Yahoo Autos Redemption for Siegel with dominant Indy NXT win in Detroit
Nolan Siegel, who suffered a heartbreaking last-lap loss in Indy NXT’s first race on the new Detroit course, snatched the lead at the start of the second race and survived two restarts to claim victory. His HMD Motorsports teammate Christian Rasmussen was second, while polesitter Louis Foster of Andretti Autosport completed the podium.
The first start was flagged off when everyone from row five back proved dilatory in lining up. The next start was deemed fine, and after Saturday’s mishap in which Foster was punted out of P1 into Turn 1 on lap one by Andretti Autosport teammate Hunter McElrea, the polesitter managed to remain unharmed by fellow front-row starter Rasmussen on the run down to Turn 1.
When Rasmussen braked alongside him, though, Foster was overly concerned with preventing his challenger from staying with him around the outside of the first turn (Turn 3 at the start) and ushered him toward the wall. That left the door open for Nolan Siegel to sprint up the inside on corner exit and take the lead.
Foster’s strong-arm tactics bit him again on the following lap because it was time for payback. Rasmussen slotted the No. 6 car down the inside on corner entry and gave Foster no room on exit. Now the Briton was down to third and barely holding off McElrea.
Behind them, Ernie Francis Jr ran fifth ahead of Colin Kaminsky (Abel Motorsports) and Danial Frost (HMD) until he skated down a runoff. Almost simultaneously, the second Abel car of Jacob Abel (Abel) punted yesterday’s winner Reece Gold (HMD) wide and sent him tumbling down the order.
Siegel, who in Saturday’s race stalked Gold for the lead, grabbed P1 and then had his car’s driveshaft let go on the final lap, was not going to have it easy on Sunday’s race either. By lap 10, Rasmussen was still within half a second of him closely pursued by Foster and McElrea.
The first caution of the race came on lap 15 of 45, when yesterday’s runner-up Jagger Jones slid into the wall exiting Turn 2 and ground to a halt.
