Hunter McElrea scored his first win of the 2023 Indy NXT season on the Indy road course, but only after limping to the finish with worn tires while staving off his teammate James Roe.
From pole position, McElrea led all 35 laps but, having burned off his rear tires too early, came under intense pressure in the closing 10 laps from Andretti Autosport teammate Louis Foster. The latter was up from fourth on the grid having gotten around the HMD Motorsports cars of Kyffin Simson and Roe.
On lap 28, McElrea slid wide at Turn 10, and with the expanse of curb now available at the apex, Foster saw the chance to put his car down the inside. McElrea turned in while Foster lost grip over the curb and no longer had the braking ability to stop hard enough to avoid contact. His left-front made contact with McElrea’s right-rear, and that was enough to knock the Briton’s steering alignment way out, giving him excessive positive camber. He would struggle around one more complete lap, but his pace was so reduced, his handling so bad, that he pitted and alighted from the car.
McElrea’s car was not apparently damaged by the impact, but his rear tires were now toast, and both Roe and Reece Gold of HMD ate into the Aussie’s lead, so that McElrea commenced the final lap with barely a 0.5s lead. Having hogged the inside line into Turn 1, forcing Roe to consider the long way – and lock his front tires – McElrea had just enough momentum out of Turn 6 onto the back straight to remain clear of his pursuer.
The eventual winning margin was 0.4370s with Roe scoring his first podium. Gold came home a further 1.2s adrift.
The three leaders (and Foster) were in a different ZIP code than their pursuers — Jacob Abel taking fourth for Abel Motorsport a quarter of a minute down, with Simpson clocking fifth, his mirrors filled by points leader Christian Rasmussen, as well as Danial Frost.