How Foster Proved He Was Right and Fulfilled His Lifelong Dream in 2024

Winning the Indy NXT Championship and earning a spot in IndyAutomobile for 2025 meant it was a fantastic yr for me. Winning the title in such dominant fashion was the icing on the cake. This showed how much effort Andretti's team and I even have put in during the last two years. Our HMD rivals have been quite dominant in recent Indy NXT history, so I'm glad we were in a position to turn it around.

This performance gave me a likelihood to compete in IndyAutomobile next yr with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. I talked to Bobby Rahal all year long, but we got here to an agreement after the season. I can't wait to affix this team since it's a fantastic organization. I spent numerous time attending to know everyone as there have been numerous recent faces and I hope this can be a team that I can proceed to push forward with. It's about turning this around and I hope now we have an extended future where we will be successful.

- Advertisement -

It was amazing after I announced my entry since it has been my lifelong dream to call myself an IndyAutomobile driver and develop into an expert racing driver. Thank you to Bobby, Mike Lanigan, David Letterman and the complete team for believing in me. The honeymoon is over and all I'm focused on and wish is to do well. It's one thing to be in IndyAutomobile, but it surely's one other thing to remain in IndyAutomobile and achieve success. From day one, my attitude was: “How can we prepare for the upcoming season so that we have our feet firmly on the ground and surprise people?” This is my goal. I need to be a nice surprise in the beginning and have a big effect.

We have winter tests planned and the primary sessions might be about teaching me things like commuting, leaving, pit stops, fuel saving, hybrid system and all of the essential growing pains things that I would like to learn. We can then have a great conversation with the team concerning the goals for next yr and understand what direction we would like the automotive to take.

I did a number of stop training sessions to get a greater have a look at the team and be across the team more because consistency is significant. There is a ton of talent on every IndyAutomobile team lately because they’re truly world-class people. I feel the difference will not be what people you have got, but the way you make everyone work together. This is what we deal with.

This yr's highlight for me was a visit to Barber Motorsports Park. I got here from behind because of problems that prevented me from qualifying and finished fifth. For me personally, this weekend was quite successful – I learned lots and realized that even when now we have bad weekends on this championship, now we have the pace to be on the front. That gave me numerous confidence to maintain going and beat all of them for the remainder of the yr.

After securing the Indy NXT title, Foster moves to IndyAutomobile in 2025

Photo: Penske Entertainment

When you fight for a championship, you don't start from behind. Once you do that, it's actually numerous fun because you’ll be able to actually race again. Often within the championship you spend your life near the front and never really have the chance to race against anyone. The weekend we dominated at Laguna Seca was also good, followed by the weekend in Milwaukee where we won the championship. There are numerous activities all year long which was very nice.

The ultimate goal was the championship and once we achieved that, heading into the ultimate race in Nashville, we had nothing left to lose. While I can have been the Indy NXT Champion, that didn't guarantee a spot in IndyAutomobile, so I actually desired to make my mark on the season and end with a victory, simply to make clear my position within the minds of any bosses on the market, that I used to be the motive force to guide their team.

The wins at these were the difference between winning by a slim margin and winning by a slim margin, which we achieved, and prove that I can race and win at any track: road tracks, road courses, and ovals

Racing on the Oval continues to be very recent to me, but after this yr I feel more comfortable within the automotive and understand what I would like to do as a driver. An excellent result this yr meant lots because I had only won one oval race in my profession out of 4 that had began, but now I had eight oval races and won five of them. I feel there was numerous pressure at my competitions, people were giving them hints that they were going to be higher than me on the oval, and I actually desired to make certain that was quashed immediately.

These oval wins made the difference between winning by a slim margin and winning by a slim margin, which we achieved, they usually prove that I can race and win at any track: road courses, road courses, and ovals. I even have three disciplines planned, so no IndyAutomobile team principal could have any query marks as as to whether I can do it.

The support from Andy Meyrick and the fellows at Silverstone and the British Racing Drivers' Club has been great. I might like to have the opportunity to come back back more often, especially for the Grand Prix, but next yr might be difficult. I'd wish to support BRDC a bit of more like I used to, but it surely's nice to be racing out of the country, raising the flag for the club and the SuperStars. Next yr it could just be me and Callum Ilott as Brits in IndyAutomobile, but it surely's great to be a part of the most effective British Elite Athlete programs.

What can Foster achieve in his debut IndyAutomobile campaign?

Photo: Penske Entertainment