By Patrick Stephan

The INDY NXT by Firestone series took to the 7/8ths mile Iowa Speedway at 2:15pm Central Time for their lone practice session of the weekend. 45 clean and green minutes later, Christian Rasmussen was on top the time sheet with a 19.9464 second lap good for a 161.352 mile per hour average. Officially he was followed by Jacob Abel, Hunter McElrea, Ernie Francis, Jr., and Louis Foster.

On the now tow list, James Roe was on top with a speed of 156.841, followed by Josh Pierson, Kyffin Simpson, and Jagger Jones. Interesting to see the big difference in speeds from tow to no-tow, though with tires limited to just three sets for this event, we’re guessing many driver’s weren’t able to find clear track to avoid a tow, while also having new rubber available. That said, it appears getting rubber down on the track surface was also important as many driver’s turned their fast laps later in the session, though Roe’s top No-Tow lap came on his 21st lap, while Pierson’s 156.510 lap was on his 55th circuit.

Louis Foster came just two laps short of the full 75 lap race distance during the session.

The air temp for the session was 81F with the track 117F under partly cloudy skies, and the beautifully presented Iowa Speedway.

Point leader Nolan Siegel timed in 7th with a lap of 159.710 on his 59th of 64 laps. Rasmussen in P2 trails by just 16 points with 7 races remaining. All are single events except the double header at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.

The championship battle (see prize results below), is very tight up front with McElrea in 3rd trailing Siegel by just 39. Foster and Abel round out the Top 5. Abel 48 markers out of the lead.

This is Pierson’s 5th race of the season, having previous starts at St. Pete, Indy, Road America, and Mid-Ohio, with the part time rookie’s best finish of 13th at the Grand Prix of Indy.

The 16 car field turned a total of 894 laps, with the only penalty we saw being one for speeding on pit lane by Matthew Brabham who driving the #75 Juncos Racing entry this weekend in place of Matteo Nannini.

From the Juncos press release, Brabham said, “It’s going to be challenging, having missed the INDY NXT testing and races this year. However, my confidence is high as I was definitely the guy to beat on all the ovals last year.

“There are a few tricks to Iowa that I hope I can capitalize on again. The new Firestone tires will change things up a little and there are a lot of unknowns, but we will do our best to make sure we have a great run at Iowa. It’s a great feeling to be back!”

Ricardo Juncos, team principal said, “We came back to INDY NXT with the purpose of making our INDYCAR fortunes even better as the two series are intrinsically linked. But there are such limited testing opportunities in INDY NXT with the Firestone tires, so it’s crucial for us to be at every single race and to be as strong as possible in our first year back. We want to keep developing our whole racing programme to be a top
team in 2024.

“Combining the technology and the simulation technology we have in our INDYCAR team with our INDY NXT programme is really important and to have Matthew with us this weekend is an amazing opportunity. He will be a massive support to what we’re trying to achieve.

“We’ve known each other for more than 12 years, but we’ve never been able to race together until now. For me, it’s an honour to have him in the team. I’m good friends with his father Geoff and got to meet Sir Jack when Matthew was racing in PRO MAZDA.

“This is a one-off race in Iowa but I think Matthew’s presence gives us a mega opportunity for our development as we look to be the team we want to be next season.”

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As a reminder, the prize package for INDY NXT by Firestone is as below (source is INDYCAR).

Highlights of the new package:

• Total prizes are being increased to $1.4 million.
• The series champion will receive $850,000, an increase of $350,000, to be applied to an oval test at Texas Motor Speedway, the IMS Open Test/Rookie Orientation Program, the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge and an additional 2024 NTT INDYCAR SERIES event. The series champion also will receive an additional NTT INDYCAR SERIES test on the IMS road course.
• Year-end awards have been increased for second place ($125,000) and third place ($65,000).
• The championship team will receive a prize, $35,000, for the first time.
• Awards for each race in the 2023 season will be $15,000 for the winner, $5,000 for second place and $2,500 for third place.

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INDY NXT by Firestone Iowa Practice Results:

Pos	Car #	Driver	Best Speed	Best Time	Diff	Gap	Fast Lap	Total Laps.
1	6	Christian Rasmussen	161.352	00:19.9464	–.—-	–.—-	22	62
2	51	Jacob Abel	161.213	00:19.9636	0.0172	0.0172	27	33
3	27	Hunter McElrea	160.641	00:20.0347	0.0883	0.0711	42	51
4	99	Ernie Francis Jr.	160.356	00:20.0704	0.124	0.0357	51	52
5	26	Louis Foster	160.138	00:20.0977	0.1513	0.0273	65	73
6	76	Rasmus Lindh	160.085	00:20.1043	0.1579	0.0066	59	59
7	39	Nolan Siegel	159.71	00:20.1515	0.2051	0.0472	59	64
8	14	Josh Pierson	159.575	00:20.1686	0.2222	0.0171	65	68
9	7	Christian Bogle	159.216	00:20.2140	0.2676	0.0454	51	58
10	68	Danial Frost	158.867	00:20.2585	0.3121	0.0445	59	60
11	21	Kyffin Simpson	158.568	00:20.2966	0.3502	0.0381	49	52
12	28	Jamie Chadwick	158.216	00:20.3418	0.3954	0.0452	53	59
13	29	James Roe	157.804	00:20.3949	0.4485	0.0531	32	63
14	98	Jagger Jones	156.91	00:20.5111	0.5647	0.1162	49	60
15	75	Matthew Brabham	153.59	00:20.9545	1.0081	0.4434	15	24
16	10	Reece Gold	153.411	00:20.9789	1.0325	0.0244	38	56