Indy NXT – Page 4 – Syndication Server

Gold stays with HMD Motorsports for 2024 Indy NXT

Reece Gold will return to HMD Motorsports for his second season of education in the Indy NXT by Firestone series. The 19-year-old Floridian placed second in the 2022 Indy Pro 2000 by Cooper Tires championship with Juncos Hollinger Racing and …

Reece Gold will return to HMD Motorsports for his second season of education in the Indy NXT by Firestone series.

The 19-year-old Floridian placed second in the 2022 Indy Pro 2000 by Cooper Tires championship with Juncos Hollinger Racing and graduated to NXT with the team, but left after two rounds to join HMD where he won on his second appearance for the championship-winning outfit.

On top of his win at Detroit, Gold delivered a pair of podiums on the IMS road course on the way to placing eighth in the NXT drivers’ standings.

“HMD Motorsports is an incredible program, and I feel very at home with the team,” Gold said. “I have a great support team around me, and they have helped me elevate my game to the next level. I look forward to the 2024 season and to being able to challenge for more podiums, race wins, and the Indy NXT championship.”

Gold becomes HMD’s second confirmed driver for 2024 following the signing of new Indy Pro 2000 champion Myles Rowe.

“Reece really came into his own as the season went on,” said HMD GM Mike Maurini. “I have known him from the early years of karting, and he is a young talent capable ofwinning at every level. We look forward to sharing success with Reece again in 2024.”

Askew, Rasmussen to test for Ed Carpenter Racing

Ed Carpenter Racing has narrowed its shortlist of candidates to a pair of Indy NXT champions to take over the No. 20 Chevy. After parting with Conor Daly after the Detroit round in June and replacing him with Ryan Hunter-Reay for the rest of the …

Ed Carpenter Racing has narrowed its shortlist of candidates to a pair of Indy NXT champions to take over the No. 20 Chevy.

After parting with Conor Daly after the Detroit round in June and replacing him with Ryan Hunter-Reay for the rest of the championship, ECR spent the final weeks of the season developing a cast of contenders to join Rinus VeeKay in 2024. That roster has been defined as 2019 NXT title winner Oliver Askew and new NXT champion Christian Rasmussen.

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The pair recently shared a day on Chevrolet’s driver-in-the-loop simulator in North Carolina ahead of an upcoming test at Barber Motorsports Park where ECR is expected to evaluate the results and choose Askew or Rasmussen as the full-time driver for the No. 20 entry.

“We’re testing both of those guys on Monday at Barber,” Carpenter told RACER. “That’s where our plan lies now.”

For Florida’s Askew, who completed his rookie IndyCar season with Arrow McLaren in 2020 and subbed for an injured VeeKay and placed 12th at Road America for ECR in 2021, there’s a familiarity with the team that drew the interest of Carpenter, general manager Tim Broyles, and the rest of ECR’s leadership.

With Denmark’s Rasmussen, the team sees a bright young talent who took command of the NXT championship with five wins and seven podiums for the HMD Motorsports team.

“I’m excited to see both of them in the car,” Carpenter said. “With Christian, for the first time, and with Oliver, we have one race of experience with him when he filled in for Rinus and we want to give him another look, especially since he’s been more so on the sidelines than doing what he should be doing.

“He made a good impression back then, so we’ll see how things go at the test with him and Christian and have conversations and see what we can put together from there.”

Questions remain as to whether ECR would take whoever does not earn the full-season contract and pair them alongside Carpenter to drive his No. 33 Chevy on road and street courses. Carpenter says it isn’t ECR’s first priority, but it isn’t an impossibility.

“I wouldn’t say I think that’s highly likely, but at this point [we’re] just trying to get the 20 car fully put together,” he added. “And then we’ll go to the next phase from there.”

Rasmussen cruises to dominant fifth win to close out Indy NXT season at Laguna

Christian Rasmussen of HMD Motorsports demolished the opposition in race two at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, defeating his fastest opponents from Andretti Global by almost 18s. New champion Rasmussen, who only needed to start the race to clinch …

Christian Rasmussen of HMD Motorsports demolished the opposition in race two at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, defeating his fastest opponents from Andretti Global by almost 18s.

New champion Rasmussen, who only needed to start the race to clinch the title, took off from pole but Hunter McElrea — Saturday’s race winner — wheelspun on the curbs out of Turn 11 when the green waved and lost out to Andretti teammate Louis Foster through the Turn 2-3 sequence.

