By Steve Wittich

It’s not often that you see a driver dominate INDY NXT by Firestone qualifying, but that’s what happened when Andretti Autosport rookie and reigning USF Pro 2000 champion Louis Foster scored a dominant double pole on the 1.645-mile, 9-turn, downtown Detroit street circuit.

His impressive performance included a dominant performance in qualifying for Race #1 and a heroic effort with a damaged car in qualifying for Race #2.

It’s not often that you see a driver dominate INDY NXT by Firestone qualifying, but that’s what happened when Andretti Autosport rookie and reigning USF Pro 2000 champion Louis Foster scored a dominant double pole on the 1.645-mile, 9-turn, downtown Detroit street circuit.

His impressive performance included a dominant performance in qualifying for Race #1 and a heroic effort with a damaged car in qualifying for Race #2.

Hunter McElrea (Andretti Autosport), Reece Gold (HMD Motorsports w/Dale Coyne Racing), Nolan Siegel (HMD Motorsports w/Dale Coyne Racing) and Christian Rasmussen (HMD Motorsports w/Dale Coyne Racing) qualified in the top five for both races.

That was a relief for championship leader Rasmussen, who missed most of the lone practice with a mechanical issue.

Considering we only got five laps of practice today due to a mechanical problem with the car, we still managed to put it on the front row for race 2,” exclaimed a happy Rasmussen on social media. First up is race 1 tomorrow, and we’re starting fifth. I have a good car underneath me, and we’re looking to make moves.”

Qualifying #1

When the first INDY NXT by Firestone qualifying session started, the ambient temperature was 91F, and the track temperature was 113.2F.

With only eight minutes to set a quick lap, the 19 drivers quickly got out on the 1.645-mile, 9-turn, downtown Detroit street circuit, with Cape Motorsports rookie Enaam Ahmed leading the train of cars off pit road.

Danial Frost (HMD Motorsports w/Dale Coyne Racing) and James Roe (Andretti Autosport) committed a pit lane usage offense for crossing over the blue line dividing the two halves of the pit road, serving drive-thru penalties.

Rasmus Lindh, in the No. 76 from the Juncos Hollinger Racing stable, went long in Turn 4 on his first hot lap, earning a penalty for causing a local yellow.

After three laps, at the halfway point of the qualifying session, Foster, Siegel, Frost, McElrea and Green were the top five.

Late in the session, Danial Frost, Christian Bogle and Toby Sowery were all on the pit lane getting repairs to damaged suspension after tapping a wall.

Race control announced that an incident between Rasmussen and Nannini was under review. They determined that the Juncos Hollinger Racing driver interfered with the points leader. That cost him his fastest lap, dropping him from third to 16th in that session.

Over the last two minutes of qualifying, Green, McElrea, Foster, Gold and finally, Foster traded the provisional pole, with the reigning USF Pro 2000 champion grabbing his second pole of the young INDY NXT by Firestone season.

“The first one was a good session,” said 19-year-old Brit Foster. “It was pretty easygoing. Just hit our marks. For the last two years, I’ve turned up to brand-new circuits and had to qualify quickly. So, I knew this would suit me this weekend.”

Foster’s significant margin to his teammate McElrea was over 6/10th of a second, with Gold a full second behind.

Three drivers were within a tenth of a second of Gold, and starting positions three through 13 were covered by only half of a second.

INDY NXT by Firestone Qualifying #1 Unofficial Results

RANK	CAR NO.	NAME	TEAM	FAST LAP	DIFF.
1	26	Louis Foster	Andretti Autosport	1:06.9468	——
2	27	Hunter McElrea	Andretti Autosport	1:07.5926	0.6458
3	10	Reece Gold	HMD Motorsports	1:07.9741	1.0273
4	39	Nolan Siegel	HMD Motorsports	1:08.0795	1.1327
5	6	Christian Rasmussen	HMD Motorsports	1:08.0915	1.1447
6	76	Rasmus Lindh	Juncos Hollinger Racing	1:08.1175	1.1707
7	3	Josh Green	HMD Motorsports	1:08.1849	1.2381
8	98	Jagger Jones	Cape Motorsports	1:08.2000	1.2532
9	21	Kyffin Simpson	HMD Motorsports	1:08.2700	1.3232
10	51	Jacob Abel	Abel Motorsports	1:08.3131	1.3663
11	47	Enaam Ahmed	Cape Motorsports	1:08.4281	1.4813
12	57	Colin Kaminsky	Abel Motorsports	1:08.4910	1.5442
13	29	James Roe	Andretti Autosport	1:08.5251	1.5783
14	99	Ernie Francis Jr.	HMD Motorsports	1:08.6860	1.7392
15	28	Jamie Chadwick	Andretti Autosport	1:08.9908	2.0440
16	75	Matteo Nannini	Juncos Hollinger Racing	1:07.9147	2.2445
17	68	Danial Frost	HMD Motorsports	1:09.4141	2.4673
18	7	Christian Bogle	HMD Motorsports	1:10.7253	3.7785
19	14	Toby Sowery	HMD Motorsports	1:12.7776	5.8308

