HMD’s Josh Pierson tops Indy Nxt’s oval test at Iowa

Photo: HMD Motorsports

HMD Motorsport’s Josh Pierson was fastest in Indy Nxt’s oval test day at Iowa Speedway on Monday.

The day was split into two sessions, and a total of 3,209 laps were set around the 0.894-mile circuit.

It was decided fairly early on in the morning session who would be quickest, as Abel Motorsports with Force Indy’s Myles Rowe recorded a 18.6687s time on the 25th of his 84 laps in the session. His average speed through that lap was 172.396mph.

Andretti Global’s Salvador de Alba was second fastest, just 0.0091 seconds slower than Rowe and reaching the peack of his on the 44th of his 77 laps.

His championship-leading team-mate Dennis Hauger was third, 0.0392s off Rowe’s pace and 0.033s faster than title rival Caio Collet. The HMD driver was one of those to improve late on his final run, as was Andretti’s Lochie Hughes who on his penultimate lap set a 18.7761s to go fifth fastest. An improvement of 0.1075s would have been enough to make him fastest.

Pierson was 0.2068s off Rowe in sixth, and Callum Hedge (Abel Motorsports), James Roe Jr (Andretti) and Evagoras Papasavvas (HMD) were within 0.1s of him. At present, the race at Iowa in July is not on part-timer Papasavvas’s schedule but his presence at the test suggested he will be looking to join HMD’s line-up there next month.

Chip Ganassi Racing’s Bryce Aron completed the top 10 in session one, 0.3544s off Rowe, and half a second covered the top 14.

All but Andretti Cape’s Seb Murray improved in the afternoon session, while Papasavvas and HMD’s Tommy Smith were absent and Pierson lowered the pace to 18.275s with an average speed of 176.109mph.

He was the only driver to break the 176mph barrier, and was fastest by 0.1048s over Hauger. Hughes trailed by 0.2434s in third, and de Alba was a further 0.0469s slower in fourth. A second covered the top 18, with HMD’s oval newcomer Juan Manuel Correa and Murray at the bottom of that group.

Rowe and Collet were split by 0.0181s in fifth and sixth, with Rowe improving by 0.049s on his session one benchmark.

Niels Koolen became the faster Ganassi driver in seventh, edging Roe and Aron. Papasavvas ended the test in 13th overall, 0.6765s off the pace, with Murray in 18th ahead of Correa, HMD’s single-seater rookie Hailie Deegan and Smith.

Test results