By Steve Wittich
INDY NXT by Firestone practice started after a slight hold to patch an issue at the apex of Turn 12 caused by the previous series. When the green flag came out at 9:23 am, the skies were partly cloudy, with a comfortable 64F ambient temperature and track temperature at 71.4F.
The early part of practice was all Andretti Global all the time, first with veteran Salvador de Alba and followed by the driver who led the first practice, Dennis Hauger.
At the halfway point of the 45-minute practice, Hauger still held the top spot, with Myles Rowe (Abel Motorsports w/Force Indy), Lochie Hughes (Andretti Global), Callum Hedge (Abel Motorsports), Jordan Missig (Abel Motorsports), Josh Pierson (HMD Motorsports), De Alba, Tommy Smith (HMD Motorsports), Caio Collet (HMD Motorsports) and Jonathan Browne (Chip Ganassi Racing).
Hauger’s best lap with 20 minutes left in the session, set on used tires, was 1:05.1444, which was a tenth of a second quicker than yesterday’s practice.
As drivers put on fresh Firestone INDY NXT tires, lap times started to fall. Hauger’s teammate Hughes grabbed the top spot.
Hauger also got fresh Firestone rubber, quickly becoming the first driver under 65 seconds, turning in a lap time two-tenths of a second under the current track record.
Not long after setting the quickest lap, the Norwegian driver tagged the wall with the left rear at the exit of Turn 8, completing one more lap before coming to the attention of his Andretti Global crew.
With ten minutes remaining in practice, four of the six drivers affiliated with Andretti Global – Haugher (1st), Hughes (2nd), De Alba (4th) and Andretti Cape’s Ricardo Escotto (6th) were near the top of the timing screen.
With just under five minutes remaining in practice, Rowe went to the top of the timing screens, going a tenth of a second quicker than Hauger.
All 45 minutes were run under green conditions, with the 21 drivers completing 63 laps of the 1.8-mile, 14-turn St. Petersburg street circuit.
Hallie Deegan, making a big leap from tin tops to open-wheel cars, improved immensely, going from a 4.7-second gap to a 2.7-second gap.
INDY NXT by Firestone practice #2 results
| RANK | DRIVER | TEAM | FAST LAP | DIFF. | TOTAL LAPS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | M. ROWE | Abel Motorsports w/ Force Indy | 1:04.2496 | — | 29 |
| 2 | D. HAUGER | Andretti Global | 1:04.3543 | 0.1047 | 26 |
| 3 | L. HUGHES | Andretti Global | 1:04.6025 | 0.3529 | 28 |
| 4 | C. COLLET | HMD Motorsports | 1:04.7168 | 0.4672 | 32 |
| 5 | J. BROWNE | Chip Ganassi Racing | 1:04.7658 | 0.5162 | 33 |
| 6 | S. DE ALBA | Andretti Global | 1:04.7929 | 0.5433 | 29 |
| 7 | C. HEDGE | Abel Motorsports | 1:04.8013 | 0.5517 | 32 |
| 8 | N. ALLAER | HMD Motorsports | 1:04.8691 | 0.6195 | 31 |
| 9 | R. ESCOTTO | Andretti Cape | 1:04.8848 | 0.6352 | 32 |
| 10 | J. MISSIG | Abel Motorsports | 1:04.9355 | 0.6859 | 29 |
| 11 | J. ROE | Andretti Global | 1:04.9840 | 0.7344 | 30 |
| 12 | J. PIERSON | HMD Motorsports | 1:05.0053 | 0.7557 | 31 |
| 13 | J. MILLER | Abel Motorsports w/ Miller Vinatieri Motorsports | 1:05.0959 | 0.8463 | 29 |
| 14 | S. MURRAY | Andretti Cape | 1:05.2044 | 0.9548 | 30 |
| 15 | T. SMITH | HMD Motorsports | 1:05.2344 | 0.9848 | 31 |
| 16 | L. SCEATS | HMD Motorsports | 1:05.3128 | 1.0632 | 30 |
| 17 | N. JOHNSON | HMD Motorsports | 1:05.3522 | 1.1026 | 30 |
| 18 | S. FLOERSCH | HMD Motorsports | 1:05.4310 | 1.1814 | 31 |
| 19 | B. ARON | HMD Motorsports | 1:05.7532 | 1.5036 | 32 |
| 20 | N. KOOLEN | Chip Ganassi Racing | 1:05.8664 | 1.6168 | 31 |
| 21 | H. DEEGAN | HMD Motorsports | 1:06.9573 | 2.7077 | 32 |
The 21 drivers will qualify at 1:30pm; you can catch the action on FS2, SiriusXM218, INDYCAR Radio Network and indycarlive.com (international).