Qualifying #2

After a ten-minute break, the same 19 drivers, including those that needed repairs, filed out of the pit road and onto the track, with the ambient temperature of 91F and the temperature of the asphalt 110F.

This time, Jacob Abel served a drive-thru after going across the blue line dividing the pit road.

At the three-minute mark of the second qualifying session, Nannini, a winner on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course, slapped the wall at the exit of Turn 7, continuing but eventually coming to a stop near the end of the session and only going 18th quick.

With three minutes remaining, the top five were Nolan Siegel, Kyffin Simpson, Danial Frost, Christian Rasmussen and Rasmus Lindh.

Race #1 pole sitter Foster had just gone third quick when he made significant contact with the left rear of his No. 26 at the exit of Turn 9, bending the toe-link but continuing.

Over the last minute of qualifying McElrea, Gold, and, surprisingly, Foster all went quicker, with the Andretti Autosport rookie grabbing his second straight pole and third street circuit pole of the 2023 season.

“I tapped the wall on the exit of the last corner with like four laps to go,” said Foster to Michael Young from the INDYCAR Radio Network. “So, I was like sideways down the straight with the steering. Not a great thing to happen in qualifying, but we made it work. The team did an amazing job.”

The session had numerous penalties, with Bogle, Francis, Jr., Jones and Nannini all running afoul of rule 8.3.7.3, which covers a driver causing a local yellow that impacts a competitor. As a result, they all lost their fastest lap to the point.

Francis, Jr., driving with a brace after fracturing the scaphoid in his left wrist, recovered to qualify an impressive sixth, his best career INDY NXT by Firestone qualifying position.

The other three could not recover and with start 15th (Jones), 17th (Bogle) and 18th (Nannini).

Kyffin Simpson was penalized for qualifying interference via 8.3.7.1, losing his two fastest laps to the point. Unfortunately, that means the Chip Ganassi Racing development driver will start from 19th for Sunday’s race.

INDY NXT by Firestone Qualifying #2 Unofficial Results

RANK	CAR NO.	NAME	TEAM	FAST LAP	DIFF.
1	26	Louis Foster	Andretti Autosport	1:06.8374	——
2	6	Christian Rasmussen	HMD Motorsports	1:07.0280	0.1906
3	39	Nolan Siegel	HMD Motorsports	1:07.0557	0.2183
4	10	Reece Gold	HMD Motorsports	1:07.1225	0.2851
5	27	Hunter McElrea	Andretti Autosport	1:07.3539	0.5165
6	99	Ernie Francis Jr.	HMD Motorsports	1:07.5676	0.7302
7	57	Colin Kaminsky	Abel Motorsports	1:07.6185	0.7811
8	68	Danial Frost	HMD Motorsports	1:07.6474	0.8100
9	51	Jacob Abel	Abel Motorsports	1:07.6653	0.8279
10	47	Enaam Ahmed	Cape Motorsports	1:07.7117	0.8743
11	29	James Roe	Andretti Autosport	1:07.8441	1.0067
12	76	Rasmus Lindh	Juncos Hollinger Racing	1:07.8770	1.0396
13	14	Toby Sowery	HMD Motorsports	1:07.9021	1.0647
14	28	Jamie Chadwick	Andretti Autosport	1:08.0675	1.2301
15	98	Jagger Jones	Cape Motorsports	1:08.3118	1.4744
16	3	Josh Green	HMD Motorsports	1:08.6001	1.7627
17	7	Christian Bogle	HMD Motorsports	1:08.6170	1.7796
18	75	Matteo Nannini	Juncos Hollinger Racing	1:08.8209	1.9835
19	21	Kyffin Simpson	HMD Motorsports	1:09.9564	3.1190

The first of two INDY NXT by Firestone 45-lap races is scheduled to get the green flag at 12:05 pm on Saturday.