McElrea, though, got him at the same place next time by to begin his pursuit of Rasmussen. Kyffin Simpson (HMD) moved up to challenge Foster, chased by his teammates Reece Gold and Danial Frost. At the end of lap two, Juncos Hollinger Racing’s Matt Brabham outbraked Jacob Abel of Abel Motorsports at Turn 11 to take seventh.

Gold had taken fourth, when Simpson tried to retaliate down the inside at Turn 5 and knocked his teammate into a spin. Gold just got his car started when the caution came out to rescue him. Brabham had taken advantage of the collision to move past the pair of them into fifth place, but he’d have gained that spot anyway since Simpson had to serve a drive-through penalty for avoidable contact.

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The lap eight restart saw Rasmussen again jump away, and McElrea had to get defensive to keep Foster behind him. By lap 10, the leader had a 2s margin over McElrea who was a similar distance ahead of his teammate Foster. There was a change for fourth on lap 12, however, as both Brabham and Abel got around Frost. Further back, Ernie Francis Jr (HMD Force Indy) passed Yuven Sundaramoorthy to snatch ninth. Later Nolan Siegel would also demote Sundaramoorthy.

Rasmussen’s lead on lap 23 of 35 was 6s, with Foster 3.7s behind McElrea but 5.3s ahead of Brabham, who was beginning to come under pressure from Abel and Frost.

On lap 25, James Roe spun away his distant seventh place, promoting Francesco Pizzi (Abel) and Siegel, who had earlier gotten around Francis Jr. Sadly for Pizzi, his left-front wing was damaged from an attempted pass on Roe that ended up with him going through the rough at the Corkscrew, thus netting a black flag ordering him to the pits for repair.

Now Siegel, Francis Jr, Sundaramoorthy and Jagger Jones (Cape Motorsports) ran seventh through 10th.

With five laps to go, Rasmussen’s lead was over 11s, with two to go it was 15s, and finally it was over 17s — a rout by the new champion. His fastest lap, set on lap 13, had been 0.5s faster than McElrea’s best effort.

Foster was only 2s adrift of McElrea, but also only 1s ahead of Brabham. Abel just held off Frost for fifth.

RESULTS

McElrea wins Indy NXT Laguna race 1, Rasmussen title all but won

Hunter McElrea timed his second pole position well as he tried to stay in the hunt for the Indy NXT title but, as ever, the Andretti Autosport driver was accompanied on the front row by Christian Rasmussen of HMD Motorsports. McElrea got away well …

McElrea got away well at the drop of the green with Rasmussen falling 1.7s behind by the end of the first lap. He had at least stayed clear of Danial Frost, who was being pursued by the Juncos Hollinger Racing car of Victor Franzoni, Kyffin Simpson (HMD) and Louis Foster (Andretti). Foster was under pressure from the fast-starting Jacob Abel of Abel Motorsports, who had jumped from ninth to seventh on the opening lap.

By lap 7, McElrea’s lead was out to almost 5s before Rasmussen started pegging it back, while also pulling 4s over Frost who was staying clear of the feisty battle for fourth between Franzoni and Simpson.

At the halfway point, McElrea’s lead was out to 6.8s, but that was deleted at half distance in this 35-lap race when Foster flew off the road at fast uphill Turn 6 while being passed by Abel (a battle for sixth). Foster believes Abel elbowed him off; race control concurred and demanded Abel serve a drive-through penalty.

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The restart came at the end of lap 22 and didn’t last long, as Cape Motorsports’ Kiko Porto went off the track at the final turn and Francesco Pizzi (Abel) suffered a punctured left-rear tire and went off at Turn 2. He limped around and got a new boot without losing a lap, but having run a strong eighth, it was destined to be a disappointing day.

The lap 26 restart saw McElrea flawless again ahead of Rasmussen, Frost, Franzoni and Simpson, but Abel’s drive-through penalty promoted Matthew Brabham to sixth in the second JHR car, ahead of James Roe, Ernie Francis Jr, Jagger Jones and Christian Bogle.

A third caution then flew for debris on the front straight, leaving the 18 contenders with a five-lap shootout. Approaching the final turn as the green flag flew, Simpson dived down the inside of Franzoni, and Brabham followed suit to go into fifth.

