Christian Bogle elected to return for a fourth INDY NXT by Firestone season in 2024, the last three with HMD Motorsports following a rookie year in 2021 with Carlin.

Good thing he did.

In an era of motorsports where there seems to be a rush to climb the ladder to the top of a racing discipline, Bogle elected to take his time and hone his craft.

That decision is paying off this season. Bogle, a 23-year-old Louisiana native, is finding comfort and gaining speed in his No. 7 HMD Motorsports entry. He used his expertise to shine during the first oval race weekend of the season earlier this month at Iowa Speedway, where 11 of the 18 drivers had never competed in an INDY NXT by Firestone oval event.

In a special fire suit designed by Marina Racewear mimicking the famous Iowa corn, Bogle had arguably his best race weekend of his INDY NXT by Firestone career. He led the 18 drivers speeding around the .894-mile short track in Friday’s practice. Bogle then parlayed that speed into a career-best fourth-place starting position for Saturday’s 55-lap race.

“Turns out corn is fast,” he said. “We’ve made a lot of progress. We push super hard as a team for this year, and we’ve made a lot of progress. I’m happy to see that.”

But Bogle couldn’t hide his emotions while leaving Iowa after a sixth-place finish Saturday. Early in his INDY NXT by Firestone career, he would have taken a sixth-place result and marched into the next race with the solid finish.

This time, late-race contact with a rival left him “gutted.”

Bogle got a great launch on the race’s only restart while running third with 15 laps to go but said contact on track with Jacob Abel in the No. 51 Abel Construction entry ruined the potential career-best day.

Abel had damage from contact with another car on that same restart and had to pit for repairs. After losing three laps, he returned to track to limit the damage to his championship aspirations. Abel entered the race 41 points behind series leader Louis Foster, who led the race at the time. Abel was hoping to see the checkered flag and maybe gain a position or two if chaos ensued, so he fought hard to stay in the lead group.

He and Bogle made contact battling on track, which left Bogle struggling to hang onto this car to the finish. Bogle dropped three spots before the finish.

“We were super comfortable with the car until that last stint,” Bogle said. “We went green and started to lose the front quite quickly, and by the end, I had nothing in the car. The bars were all forward. It’s really disappointing.”

Still, Bogle heads into the three-week break before returning to action Aug. 17 at World Wide Technology Raceway on the heels of three top-eight finishes in the last four races.

“We’re definitely getting in a little bit of a rhythm here,” he said. “There’s pace in the car. We can’t deny it.”