Rowe ends Indy Nxt season with victory from ninth on the grid

Photo: Penske Entertainment / Chris Jones

Abel Motorsports with Force Indy’s Myles Rowe won Indy Nxt’s season finale at Nashville Superspeedway.

Rowe came through from ninth on the grid to snatch the victory from Salvador de Alba in the closing stages of the 65-lap race. Once ahead, he pulled a gap of 0.4376 seconds and was not challenged by the poleman and long-time leader.

It was a strong start for de Alba from the front, and although he came under pressure from Caio Collet he managed to keep the HMD Motorsports driver behind. 

Rowe, meanwhile, was immediately on the attack. He climbed up the field in the opening laps and was soon challenging Andretti Global’s Lochie Hughes for fourth. Rowe passed Hughes, only to come under pressure himself from Michael d’Orlando. The Andretti Cape driver briefly managed to get past, only for Rowe to sweep back ahead on the inside.

Rowe then made quick work of Andretti Global’s champion Dennis Hauger for third and brought the challenge to Collet. There was little Collet could do to hold Rowe back, and Hauger followed him past to demote Collet to fourth.

Not far behind them, d’Orlando was in trouble again. He had already been given a penalty for passing Hauger below the line, and was now battling Abel’s Callum Hedge for position. Hedge tried to go around the outside, but the pair made contact and Hedge then had a race-ending crash with the wall. The incident triggered a caution period, which brought Rowe onto de Alba’s tail.

Racing resumed with 21 laps remaining. De Alba did the better job of returning to racing speeds but after a few laps Rowe had the advantage and he pulled off a move in which he dived past de Alba and rapidly put a few car lengths between the two once ahead. 

De Alba could not fight back and finished a comfortable second ahead of Hauger.

Collet spent the closing stages of the race battling to say ahead of Hughes and Chip Ganassi Racing’s Bryce Aron. He succeeded in doing so, finishing with a 0.4142s gap to Hughes.

The Abel team’s race pace was further highlighted by Jordan Missig setting the fastest lap in eighth place, having started 12th, although a lack of pace for Jack William Miller in the car it co-runs with Miller Vinatieri Motorsports led to race control summoning him to the pits late on.

HMD’s Davey Hamilton Jr received the same instruction, while team-mate Tommy Smith had a lengthy stay in the pits due to problems with his rear-right wheel assembly and finished 16 laps down.

Race result (65 laps)