Written by Archie O’Reilly
For the 2024 Indy NXT field, the time has come for chapters to turn.
The end of the season marks new horizons for many, including already-confirmed champion Louis Foster. And how fitting it was that the 21-year-old Briton rounded out the year with a win at Nashville Superspeedway.
Foster finished no lower than second from the fourth round onwards and won eight of 11 races in that period. As he took the chequered flag in Tennessee, his championship-winning margin was confirmed at 122 points.
“I like the ovals,” Foster said after ensuring he had a 100 percent winning record on ovals in 2024. “I’ve got used to them in America. When I first came here, I was a little bit timid. I love them now. We’ve won every oval this year so it’s gone well.”
Rain meant the final qualifying session of the year could not be run so Foster inherited a seventh pole of his sophomore season - a 10th successive front-row start - courtesy of championship points. Also bowing out of Indy NXT, second-place championship finisher Jacob Abel was intended to start on the front row alongside Foster.
But disaster struck for Abel on the pace laps in his final race after three years with his family-run Abel Motorsports team. He peeled into the pits for a steering wheel change, meaning he started from the rear of the field, eventually recovering to finish eighth.
The race stayed largely incident-free until contact on Lap 52 between Jamie Chadwick and Jack William Miller, who was about to be lapped, ending Chadwick’s day and sending Miller several laps down. This brought Foster back into the clutches of a fast-charging Yuven Sundaramoorthy, who he had to fend off in the closing eight laps.
Foster ultimately led every lap for a sixth time in 2024, narrowly beating Abel Motorsports’ Sundaramoorthy. Caio Collet notched a first oval podium for HMD Motorsports in third.
DIVEBOMB presents the tales from the podium drivers following the season finale…
The battle for Nashville honours
At 1.33 miles, the Nashville Superspeedway was the longest oval that Indy NXT has raced on since the final running of the Freedom 100 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2019.
“I think this track forms in my mind quite similarly to Iowa,” Foster said. “If you just expand Iowa quite a bit, then flatten the banking slightly, put it on concrete, that’s kind of what Nashville is. We’re flat out there. With no traffic, you’d be flat the entire race for our cars.
“It does play into it with tyre wear - I think there was definitely some tyre saving during that race for us. The bump is not fun. I think usually issues arise in the bump from driver error or car setup error. I haven’t particularly showed it this weekend as much as other drivers have. If we were to come back here, it would be lovely to get that flattened.”
Late in the race, Foster was aware of the threat of Sundaramoorthy’s charge but knew keeping flat would make passing difficult for chasing driver. He admitted “a few moments of oversteer” meant it “wasn’t fun” but the champion was able to keep flat and hold on.
“It was nice to finish off with a win,” Foster said. “That was the aim this weekend. Super happy with the last two weeks, everything that’s gone on. Got my whole family here, my sponsors here - great to partner with them. Just super happy.”
Sundaramoorthy sensed he could have notched a maiden win but felt Foster did “a really good job” to break the draft.
“We had the best car in the field,” Sundaramoorthy said. “Abel Motorsports gave me a great car, did everything that I could, made as many passes on the start. I told Christian Rasmussen before the race I was sending it on the high line no matter what. That is what I did.
“I think we should have had Louis there at the end, but made the pass in the wrong corner. That is just how ovals go. You have to set it up 10 laps in advance and I didn't have those 10 laps to do it.”
Foster concludes “dream” title season
“They’ve become a family to me,” Foster said after visiting victory lane for one last celebration with his Andretti Global team after his two years in Indy NXT.
“They’ve been behind me since day one in the Chris Griffith test back in ‘22. We’ve put our heart and soul into this programme. It’s really paid off this year. We’ll look back at it very fondly.”
There have been plenty of highlights for Foster. His drive through the field to fifth at Barber Motorsports Park - with a car he “had no idea what it would do” - is one that he earmarks as “probably my favourite race in a very long time” after being plagued by electrical issues through practice and qualifying.
Wrapping up the championship with a win at the Milwaukee Mile was, of course, satisfying too.
“It was a dream come true for me,” Foster said in reflection, speaking two weeks on. “To finish it off with a win, it’s pretty special. We’ve been working at it for two years. It’s early mornings, late nights, training, everything that goes into it that no one else sees is what adds up on the track.
“I was quite emotional then - as emotional as I get. It was a great weekend. I enjoyed that week off, then this weekend was just come in, hope for the best, see what we can do. Thankfully we got a win.”
As drivers graduate from Indy NXT, it tends to mean the end of their developmental and junior careers. As they have journeyed towards across the entirety of their careers to date, now comes the bid to step up to the big league for the likes of Foster and Abel.
“I think it will sink in over the coming weeks, I imagine, as we go back to Indy and start the training for 2025,” Foster said of his feeder series road coming to a close. “At the moment it’s just excitement for the future, for what’s in store for me, for any opportunities that we get.
