Andretti Global’s Louis Foster was officially crowned the 2024 Indy NXT Champion after winning from pole position at The Milwaukee Mile.
The 21-year-old Briton managed to overtake the opposite competitors from the lead position and led all 90 laps, beating his only championship rival, Jacob Abel, in a time of 4.3602 seconds on the historic one-mile oval.
“It’s amazing,” Foster said. “I’m speechless. I have to thank the team; they’ve been behind me for the last two years. Big thanks to everyone in the No. 26 and my sponsors… It’s been a crazy two years and I’m super happy to get the win.”
Louis Foster
Photo: IndyAutomotive Series
The performance was Foster's seventh win of the season, which puts him in fourth place within the all-time standings, alongside Bryan Herta, Mark Taylor, Oliver Askew and David Malukas. He has a probability to maneuver into third place alongside Alex Lloyd within the season finale at Nashville Superspeedway in two weeks. Greg Moore and Kyle Kirkwood share the highest spot with 10 wins on the season, while Paul Tracy and Pato O'Ward are tied for second with nine.
Behind Foster and Abel in third place was Salvador de Alba Jr.
The top five was accomplished by debutants Bryce Aron and Jamie Chadwick.
Race
Foster was in a position to speed up cleanly from the beginning. However, the identical couldn’t be said for Foster’s front row mate and title rival Abel, who was hit from behind by HMD Motorsports rookie Christian Brooks. The contact nearly caused the No. 51 Abel Motorsports automobile to spin before he dropped to sixth as the sector headed into Turn 1.
Abel managed to quickly get back to fifth place and put pressure on Brooks' rear wing, but was unable to pass him.
Meanwhile, on lap 10, Foster's lead over Chadwick was 0.7726s. By lap 16, that lead had increased to 1.0905s.
The field began to settle, but a yellow flag got here out on lap 30 when Myles Rowe, #99 HMD Motorsports with Force Indy, spun at Turn 2. Fortunately, he didn’t hit anything, allowing for a fast change of pace for the race.
A restart on lap 33 saw Foster move strongly into the lead, while Chadwick lost second to de Alba, while Abel moved as much as fourth, ahead of Brooks.
On lap 39, Abel made a robust pass on the surface of Turns 1 and a couple of to secure third place.
Foster's advantage over de Alba was 0.5282 seconds on the halfway point of the race. Two laps later de Alba closed to inside a number of automobile lengths before Foster prolonged his advantage again.
As the sector began to expand again heading into lap 52, the most important battle on course was for sixth place between Brooks and Abel Motorsports rookie Yuven Sundaramoorthy, who were inside 0.2 seconds of one another in a tense battle. On lap 57, Sundaramoorthy attempted to pass Brooks on the surface of Turn 1, but had little room and broke free, losing ground at Turn 2 and eventually taking seventh to Andretti Global’s James Roe.
On lap 61, Abel caught the rear wing of the Andretti Cape de Alba machine. The pace was temporary, nonetheless, as Abel quickly dropped to 0.8s just three laps later and remained in third place.
The battle for sixth place was again close, this time Roe was unable to pass Brooks on lap 66 and fell into the clutches of Sundaramoorthy. The two were riding side by side and touched, almost sending Sundaramoorthy into the wall. Both regained their composure and went after Brooks again, with Roe completing the pass on Brooks, taking sixth place on lap 69, as Sundaramoorthy's move to also pass was stopped.
Meanwhile, the battle for the lead was fierce on the front of the sector, with Foster’s large lead over de Alba reduced to 0.4171s on lap 70, with Abel trailing by just 1.4847s.
Foster's lead increased to 1.0598s just five laps later.
With 12 laps to go, Foster began to meet up with the opposite riders and overtake them by a lap, first passing Ricardo Escotto of Juncos Hollinger Racing, who finished thirteenth.
Foster managed to chop cleanly through the gang and quickly prolonged his lead over de Alba to five.4082s on lap 85.
Abel passed de Alba with one other outside move at Turns 1 and a couple of with three laps remaining.
Ultimately, Foster easily won and took the title.
