The five-week break between INDY NXT by Firestone races concludes with Saturday’s 75-lap OUTFRONT Showdown at World Wide Technology Raceway. The championship pursuit heats up this weekend and ignites a stretch of the final four races in 29 days to the finish line Sept. 15 at Nashville Superspeedway.
The 1.25-mile oval at WWTR is one of three oval tracks in this span, with the Milwaukee Mile on Aug. 31 and Nashville on the end-of-season schedule.
SEE: Race Details
Portland International Raceway on Aug. 25 is the only road course remaining.
Here are some storylines ahead of Saturday's race airing at 3:55 p.m. ET on Peacock and INDYCAR Radio Network.
Everyone Is Chasing Foster
The series wasn’t idle during the 35-day stretch between the July 13 race at Iowa Speedway and Saturday’s event at World Wide Technology Raceway. An Open Test occurred last Thursday around the unique 1.33-mile Nashville Superspeedway concrete oval.
Points leader Louis Foster paced the 21-driver test.
With the sophomore Andretti Global driver also leading the Milwaukee Mile test in June and entering Saturday’s race with win July 13 at Iowa, Foster has a prime opportunity to push himself to the brink of clinching the championship early.
Second-place driver Jacob Abel trails Foster by 77 points and is the only driver within 100 points of the lead. The title will be Foster’s if he leaves next weekend’s race at Portland International Raceway, a track where he’s the defending race winner, with at least a 109-point margin on the field.
“We have a nice lead at the moment,” Foster said. “It’s comfortable, but I’m not comfortable with it. I want it to be more. I think the target is to go and win more. If we can get to Milwaukee with similar-ish points, we can really start thinking about a championship. Until then, it’s too early to start driving really conservatively. These points margins can shrink quite quickly.”
Foster has an average finishing position of 1.28 over the last seven races, with five victories and a pair of runner-up results.
“I think momentum is great and there’s no reason we can’t carry that on,” he said.
Can Abel Mount Charge?
Abel breaks the 2024 INDY NXT by Firestone season into thirds. The first four races, the six races between Detroit and Iowa Speedway, then the final four races stretch after the Olympic Break.
If the Louisville native is going to catch Foster, he needs to regain the form he boasted in the opening four races of the season, when his average finish was 1.5.
Abel, in his third year competing for Abel Motorsports, claimed his first two victories of his INDY NXT by Firestone career in back-to-back races on April 28 at Barber Motorsports Park and the opening race of Indianapolis Motor Speedway doubleheader weekend on May 10. Abel had two wins along with a pair of runner-up finishes in the first four races.
The results stalled, with Abel having an average finishing position of sixth in the next six events.
“We had that first chunk with St. Petersburg, Barber and Indy, then we had that Indy 500 break and that middle bit where we struggled a little bit,” he said. “It’s kind of like everything is back-to-back, so when you’re struggling, it’s kind of hard to build your momentum back because it’s week after week after week.”
Missig, Ferns Back with Abel Motorsports
Abel will have three teammates with whom to share ideas, with Yuven Sundaramoorthy remaining in the No. 22 entry for his season-long ride, and Jordan Missig and Taylor Ferns returning to Abel Motorsports this weekend.
Missig returns to the No. 21 entry for his fourth race of the season and first since Road America on June 9. USAC veteran Ferns is back in the No. 55 entry for her second career start, making her debut July 13 at Iowa.
Ferns is also ready for the challenge of competing in two very different races on the weekend. She will contest Friday’s 75-mile Ranken Technical College Silver Crown Shootout Presented by Welsch Heating & Cooling and Saturday’s 75-lap INDY NXT by Firestone OUTFRONT Showdown.
“Racing is my passion, so I just didn’t feel right not doing it in the end,” said Ferns, who finished fourth in the Silver Crown main event last Saturday at Jennerstown (Pennsylvania) Speedway. “The INDY NXT car is my focal point, but I think there’s just a natural intuition with the Silver Crown car – so I am skipping Silver Crown practice and qualifying in order to focus on the INDY NXT sessions, then doing Friday night’s race from the back of the field. I don’t have a problem passing cars so hopefully we can put on a good show.”
HMD Motorsports Rookies Seek Rebound
Caio Collet entered Iowa Speedway on the heels of his first-career victory on July 7 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. The Brazilian was quickest in both practice sessions and won the pole at M-Ohio, too.
Then, the wrong gear ratio in qualifying at Iowa and a crash in the race relegating him to a 17th-place finish dropped him 109 points behind Foster for the championship lead.
“It was quite frustrating because Practice 1 was really good,” Collet said. “We should have qualified inside the top three, which would have been a completely different weekend. The positives are that we were quick and fast and obviously a lot for me to learn. To race an oval is quite different. It was good that I had this crash, and I think the way I approach oval racing now is a little bit different. I think a little before that I wouldn’t say I was overconfident but for sure it taught me a lesson.”
Collet admitted the championship is a little out of reach at this point, and he would need some luck to catch Foster. His short-term goal is to prove he can compete on an oval and win another race or two.
His teammate Myles Rowe also needs a strong result. Rowe had five consecutive top-10 finishes to begin his INDY NXT by Firestone career, including two top-five finishes in his last three starts entering Road America. In the five races since, he has one top-10 finish, a sixth-place result in the opening race of the WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca weekend. Four of his last five races have seen Rowe finish 17th or worse.
One HMD rookie on the rise is Callum Hedge. He continued his ascension at Iowa Speedway, scoring a fourth-place finish in his oval debut. Hedge has consecutive top-four results and four top-six finishes in his last six starts this season.
HMD Motorsports has produced the race winner in three of the last four races at WWTR.
Track Specs: 1.25-mile oval
Qualifying Record (One Lap): Juan Piedrahita, 27.8890 (161.354 mph), Aug. 26, 2017
Qualifying Record (Two Laps): Juan Piedrahita, 55.9620 (160.823 mph), Aug. 26, 2017