Photo: Travis Hinkle
HMD Motorsports’ Christian Rasmussen dominated Indy Nxt’s first oval running of the year in free practice at Iowa Speedway.
Rasmussen comes into second half of the season second in the standings, 16 points behind rookie team-mate Nolan Siegel.
It was Rasmussen who topped the order early in practice with an average speed of 160.287mph. He improved his fastest time twice over the course of the session. His fastest speed of 161.352mph was set on his 22nd lap, and did 62 laps in total.
Jacob Abel was second quickest, 0.0172mph slower. Abel, who is running in a one-car team this weekend, had to end the session five minutes early with a fuel pressure issue, and only managed to complete 33 laps.
Matthew Brabham also had limited running. The series returnee joins Juncos Hollinger Racing this weekend, replacing Matteo Nannini. Brabham, who was on the Iowa podium last year, completed 24 laps and was 15th quickest, 1mph off the pace.
Hunter McElrea was third fastest, ahead of Ernie Francis Jr and Louis Foster, who with 73 laps did more running than anyone.
Rasmus Lindh was sixth on the timesheet, followed by Siegel, Josh Pierson and Christian Bogle. Danial Frost completed the top 10.
Free practice results
| Pos | Driver | Team | Speed | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Christian Rasmussen | HMD Motorsports | 161.532mph | 19.9464s | |
| 2 | Jacob Abel | Abel Motorsports | 161.213mph | 19.9636s | +0.0172s |
| 3 | Hunter McElrea | Andretti Autosport | 160.641mph | 20.0347s | +0.0883s |
| 4 | Ernie Francis Jr | HMD Motorsports | 160.356mph | 20.0704s | +0.1240s |
| 5 | Louis Foster | Andretti Autosport | 160.138mph | 20.0977s | +0.1513s |
| 6 | Rasmus Lindh | Juncos Hollinger Racing | 160.085mph | 20.1043s | +0.1579s |
| 7 | Nolan Siegel | HMD Motorsports | 159.710mph | 20.1515s | +0.2051s |
| 8 | Josh Pierson | HMD Motorsports | 159.575mph | 20.1686s | +0.2222s |
| 9 | Christian Bogle | HMD Motorsports | 159.216mph | 20.2140s | +0.2676s |
| 10 | Danial Frost | HMD Motorsports | 158.867mph | 20.2585s | +0.3121s |
| 11 | Kyffin Simpson | HMD Motorsports | 158.568mph | 20.2966s | +0.3502s |
| 12 | Jamie Chadwick | Andretti Autosport | 158.216mph | 20.3418s | +0.3954s |
| 13 | James Roe Jr | Andretti Autosport | 157.804mph | 20.3949s | +0.4485s |
| 14 | Jagger Jones | Cape Motorsports | 156.910mph | 20.5111s | +0.5647s |
| 15 | Matthew Brabham | Juncos Hollinger Racing | 153.950mph | 20.9545s | +1.0081s |
| 16 | Reece Gold | Juncos Hollinger Racing | 153.411mph | 20.9789s | +1.0325s |