Indy Nxt dominator Hauger to start from pole in debut oval race

Photo: James Black

Andretti Global’s Dennis Hauger claimed pole for his first ever race on an oval in Indy Nxt qualifying at Gateway.

As points leader, Hauger was the last of 18 drivers to embark on his run in qualifying. He was the only driver to average above 165mph over his two timed laps, completing them in 54.1639 seconds at a speed of 166.162mph. 

The drivers hit the track in reverse championship order, with HMD Motorsports’ Nolan Allaer, Hailie Deegan and Tommy Smith the first out.

HMD’s oval debutant Juan Manuel Correa, on his second Indy Nxt outing, was the fourth driver and went fastest with an average speed of 163.028mph. It would keep him at the top until the championship frontrunners headed out late on.

Abel Motorsports’ Callum Hedge was the first to better Correa, massively outdoing him on the first lap then adding to his advantage by a smaller margin on the second.

Josh Pierson (HMD) and Salvador de Alba (Andretti) both briefly claimed provisional pole when they completed their runs, with de Alba’s first lap actually breaking the 166mph barrier but his second lap being in 164mph territory.

In contrast, HMD’s Caio Collet was able to raise the benchmark to an average speed of 165.735mph as he set the fastest lap on his first lap then made a big improvement to 166.341mph on his second.

Lochie Hughes was the penultimate man on track and had a bad first lap, so his subsequent gain was only enough to put him fifth on the grid. His team-mate Hauger was far more impressive, taking pole by being the only driver to run at 166mph on both laps while not actually beating Collet’s fastest lap. The gap between them was 0.1396 seconds, or 0.427mph.

Behind the top three was Abel Motorsports with Force Indy’s Myles Rowe, whose two laps were within 0.0048s of each other

Pierson qualified sixth, ahead of Pierson, Hedge and Correa. Despite being the first driver on track and not having the advantage of a rubbered in track, Allaer managed to qualify ninth and Deegan had her most competitive qualifying performance yet in Indy Nxt as she put her oval experience from stock cars to use in 10th place.

Qualifying results