Louis Foster took a huge victory to earn his first Indy NXT Series win of the season at the Indianapolis road course for Andretti Global.
It was a key weekend double-header for the Indy NXT championship competitors, and Foster duly made the most of the opportunity once again showing he is among the best overtaking drivers in the championship.
He started fourth in race two and made a perfect overtake at Turn 1 to run third, before snatching second eight laps later with a textbook overtake at Turn 7.
He chased down the leader almost immediately but just like in 2023, it proved tough to overtake for the win.
However there would be no repeat of the year before as Foster made a move where few drivers dare, up the inside of Turn 10 which has to be set-up perfectly from the corner previously, and Foster did just that to take the lead and his third Indy NXT win.
“I think we learned from the two races last year where we were in second place and battling trying to catch the leader for the entirety of those two races,” said Foster, who is backed by Copart, a global leader in online auto auctions.
“I definitely have experience here with chasing down the leader from second place.“I think we deserve to be fighting at the front, we’ve had some bad luck like the issues at Barber, but the amount of overtaking we have done shows that we have the race pace.
“We just need to start higher up. We know that’s the focus now, improving the qualifying pace and making sure we nail those qualifying sessions, because in the races we’ve shown what we can do.”
In the first race of the weekend, Foster also started fourth and was running in second when his front wing became so loose it forced him into the pits.
He emerged in 16th, but two cautions packed up the field and he was able to make up nine positions, following the last race at Barber when he made up 16 positions after his electronic issues meant he had started at the back.
It was another barnstorming drive full of opportunistic overtakes for the British driver.
“We’ve had a couple of incidents that have put us back in the pack now,” Foster said.
“Obviously it’s fun to overtake and show what we can do, but I’d prefer not to have to do all of that overtaking and be fighting for the win instead.
"We can be really encouraged and positive that the things in our control in the race, we’re doing very well. We have almost a month now to work on everything and try to improve. I know the Andretti Global team and I will be doing that."
The Indy NXT series takes a brief pause while the Indy 500 dominates for the rest of the ‘Month of May’.
Foster’s next race is on June 2 at Detroit, which kicks off a month where there are four races in the championship making this the most important month of the year.
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