The race ended under yellow when Nolan Siegel (HMD) dived down the inside of Jamie Chadwick (Andretti) at Turn 10 — he claimed she brake-checked him — and the pair spun off into the gravel.

McElrea’s win means he is still technically in the hunt, but Rasmussen’s lead is now 51 points.

RESULTS

McElrea chasing IndyCar opportunities

Hunter McElrea’s chances of chasing down and overhauling Indy NXT championship leader Christian Rasmussen were dashed on the opening lap of last weekend’s Portland race when he and many others were taken out at Turn 1. “I’d need miracles at this …

“I’d need miracles at this point to win [the title], so it’s just me trying to end the year as strong as possible with my Andretti Autosport crew and build off of this for my future,” the 23-year-old told RACER. “I was ahead of Christian at Portland and doing what I needed to do, but a bunch of us were wiped out into the chicane, so there’s nothing we can do about it. What’s done is done.

“But we’re still second in the points and we’ll keep fighting to the end. Before Portland, we were on the podium three straight times and got a win, so that’s where I’m aiming in Laguna Seca.”

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Despite the misfortune, the New Zealander has placed his full focus on landing some form of IndyCar opportunity next year and has been busy meeting with a sizable portion of the paddock to discuss his options for 2024.

“I feel really good about the work we’ve done now in two years of NXT,” McElrea said. “We raced hard against [2022 NXT champion] Linus Lundqvist last year and got a couple of wins, and I think people have been impressed by him and what he’s been able to do for himself with getting hired by Chip Ganassi, so that gives me a lot of hope.

“Unfortunately, my family doesn’t come from money so I’m not capable of bringing a huge budget to a team, but I do have some amazing supporters and investors who’ve taken me this far in NXT and that’s what I’m working on for next year, to keep building support to get to IndyCar.”

McElrea is taking a unique approach to IndyCar ride hunting which, he hopes, will pay off in the coming months.

“I’d love for someone to hire me to become a full-time IndyCar driver, but I don’t know if that’s realistic right away,” he said. “I’m talking with a lot of teams about doing tests just to get my foot in the door. And I’ve been honest with them about what kind of support I think I can bring, which isn’t enough for a complete year, but I’d rather do a partial season — however many races — with a good team than take whatever we can find. I know I’m ready for IndyCar, so I’m putting my energy into making it happen the right way and seeing where it takes me.”

Rowe signs with HMD Motorsports for Indy NXT

Myles Rowe will take his advancement prize for winning the USF Pro 2000 presented by Cooper Tires championship to the Indy NXT by Firestone series and the defending title holders at HMD Motorsports. Rowe, 23, will drive the No. 99 Force Indy entry …

Myles Rowe will take his advancement prize for winning the USF Pro 2000 presented by Cooper Tires championship to the Indy NXT by Firestone series and the defending title holders at HMD Motorsports.

Rowe, 23, will drive the No. 99 Force Indy entry run for Penske Entertainment at HMD, which continues the tradition established this year with Ernie Francis Jr., who moves on from the No. 99 car after two seasons in NXT under Penske’s Race For Equality & Change initiative. It’s unclear where Francis Jr’s next steps in the sport will be taken.

For Rowe, who was the first driver chosen by Penske for the Force Indy opportunity, the last two seasons have been remarkable as he earned 10 victories and 19 podiums while completing his degree in film studies at New York University. With Indy NXT as his main focus, Rowe is expected to continue his rise up the American open-wheel ladder and eventually reach the NTT IndyCar Series.

“I’m super excited to announce my next step to HMD Motorsports with Force Indy and be part of their family,” Rowe said. “I am extremely excited to grow and progress with them as a team and fight for many more race wins.”

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Force Indy program director Rod Reid is happy for the Indy NXT relationship to continue.

“Force Indy is really looking forward to continuing the relationship with HMD Motorsports,” he said. “We have a season working together under our belt, and our goals in and out of the pits align.”

On the cusp of earning a second consecutive NXT championship, HMD GM Mike Maurini sees a big future for Rowe in the team owned by Henry Malukas.

“We are excited to continue our partnership with Force Indy and have Myles as part of the HMD Motorsports program in 2024,” he said. “He has been a treat to follow through the ladder programs, and we are anxious to help him continue his goals to ascend to the NTT IndyCar Series. Myles is a great talent, and we have had our eye on him for quite some time and are confident that he will have success not only in 2024 but for years to come.”

