Simpson tops Indy Nxt’s second Mid-Ohio practice session

Photo: Penske Entertainment / James Black

Kyffin Simpson jumped to the top of the order with his final lap of Indy Nxt free practice two at Mid-Ohio. 

It was Louis Foster that led for most of the disrupted session, but a flurry of late laps dropped the Andretti Autosport driver down to fourth at the finish.

Practice was bookended by red flags as two drivers ran into the gravel at the same spot. 

The first driver in the gravel was Christian Rasmussen, who got his car beached in the first 10 minutes. Foster had set the pace in the early minutes with a time of 1m12.1703s. 

The track turned green with 26 minutes left on the clock. Foster improved on his time, dipping below the 1m12s mark, while Rasmus Lindh jumped up to second place. 

There were a few wide moments for other drivers getting to grips with the circuit, but it was relatively incident-free mid-session.

Jagger Jones then disrupted running with nine minutes to go, with a lock-up sending him off the track and into the gravel. Foster was still at the front of the order at this point, ahead of Lindh and Jones. 

The track was cleared and practice ended with four minutes of green flag action. Most of the field had fresh tyres on for the final minutes and laptimes tumbled. 

Simpson was top of the order as everyone finished their runs, managing setting a 1m11.0198s. 

Reece Gold and Hunter McElrea jumped up the order with their final runs too. Gold was just 0.0088 seconds behind Simpson, with McElrea a further 0.2433s off the pace.

Foster was one of the few that didn’t improve and ended the session fourth ahead of Jacob Abel and Rasmussen. 

Lindh – who had been second at the final red flag – was bumped down to seventh, with Danial Frost, Josh Pierson and Matteo Nannini completing the top 10. Championship leader Nolan Siegel could only go 11th fastest. 

Free practice results