Reigning Indy Pro 2000 champion Louis Foster at last claimed the Indy NXT win he had long threatened, snatching the lead from polesitter Christian Rasmussen late in the race at Mid-Ohio.
From the drop of the green flag, the top four drivers held position, meaning Rasmussen’s HMD Motorsports car led Foster of Andretti Autosport, with their respective teammates Kyffin Simpson and Hunter McElrea in third and fourth. However, Reece Gold (HMD) got muscled back to seventh by championship leader Nolan Siegel (HMD) and Jacob Abel (Abel Motorsports).
Just four laps into the race, the track started catching sprinkles of rain, and on lap 6 Christian Bogle (HMD) spun off on the exit of Turn 2, bringing out the full-course caution.
The lap 9 restart saw Rasmussen well able to hold off Foster, with Simpson and McElrea equally comfortable but Siegel had to work hard to hold off Abel, Gold, Jagger Jones, and Jones’ Cape Motorsports teammate Enaam Ahmed, who found a way around Juncos Hollinger Racing’s Rasmus Lindh at Turn 5. At that same spot on lap 16, the other JHR car of Matteo Nannini pulled off with a mechanical issue.
By lap 20 of the 35, Rasmussen had a 1.4s advantage over Foster., who had Simpson 0.75s behind him, with McElrea a further second in arrears. As the only drivers who had set 111mph laps, it was little surprise that this quartet had separated themselves from the opposition, Siegel running four seconds back from McElrea, with Abel two seconds behind the points leader. A little further back, Lindh had reclaimed ninth from Ahmed.
On lap 25, Gold dived down the inside of Abel at Turn 4 to grab sixth place. Two laps later, this was the site of the race-winning move. The rain sprinkles had increased in intensity and a mistake from Rasmussen allowed the chasing pack to close in. Down the long back straight to Turn 4, the leader protected the inside line, so Foster flicked to the outside and braked much later. Despite locking up his right-front, he got the move done and was into the lead.
The Andretti driver now had a large flatspot, but his tires got a rest when the cautions flew again for Siegel making a rare mistake at Turn 10, sliding off the road and needing rescuing.
The restart with four laps to go saw Foster eke a gap, and Rasmussen lost out to teammate Simpson under braking for Turn 2.
Lindh and Ahmed moved into the top eight as a result of Jones spinning off with a puncture, and Lindh found himself at the back of a very close train between Rasmussen, McElrea, Gold and Abel.
Three times a pole winner this year, Foster finally became a race winner by 0.4385s ahead of the very impressive Simpson, with Rasmussen eventually dropping four seconds back as he successfully defended the final podium spot.
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