Foster steers clear of chaos, grabs second Indy NXT win at Portland

Louis Foster converted pole position into a dominant victory at Portland, while opening lap chaos claimed Hunter McElrea, among others, leaving Christian Rasmussen with a 65-point lead with two races to go. From his fourth pole of the season, Foster …

From his fourth pole of the season, Foster wasted no time in hitting the gas exiting Turn 12 to put some healthy distance between himself and Andretti Autosport teammate and fellow front-row starter McElrea at the drop of the green.

That left McElrea vulnerable to the second-row starters, points leader Rasmussen and HMD Motorsports teammate Kyffin Simpson. As they braked for tight Turn 1 chicane, fifth-place starter Reece Gold was knocked from behind by Victor Franzoni’s Juncos Hollinger Racing car. That sent Gold into Rasmussen, McElrea, and Simpson, and the ensuing chaos also ended the race for Jacob Abel and Josh Pierson. Rasmussen resumed by himself, but McElrea needed assistance and then headed for the pits for repairs.

The restart saw Foster leading eighth-place starter Danial Frost and Nolan Siegel who had both skipped through the mess unharmed, while behind them were Jagger Jones and Jamie Chadwick, up from 13th and 16th respectively. Rasmussen restarted ninth, and was up to sixth at the end of the first green-flag lap. He had floor damage, so was losing downforce, and he was being cautious, too, knowing that his only true title threat, McElrea, had been more seriously hobbled and was running four laps down.

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Up front, Foster seemed easily able to edge away from Frost, pushing his margin to 3.5s by lap 15. At the same time, Frost was was 2s ahead of Siegel, who had 3.5s over the battle between Jones, Christian Bogle and Rasmussen.

There was stasis until seven laps to go when Bogle’s presence forced Jones to take a defensive line at the end of the back straight. Jones then moved slightly to the right before the left hander, and struck Bogle’s front wing, damaging it and sending his own car out of control and across the grass on corner exit. He limped to the pits with a deflated tire, while Bogle tried to struggle on and defend from Rasmussen.

Nearer the front, there was a cleaner looking battle, as Frost was 5.6s behind leader Foster, but less than 0.5s ahead of Siegel. At the start of the final lap, Frost swung right to protect the inside line into Turn 1, but Siegel kept on around the outside which gave him the inside for Turn 2 and second place duly changed hands.

Thus Foster claimed his second Indy NXT win almost 8s clear of Siegel and Frost.

Almost 17s back, Bogle had no problem holding off Rasmussen, while Chadwick’s sixth is her best result of the season.

RESULTS

Foster beats Indy NXT title challengers to pole in Portland

The Indy NXT championship battle is down to Christian Rasmussen of HMD Motorsports and Hunter McElrea of Andretti Autosport, but both were outpaced by 2022 USF Pro 2000 champion Louis Foster at Portland Saturday. A frantic 20-minute session saw a …

A frantic 20-minute session saw a six-way battle for pole on a very busy 1.964-mile Portland International Raceway.

With a minute to go, it appeared that the title contenders would monopolize the front row, with challenger McElrea delivering a 62.7924s lap, a tenth and change ahead of points leader Rasmussen.

However, with his sixth and final lap, McElrea’s teammate Foster slipped in a 62.6302s effort to take pole by 0.1622s, so that Andretti has locked out the front row.

HMD cars fill the next four slots, with Kyffin Simpson joining Rasmussen on row two, and Reece Gold and Nolan Siegel in fifth and sixth.

Series returnee Victor Franzoni wrung a 63.2201s lap out of his Juncos Hollinger Racing car, but teammate Matt Brabham was struggling for pace and spun, costing him his best lap and relegating him to the back of the field for causing a yellow.

Danial Frost will line up eighth for HMD, ahead of an all Abel Motorsports fifth row, Jacob Abel a few hundredths ahead of Yuven Sundaramoorthy.

The Indy NXT race begins at 10:20 a.m. PT time (1:20 p.m. ET) Sunday.

RESULTS

Rasmussen edges Simpson in Indy NXT Portland practice

Christian Rasmussen continued to lay claim to the 2023 ndy NXT by Firestone championship, leading the opening practice Friday for the Grand Prix of Portland at Portland International Raceway. Rasmussen, from Denmark, led with a top lap of 1m2.8194s …

Christian Rasmussen continued to lay claim to the 2023 ndy NXT by Firestone championship, leading the opening practice Friday for the Grand Prix of Portland at Portland International Raceway.