“I’m ready to hit the ground running in 2025 with whatever we can do. I hope for the best.”
Attention already turns to 2025
Foster recently told DIVEBOMB he is “80 percent” confident he will be in IndyCar next season. But as was the case those few weeks ago, there are yet to be any concrete developments as to where - or still if - he may land.
“It’s hard,” Foster said. “In the end, IndyCar is the top series in America, [has] some of the best drivers in the world. No matter whether there is a charter system [or] there isn’t, everyone wants to be there. There’s more drivers than cars.
“We’re working flat out to try to get a deal done. No news yet. I can’t tell you anything because there isn’t anything yet, at the end of the day. We’re working really, really hard. I’m hoping it will come together but I just don’t know.”
When pressed on whether the impending charter system could have an impact, Foster said to “ask me in six months” once the 2025 season has started.
But regardless of any uncertainty that remains over his future, Foster’s attention is already switching to readying himself for next year. That has been what he has worked tirelessly towards over the last two years in Indy NXT.
“I knew we had the pace to come over here and perform at a high level,” he said. “I knew that was our aspiration. Our aspiration wasn’t to run around in the middle of the pack, see what we could do. It was always to go in and win immediately…
“Hopefully that will help me get to the next step of the eventual dream of getting to IndyCar. When you get to IndyCar, day one: ‘Cool we’re here. What’s next?’ Getting in is one thing but it’s like: ‘Now I want to win a race, now I want to win a championship, win the 500.’
“It’s never ending. I’m always thinking about the next thing. We had good celebrations with this championship - it was amazing. Now I’m fully focused on trying to get into IndyCar and being best prepared for it if I get the opportunity.”
Sundaramoorthy reflects on 2024
Few drivers have had the same upwards trajectory and level of improvement that Sundaramoorthy has undergone this year. He finished 12th, 21st, 20th and 21st in the first four races, which he described as a “terrible” start.
“After Detroit is where it all clicked,” Sundaramoorthy said. “It’s a slow track where you really have to feel the road. That’s where it was for me. I figured out what the car is, I figured out how the car mechanically drives. Besides that, you’re just driving to the downforce.
“From there, it was all on the up and up. I think Laguna, that was a great result - should have been a podium. On the up and up from there. Again, with the ovals, it kind of was the same trajectory: learning, learning, learning.”
Having a title-challenger as a teammate was a big help. Sundaramoorthy had been joking with Abel that he had not had “one timed session that I finished in front” but saw the positives in the data he had at his disposal to learn from a front-running car.
He has a two-year deal with the Abel Motorsports team so wants to “be that car for Abel” and lead the team forward in 2025 after a “learning year” in 2024.
“I tried my best to not set any expectations for myself,” Sundaramoorthy said. “I really tried to go in with just a completely open mind because obviously these cars are two times the amount of downforce I’ve ever driven before, two times the amount of horsepower.
“My expectations were a little higher after the first couple races which didn’t go my way. Overall after those first four races, I’m super happy with how it ended up now. I think I’ve had a chance to podium at all of the last four or five races.
“I made mistakes that didn’t quite go my way. I think next year that means that we have a chance to get some wins. I really feel like I’ve always figured out the tracks after qualifying. I’ve been racing well, fast laps in racing… just qualifying in the back. Hopefully next year that means I can qualify a little further forward.”
Collet gearing up to go again
Having finished as Indy NXT Rookie of the Year this season after moving over from FIA Formula 3, Mid-Ohio winner Collet is another driver confirmed to return for 2025.
He has also been reserve driver for Nissan’s Formula E team in 2024 but nothing is confirmed on that side yet for next year. So Collet’s “full priority” is a sophomore season in Indy NXT with the “incredibly supportive” HMD Motorsports team.
“I think there were a lot of mistakes from my side at the beginning of the year,” he said in evaluation of his rookie season. “I think at the street and road courses we showed a strong package, especially the second half of the season.
“I think there are for sure little things I need to clean up ahead of 2025. Obviously the ovals for me were a big learning curve. I’m happy to finish off in a strong way. For sure there’s a lot of work to do. We need to improve I think as a team ahead of ‘25. But just looking forward to put my head down and start working on the championship hunt.”
Collet was caught up in incidents in his first two oval races at Iowa Speedway and World Wide Technology Raceway. But building on an eighth-place finish at the Milwaukee Mile, he held onto his third-place Nashville starting spot - courtesy of championship points - for a first oval podium having never driven on an oval before 2024.
“I think the first two were quite tough,” he said. “I learned that the hard way - facing the wall was not really pretty. I think it ended up quite strong as we did today shows that we learned and are on the right track. Hopefully for next year we can continue.
“It is a whole different game. I think the racing, everything that involves the oval, how you qualify… I think there’s a lot of details. I think you have to treat it separately compared to a road course. For sure there’s a lot of things that I still need to learn.”
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