Andretti Global’s Louis Foster pulled off a late pass and surged to victory in a wild Indy NXT race at Iowa Speedway.
The 20-year-old Briton started second and stalked team-mate James Roe until pulling off the winning move with an outside pass with five laps to go as a late caution left him coasting to the finish at the 0.894-mile oval.
“We discussed prior to the race that we were going to save tires throughout the race,” Foster said. “I wasn’t challenging James on the starts, I was just letting him get a gap to save my tires.
“And then towards the end there were enough laps to go that I knew if I killed my tires it wasn’t a big deal, I just got around him on the outside and he lifted. He gave me really good racing room and the car was really good.”
Foster and Roe were joined on the podium by Andretti Cape team-mate Salvador de Alba Jr., who rose from 10th on the grid to finish third.
Rookie Callum Hedge finished fourth in the No. 17 HMD Motorsports entry, followed by team-mates Christian Brooks and Christian Bogle.
Despite starting third and appearing to challenge for a podium late, Jamie Chadwick ended up finishing seventh, ahead of Andretti team-mate Bryce Aron in eighth.
Jonathan Browne and Yuven Sundaramoorthy finished ninth and 10th, respectively.
Foster now holds a 77-point advantage in the championship standings over rival Jacob Abel, who was hit with a mid-race puncture and finished 15th.
The Race
Tire concerns after Friday’s practice session led to the race distance reduced to 55 laps from 75, with a competition caution set after 15 laps, with the field running approximately 10 laps under caution before a single-file restart.
The initial start came under yellow as the No. 99 HMD Motorsports with Force Indy entry of Myles Rowe, who qualified 13th, was hit from behind and spun around. He fell to the rear of the 18-car field when the green flag officially waved on lap 2.
Roe jumped out to a strong start when the green flag finally waved, with Foster holding second.
Andretti Global with Cape driver Salvador de Alba Jr. was making moves shortly after the start of the race, pushing from 10th up to fifth in the opening 10 laps.
Rowe was also on the early move from the back of the field after his early issue and vaulted into 10th. However, Rowe’s charge ended abruptly while challenging rookie team-mate Caio Collet for ninth.
Entering Turn 1 on lap 14, the backend of Collet’s car snapped around while running the middle lane and left Rowe, who was running a lane higher and a car length back, with nowhere to go as the two tangled and ended up into the wall.
The wreckage from the incident left behind an extended cleanup by the AMR Safety Team, leaving the field to run several laps under caution.
The race restarted on lap 40 and saw Roe get a solid jump on Foster. It was de Alba pressing Chadwick for fourth as the two were side-by-side. During this stretch, though, championship contender Abel, who was running eighth, ended up with contact that led to a puncture and was forced to pit, falling to 16th and losing multiple laps.
Chadwick pressured Bogle for third with 11 laps to go, trying to pull off an inside move with de Alba entertaining a three-wide inside move. However, Bogle managed to hold the spot.
Then rookie Christian Brooks put his name into the conversation with a push forward to fourth with eight laps to go with outside passes on de Alba and Chadwick.
Foster’s ability to stalk Roe paid off with an outside move for the lead with five laps to go entering Turn 1. Despite Roe trying to respond, Foster quickly pulled away and was over 2s ahead with two laps to go.
De Alba was able to put an aggressive move on Bogle to get third, bringing Hedge and others up. But the caution waved moments later after Jack William Miller pounded the wall in Turn 3, a replay showed severe blistering on his right-rear tire.
Foster coasted around to collect his fifth win of the season and pad his stranglehold on the championship lead.
| Cla | Driver | # | Laps | Time | Interval | Mph | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
L. Foster Andretti Global
|
26 | 55 |
- |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2 |
J. Roe Andretti Global
|
29 | 55 |
+0.487 0.4867 |
0.487 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 3 |
S. De Andretti Cape INDY NXT
|
2 | 55 |
+1.921 1.9206 |
1.434 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 4 |
C. Hedge HMD Motorsports
|
17 | 55 |
+3.146 3.1461 |
1.226 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 5 |
C. Brooks HMD Motorsports
|
39 | 55 |
+7.585 7.5854 |
4.439 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 6 |  C. Bogle HMD Motorsports |
7 | 55 |
+9.188 9.1879 |
1.603 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 7 |  J. Chadwick Andretti Global |
28 | 55 |
+12.727 12.7265 |
3.539 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 8 |
B. Aron Andretti Global
|
27 | 55 |
+13.570 13.5696 |
0.843 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 9 |
J. Browne HMD Motorsports
|
23 | 55 |
+14.763 14.7625 |
1.193 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 10 |
Y. Sundaramoort Abel Motorsports
|
22 | 55 |
+15.152 15.1516 |
0.389 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 11 | J. Pierson HMD Motorsports |
14 | 55 |
+15.840 15.8400 |
0.688 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 12 |
R. Gold HMD Motorsports
|
10 | 55 |
+17.238 17.2383 |
1.398 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 13 |
N. Koolen HMD Motorsports
|
33 | 55 |
+17.841 17.8412 |
0.603 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 14 |
J. William Miller Vinatieri Motorsports
|
40 | 52 |
2 laps |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 15 |
J. Abel Abel Motorsports
|
51 | 52 |
2 laps |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 16 |
T. Ferns Abel Motorsports
|
55 | 48 |
6 laps |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 17 |
M. Rowe HMD Motorsports
|
99 | 12 |
42 laps |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 18 |  C. Collet HMD Motorsports |
18 | 12 |
42 laps |
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| View full results | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
