Season report
Opening rounds
The 2024 Indy NXT season began with 21 cars at St. Petersburg, where HMD's Nolan Siegel took pole position ahead of Abel Motorsports' Jacob Abel. [46] Abel tried to attack Siegel at the start, but the latter was quickly able to build up a gap. Two caution periods caused by Andretti's Bryce Aron and Miller Vinatieri's Jack William Miller nullified Siegel's advantage, but he was faultless at both restarts and took the win. Andretti's Louis Foster started fourth, but quickly got by his teammate James Roe Jr. into third. He put pressure on Abel for second throughout the race, but could not find a way past him. Multiple drivers brushed walls or collided with each other, only 14 cars finished the race. [47]
After leading both practice sessions at Barber Motorsports Park, Abel continued his pace in qualifying to take pole position. Siegel was in second in a reverse of the first round's grid. [48] The top two remained unchanged at the start and through an early caution period called when Abel's teammate Yuven Sundaramoorthy stopped on track. The leading pair then gapped the field, with Siegel attempting moves multiple times, but unable to make them stick. Roe Jr. held off HMD's Caio Collet to come third. With a win each, Abel and Siegel were now the joint championship leaders. Foster - who overcame car problems to rise from 21st on the grid to fifth in the race - was third, 29 points behind. [49]
Abel continued his one-lap pace at Indianapolis to take both pole positions for the double-header. [50] Having taken his and his teams' maiden win at Mid-Ohio, Abel immediately doubled up at the next race: He made a great start, leaving Collet and Foster to fight over second, and went unchallenged until the finish. Behind him, a collision between Foster and Collet took out the Brazilian, before Siegel got involved. He made a move past Foster that broke the Brit's nose cone and forced him to pit. Two more late cautions allowed Foster to recover to seventh, while his teammate Jamie Chadwick avoided the carnage to claim third. Abel now led Siegel by 14 points, with Foster a further 44 behind. [51]
The second race at Indianapolis began four cars wide into the first turn, with Collet taking the lead from Abel and Foster and Chadwick slotting in behind. While Collet controlled the opening part of the race, Foster began putting pressure on Abel and passed him to move into second. By the halfway point, Foster was on Collet's tail. He attacked him into turn one, ran wide and had to let off before he was able to try again, this time managing to claim the lead. Abel quickly followed past Collet, but could not trouble Foster's lead. With Siegel in fifth, Abel grew his lead to 24 points. Foster's win saw him close up his gap to the top two to 23 points. [52]
The Detroit Street Circuit hosted round five, and Foster topped both practice sessions before taking pole position. [53] Abel started alongside him, but lost out to Collet at the start. The narrow track soon claimed its first victims, with Foster having to manage three caution periods. Abel started struggling for pace in the second half of the race. Cape's Michael d'Orlando started pressuring him before putting on a move, causing a collision that saw Abel drop to fifth behind the HMD pair of Callum Hedge and Myles Rowe. Siegel had a technical problem that saw him start the race multiple laps behind. He finished 18th, which allowed Foster to take second in the standings, 25 points behind Abel. [54]
Mid-season rounds
Road America was up next, where Chadwick claimed her maiden pole position. [55] She held her lead over Foster at the start, before Abel moved into second in the first exchange of blows of a race-long battle between the championship leaders. Two caution periods followed, with Abel pressuring Chadwick at the first restart but not finding a way past. Foster then moved back into second, but was similarly unable to pass Chadwick. A late red flag set up a two-lap dash to the finish: Abel and Foster battled, leaving Chadwick to take the first Indy NXT win by a woman since Pippa Mann in 2010. Foster held off Abel in a photo finish to reduce his championship points gap to 20. [56]
Foster claimed both pole positions for the Laguna Seca double-header. [57] Collet started the first race in second place and seemed to have a slightly better start, but Foster exited the first turn in the lead. An early safety car caused by HMD's Reece Gold retiring in the gravel also offered no opportunity for Collet to trouble Foster. The Brit then went on to gap the field, finishing eight seconds clear. After battling Abel all race before finally getting past, Sundaramoorthy was on course to finish third before making contact with a backmarker on the final lap. He limped across the line on three wheels, allowing Abel back into third to deny Foster the championship lead, with the pair now equal on points. [58]