Rasmussen, from Denmark, led with a top lap of 1m2.8194s in the No. 6 HMD Motorsports with DCR car. Rasmussen, who has won three of the last four races, leads Hunter McElrea by 50 points in the standings with three races remaining.

“We’re starting off where we left off at St. Louis, so that’s good,” Rasmussen said. “We knew we had a strong car around here, that this was going to be a strong weekend. So far, so good. I’m looking forward to another practice and qualifying tomorrow, and hopefully we can stay up front.”

Up next is the second practice at 2:20 p.m. ET Saturday on the 12-turn, 1.964-mile road course, followed by qualifying at 7:30 p.m. ET (both sessions live on IndyCar Live and the IndyCar Radio Network). Live coverage of the 35-lap race starts at 1:10 p.m. ET Sunday on Peacock and the IndyCar Radio Network.

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Rasmussen and the rest of the field will aim in qualifying for the track record for the series, 1m02.8074s by current NTT IndyCar Series star Pato O’Ward in 2018. Rasmussen’s quick time in this session was only 0.0120s slower than O’Ward’s mark.

Kyffin Simpson returned to the series with speed after a one-race hiatus, ending up second at 1m02.9945s in the No. 21 HMD Motorsports with CGR machine. Simpson missed the round last weekend at World Wide Technology Raceway due to a clashing European Le Mans Series race.

McElrea was third at 1m03.0333s in the No. 27 Smart Motors machine fielded by Andretti Autosport.

Louis Foster was fourth overall and the top rookie at 1m03.0517s in the No. 26 Copart/USF Pro Championship car of Andretti Autosport, and Jacob Abel rounded out the top five at 1m03.1108s in the No. 51 Abel Motorsports machine.

RESULTS

Rasmussen peaking at the right time in Indy NXT title fight

We’ve been waiting for an Indy NXT driver to stake their claim on the championship, and with his fourth win of the season and third in a row, Christian Rasmussen is stepping up at the right time. The 2020 USF2000 and 2021 Indy Pro 2000 champion has …

We’ve been waiting for an Indy NXT driver to stake their claim on the championship, and with his fourth win of the season and third in a row, Christian Rasmussen is stepping up at the right time.

The 2020 USF2000 and 2021 Indy Pro 2000 champion has used his switch from Andretti Autosport’s NXT program to HMD Motorsports for his sophomore season to full effect, romping to commanding wins at Barber Motorsports Park, Iowa Speedway, the Nashville Grand Prix, and Saturday night at World Wide Technology Raceway.

Combined, the 23-year-old has tamed a natural-terrain road course, the shortest oval on the calendar, a street course and another short oval, which speaks to his exceptional talent. Factor in his two NXT wins from 2022 and the 11 times he’s stood on the podium since moving up to IndyCar’s top training category, and Rasmussen is doing all the things IndyCar team owners are looking for at this stage in his career.

“It’s super important to be a good all-around driver,” Rasmussen told RACER. “I think I really learned some good lessons last year running Indy NXT about how to really compete in the championship on this level. And we’re just doing super well this year.”

With HMD storming to last year’s NXT title with Linus Lundqvist, who was confirmed today as Chip Ganassi Racing’s newest IndyCar driver, Rasmussen’s decision to join the program — which entered 2023 with nine cars on the grid – has had a similarly transformative effect on his career.

“It just shows you how good of a package we’ve got,” he said. “We have so many cars in the team, which [had] some people thinking ahead of the season that that was going to be an issue. It really wasn’t. We have a lot of data, which helps us get up to speed super quick. And we’re just getting it done. It’s a team effort.

“I’d like to take some of the credit. I think I’m doing an all-right job out there. But without the proper package to do so, it’s very hard. Team effort.”

He’s got a 51-point lead over Andretti’s Hunter McElrea with three races to go, and while he can’t clinch the title this weekend in Portland, he does have the ability to make it all but impossible for McElrea to overtake him next week at the Laguna Seca NXT doubleheader finale if he has an excellent result in Oregon.

Rasmussen and the rest of the NXT field go green on Sunday at 1:15 pm ET on Peacock.