Louis Foster won his fifth race in seven Indy NXT by Firestone events for Andretti Global at Iowa, the first oval race of the season.
Foster, 20, extended his championship lead to 77 points after a tricky weekend on the resurfaced oval where tyre life fears forced the series to shorten the race by 20 laps before it had started.
Also, a crash for one of Foster’s championship rivals Caio Collet and Collet’s team-mate Myles Rowe initiated a caution on lap 13 that lasted for 26 laps.
Foster had qualified second, his best start on an oval in this series, and had spent almost the whole race doing everything he could to save his tyres.
With six laps to go Foster made his move with an outrageous overtake around the outside of Turns 1 and 2 on team-mate James Roe, to take a victory he wouldn’t cede.
“Near the end the car was super in the window,” said Foster, who is backed by Copart, a global leader in online auto auctions.
“My tyres were as fresh as anything, I knew I could go and attack.
“I knew I had the pace on the outside, I gave it a go. James gave me a respectful amount of room. It was a good overtake. We had a great car.
“A big thank you to Andretti.”
Foster, from Hampshire in the UK, won the very first oval he competed on in America back in 2022 at Lucas Oil Raceway in Indy Pro 2000, and two years later Foster has added another big event on his oval racing resume.
He hadn’t driven an oval before that 2022 event, with his European racing background, and he opened up after the Iowa race on the best way for someone outside coming into oval racing in the future.
“I think the best thing to do is just go into ovals with a very open book," he said.
"Be a sponge in essence, learn as much as possible, and try the hardest you can to learn all the tactics on ovals, the way to drive it properly, the way the car should feel, and work with your engineer.
“That's the most important thing with the car on the oval is getting it right with the engineer.
"You can look like an absolute hero on an oval or look like an idiot, depending on how your set-up is. That's super important.”
There’s only four races remaining in the Indy NXT season with the Gateway oval in St Louis the next on the schedule.
However, there’s gap of over a month before that takes place, then there’s three races in August with the finale on September 15 at Nashville.
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