By Steve Wittich

The AER-prepared 2.0L turbo-charged four-cylinder engines powering the 21 INDY NXT by Firestone series were fired at 8 a.m. for their last practice before qualifying.

Drivers quickly got to work, getting their used Firestone Racing INDY NXT tires up to temperature.

With the track temperature cooler than yesterday and the concrete walls close, Jacob Abel tapped the wall with the right rear early in the session. The Abel Motorsports crew quickly replaced the part, and the championshiip leader completed 25 laps, ending up with the sixth-best time.

After 15 of the 45 minutes, Louis Foster (Andretti Global), Michael d’Orlando (Andretti Cape), Caio Collet (HMD Motorsports), Jamie Chadwick (Andretti Global) and Salvador de Alba (Andretti Cape) were the five quickest drivers.

With 16 minutes gone in practice, the first red flag came out when the No. 2 of de Alba locked up in the Turn 1 braking zone, coming to a stop deep in the runoff. When the AMR INDYCAR Safety Team arrived, the Mexican driver climbed from the car and it was put behind the wall, ending his session early.

Similar to the Friday afternoon NTT INDYCAR SERIES, the various runoffs were busy, with the following drivers visiting the runoffs in:

Turn 1: de Alba, Gold, and Hedge
Turn 3 – d’Orlando
Turn 8 – Siegel (three times), Chadwick (two times), Aron, Bogle, Escotto, Gold, Koolen and Pierson.

Unfortunately, James Roe passed another driver under one of the local yellows and was given a stop-and-hold for five minutes penalty for his transgression.

With 15 minutes remaining, Reece Gold (HMD Motorsports) was out of the car, with Ryan Myrehn on the INDYCAR Radio Network reporting that water was leaking from under the No. 10.

With 13 minutes remaining in practice, Collet turned a lap at 66.3749 seconds, the quickest of the session at that point.

With nine minutes remaining, the red flag came out when the left rear of the No. 99 was against the concrete barrier with a crumpled left rear. Myles Rowe, the reigning USF Pro 2000 weekend, was 19th on the timing screens and trying to find speed. He was following a pair of cars through the left-hand Turn 2 when he lost the rear of the car, spinning into the barrier.

Just before the red flag came out, Siegel was the first driver to turn a lap under 76 seconds.

The AMR INDYCAR Safety Team quickly got the No. 99 ‘on the hook’ and behind the wall, with the field taking advantage of the time to improve their cars.

Drivers had the time to turn two or three hot laps, with eight going quickest on their final lap. That included Andretti Global/Andretti Cape drivers Foster, Roe and d’Orlando, who joined Siegel in the sub-76-second club.

Timesheet from INDY NXT by Firestone practice #2

RANK	CAR NO.	DRIVER	TEAM	FAST LAP	DIFF.	Laps
1	26	Louis Foster	Andretti Global	1:05.7200	——	22
2	29	James Roe	Andretti Global	1:05.9193	0.1993	26
3	39	Nolan Siegel	HMD Motorsports	1:05.9659	0.2459	29
4	3	Michael d’Orlando	Andretti Cape INDY NXT	1:05.9957	0.2757	27
5	18	Caio Collet	HMD Motorsports	1:06.0089	0.2889	30
6	51	Jacob Abel	Abel Motorsports	1:06.0736	0.3536	25
7	17	Callum Hedge	HMD Motorsports	1:06.6107	0.8907	27
8	28	Jamie Chadwick	Andretti Global	1:06.7457	1.0257	26
9	23	Jonathan Browne	HMD Motorsports	1:06.9394	1.2194	28
10	75	Ricardo Escotto	Juncos Hollinger Racing	1:07.1642	1.4442	26
11	27	Bryce Aron	Andretti Global	1:07.2042	1.4842	30
12	14	Josh Pierson	HMD Motorsports	1:07.3443	1.6243	29
13	11	Nolan Allaer	HMD Motorsports	1:07.3971	1.6771	29
14	7	Christian Bogle	HMD Motorsports	1:07.4512	1.7312	28
15	33	Niels Koolen	HMD Motorsports	1:07.5371	1.8171	29
16	40	Jack William Miller	Miller Vinatieri Motorsports	1:07.6590	1.9390	27
17	22	Yuven Sundaramoorthy	Abel Motorsports	1:07.7394	2.0194	29
18	10	Reece Gold	HMD Motorsports	1:07.9757	2.2557	12
19	99	Myles Rowe	HMD Motorsports with Force Indy	1:07.9904	2.2704	18
20	2	Salvador de Alba Jr	Andretti Cape INDY NXT	1:08.0836	2.3636	12
21	76	Lindsay Brewer	Juncos Hollinger Racing	1:13.1737	7.4537	20