Louis Foster claimed the 2024 Indy NXT by Firestone championship in perfect fashion by leading all 90-laps on his way to victory at Milwaukee, securing the title with a race to spare.
It’s been an incredible year for Foster who has scored seven race wins, six pole positions including three in a row, and finished in the top five in 12 of the 13 races so far this year. Now he'll get to race in the Indy 500, the world's biggest single-day sporting event, in 2025.
Foster only came to race in the US for the first time in 2022, but has adapted quickly and the evidence of that was clear in Saturday night’s race, when he won the third out of three oval races this season. This was a new discipline to him when he arrived over two years ago.
“When I joined Andretti in late '22 after winning Indy Pro 2000, I knew that we'd be strong ever since we got out of the gates. We just struggled with consistency last year," said Foster, who is backed by Copart, a global leader in online auto auctions.
“We’ve had a great year. The team has been awesome. We've broken a few records along the way. Over the moon.
“I want to say a huge thank you to everyone who has supported me up to this point. You don’t make it to this level without a lot of support around you. Family, partners, a great team.
“The result today is as much for them as it is for me.”
In what has become a familiar pattern, Foster was fastest in every single session at the Milwaukee oval, which is a big test as it is much flatter than any other oval Indy NXT visits.
In the race he was never really challenged, and set the fastest lap on his way to winning by over four seconds.
Incredibly, it’s the fifth time this year Foster has completed the rare motorsport hat-trick of securing pole position, winning the race and setting the fastest lap.
The championship win means Foster is set to receive the budget to race in the Indianapolis 500 next year, alongside one other IndyCar race, and he is hopeful that it can lead to a full-time programme in the NTT IndyCar Series in 2025.
“We have talked to teams obviously,” added Foster.
“Really, really hoping I'll get an opportunity in IndyCar. As it stands currently, we don't have anything signed. I'm hoping that around Nashville, slightly after, we can find something.
“I think I've done as much as I can this year to prove to the teams that I'm worthy of a seat. I'm hoping we can get an opportunity.
“I would like to say we have a good chance of getting in. I'm quite confident that we will be able to. But nothing's guaranteed.
“It's the best drivers in the world at the end of the day. It's just such a hard series to get into. We're working as hard as we can to try and get onto the grid.”
This is Foster's second title in three seasons in America after he won the Indy Pro 2000 championship in 2022.
Foster gets a weekend off before heading to the last race in Nashville on September 15.
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