Rowe fastest in Indy Nxt testing at Milwaukee Mile

Photo: James Black

Abel Motorsports with Force Indy’s Myles Rowe was quickest in both Indy Nxt test sessions at the Milwaukee Mile on Tuesday.

The test was split into a four-hour morning session and a three-hour afternoon session, with green flag running throughout.

Rowe set 82 laps in the morning, and his 68th tour of the track was his quickest. The 24.2554s laptime earned him top spot by a tiny margin, with Andretti Global’s Dennis Hauger going just 0.0335 seconds slower than him on his 75th lap.

Hauger’s team-mates Lochie Hughes and Salvador de Alba were third and fourth, with Hughes also lapping in the 24.2s while de Alba set a 24.4002s on his fifth tour of the circuit then did not improve in any of the 80 laps he did after that.

Andretti Cape’s Ricardo Escotto was fifth fastest, 0.1911s off Rowe’s pace, and Abel’s Callum Hedge was 0.003s further back in sixth.

A second covered the top 16, with HMD Motorsports’ Josh Pierson put in his personal best on his penultimate lap. His title-contending team-mate Caio Collet was ninth, and Chip Ganassi Racing’s Niels Koolen missed the session.

There was no action at all in the first 50 minutes of the afternoon, and after two hours Hauger led with a 24.7576s. HMD’s Juan Manuel Correa was 0.0522s behind on second, the only other driver to go sub-25s at that point.

Davey Hamilton Jr rose to fourth with 52 minutes to go, then Pierson jumped to third but neither broke the 25s barrier. Pierson improved again to second place with 48 minutes remaining, setting a 24.8078s,

Correa lowered the pace to 24.5591s six minutes later, as Rowe leapt from 18th to fourth and Andretti’s James Roe Jr went from 13th to fifth.

Rowe got into the 24s, and a few minutes later was demoted to fifth by a 24.8858s from Hedge.

De Alba was next to go sub-25s, posting a 1m24.8037s to climb into third 24 minutes from the end of the day.

There was then a flurry of improvements, and Rowe set a new 24.0789s benchmark. Hauger got within 0.1811s of him before pitting, and HMD’s Max Taylor lapped in 24.8034s to jump from 16th to fourth.

Taylor improved again to 24.7212s, but moments later Pierson beat him by 0.1541s. Andretti Cape’s Seb Murray set successive personal bests in seventh.

The next major change in the order came with 12 minutes to go, with Escotto setting a 24.5515s to go third fastest.

Hamilton broke into the top 10 in the final 10 minutes, improving to seventh as a total of 13 drivers lapped sub-25s. Collet meanwhile was down in 17th, one of 10 drivers not to beat their morning pace and so concluded testing 10th overall. Hughes did not improve after his second lap of the afternoon.

In the combined classification, the top two set new personal bests but the highest-placed driver to improve their position was Correa who was 15th in the morning but ended the day eighth overall ahead of Pierson.

Test results