217s | 26 |
| 7 | Ricardo Escotto | Andretti Cape | 1m07.5050s | +0.6892s | 27 |
| 8 | Josh Pierson | HMD Motorsports | 1m07.5136s | +0.6978s | 26 |
| 9 | Seb Murray | Andretti Cape | 1m07.5890s | +0.7732s | 25 |
| 10 | Jack William Miller | Abel w/ Miller Vinatieri Motorsports | 1m07.7254s | +0.9096s | 25 |
| 11 | Juan Manuel Correa | HMD Motorsports | 1m07.7714s | +0.9556s | 19 |
| 12 | Nolan Allaer | HMD Motorsports | 1m08.2094s | +1.3936s | 27 |
| 13 | Bryce Aron | Chip Ganassi Racing | 1m08.3264s | +1.5106s | 22 |
| 14 | Callum Hedge | Abel Motorsports | 1m08.4385s | +1.6227s | 24 |
| 15 | Niels Koolen | Chip Ganassi Racing | 1m09.0364s | +2.2206s | 17 |
| 16 | Jordan Missig | Abel Motorsports | 1m09.3276s | +2.5118s | 10 |
| 17 | Tommy Smith | HMD Motorsports | 1m10.3590s | +3.5432s | 9 |
| 18 | Liam Sceats | HMD Motorsports | 1m10.7351s | +3.9193s | 6 |
| 19 | James Roe Jr | Andretti Global | 1m11.1503s | +4.3345s | 5 |
| 20 | Hailie Deegan | HMD Motorsports | 1m11.8967s | +5.0809s | 23 |