The second race of the weekend proceeded in very similar fashion, as Foster's pace continued to be a step above the rest of the field. Collet started second again and remained unable to threaten Foster. A spin by Hedge caused a caution period halfway through the race, but Foster controlled the restart and went on to complete his weekend sweep. Joint championship leader Abel's race was more troubled: he started third behind Gold and fought him all race before the pair made contact to send Gold airborne. This saw Aron get into third, before Abel was handed a drive-through penalty that dropped him to eleventh. Foster's faultless weekend meant he now held a 35-point lead. [59]
Mid-Ohio hosted round ten, and a repaving meant Collet not only took pole position, but also set a new lap record. [60] A four-car incident interrupted the start of the race when Abel's Jordan Missig and Aron collided with Chadwick and Miller. Collet controlled both the initial start and the subsequent restart to stay clear of Foster. The only threat to his win, albeit only a slight one, came when Foster closed up to him after both had to lap a backmarker. Collet remained faultless to claim his maiden win, six seconds ahead. Foster and Abel had similarly quiet races to round out the podium, with Foster thereby extending his points lead to 40. [61]
Iowa hosted the season's first oval race. Roe Jr. took pole position before the event was shortened by 20 laps after concerns about high tire wear arose in practice. [62] [63] Roe held onto his lead until the race was interrupted by a heavy crash between Collet and Rowe. The ensuing caution period lasted for almost half the race, and when racing resumed, multiple battles broke out. Roe and Foster broke away from the pack while Chadwick had to defend her third place and Abel had to retire with a flat tire. Foster managed to take the lead, while Chadwick lost out to Cape's Salvador de Alba before dropping down the order. A late caution then froze the order, with Foster growing his points lead to 77. [64]
Closing rounds
The next race at Gateway saw Foster return to the top spot in qualifying with his first oval pole position. [65] The first retirement of the race came before it even started when Miller collided with the cars in front as the start formation built up. The atrition continued, with the first caution already thrown after just half a lap. On the subsequent restart, Foster pulled away while Chadwick and Collet battled behind him, only to crash and cause another interruption. This saw Abel move into second, but he also had nothing in hand to fight Foster, who remained unchallenged throughout the rest of the race. Sundaramoorthy took his maiden podium in third, while Foster was now 90 points ahead of Abel. [66]
The final road course race of 2024 at Portland saw Foster take pole position number five of the year. [67] Abel had to outscore Foster to stay mathematically in championship contention, and seized his opportunity right at the first turn to claim the lead. A caution was then called when JHR's Ricardo Escotto rear-ended Roe Jr.'s car. That brought Foster back onto Abel's tail, but he was unable to move ahead. Foster continued pressuring Abel throughout the rest of the race, but the American drove without mistakes to stay in the lead. Aron claimed third, and the championship remained open going into the penultimate race with 79 points between Foster and Abel. [68]
The penultimate race of the season at Milwaukee had Foster take another pole position. [69] Foster only needed to finish inside the top six to seal his championship, but he did not put a single foot wrong all race. He controlled the start as his only rival Abel slipped down the order from alongside him, controlled a mid-race restart ahead of Chadwick and de Alba and led every lap of the race on the way to the championship title. De Alba and Chadwick were overtaken by Abel later in the race, but the American was unable to close up to Foster. He had to be content with second both in the race and in the standings as Foster now had an unsurmountable 92-point lead. [70]
The season finale saw Indy NXT return to the Nashville Superspeedway for the first time since 2008. The qualifying session was rained off, so newly crowned champion Foster started the race from pole position. Abel was to start alongside him, but had a technical problem on the warm-up laps and had to start from the back. Collet and HMD's Christian Brooks were next in the order, but they fought among themselves and allowed Foster to stretch away. Sundaramoorthy spent the opening part rising from eleventh to second before attacking Foster on a restart after Miller and Chadwick collided. Foster was able to hold Sundaramoorty off to round out his dominant season with an eighth win. [71]
Foster took a couple of races to bed himself into his sophomore Indy NXT season, but as soon as he started winning races, he never finished outside the top two positions. With Siegels mid-season graduation to IndyCar, the title fight quickly narrowed down to a duel between Abel and Foster, and Foster had the upper hand at almost every track. As four of the last five races were at ovals, a discipline where Abel had more experience, a resurgence for Abel seemed on the cards. But Foster silenced his doubters by winning every oval race and leading every lap at all but one of them. The Indy NXT series continued its growth, with 21 cars competing at the opening five rounds, a car count last seen in 2009.
Louis Foster 
Andretti Global 
Caio Collet 
