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Indy NXT St. Petersburg: Nolan Siegel wins season opener

Siegel led from pole, going wheel to wheel with Jacob Abel at Turn 1, but the Californian HMD Motorsports driver just held on to his advantage.

Leading rookie Myles Rowe (HMD with Force Indy) ran third on the opening lap from Louis Foster, Michael d’Orlando, Reece Gold, Caio Collet and Bryce Aron.

Gold was given a three-place penalty for shifting lanes before the start, dropping him from fifth to eighth.

Jamie Chadwick was running tenth but then fell to the tail of the field before the end of the opening lap after being turfed off at the last corner by Josh Pierson, who was penalized for his late move.

During her recovery drive, Chadwick later hit the wall at Turn 2 after a side-by-side moment with Niels Koolen went awry and she was forced to pit for suspension repairs. Koolen also had a pit a few laps later as his head surround came loose and popped out, getting jammed into his car’s halo.

Siegel extended his lead over Abel to 1.8s, as Foster got around Rowe at Turn 10 on lap 4.

Andretti Global’s Foster quickly closed on Abel’s family-run car, as Rowe fell backwards towards a charging Collet, who rose to fifth during the opening exchanges.

Siegel got the hammer down, extending his lead to 4s by half distance, while Abel resisted Foster’s designs on his runner-up spot.

Collet exited fifth place following a huge high-speed spin at Turn 12 with 15 laps to go, dropping him to 11th. Two laps later, Aron crashed out of sixth position at Turn 10, causing a full-course caution that eradicated Siegel’s 6.6s lead.

The race restarted with nine laps to go, with Siegel leading Abel, Foster, Rowe, d’Orlando and Gold. Rookie d’Orlando passed Rowe into Turn 4 just before the race went yellow again as Jack William Miller had whacked the wall exiting Turn 3 and his car required recovery from the Turn 4 runoff.

It restarted again just two laps later, as Siegel pulled clear once more and Abel and Foster duelled over second. Rowe ran wide at Turn 1 and tumbled back from fifth to seventh. The recovering Collet demoted Rowe further with a forceful move at Turn 4 to snatch seventh for himself.

Siegel won the 45-lap race by 1.4s from Abel. Foster came under pressure from d’Orlando, who is on a race-by-race deal with Andretti Cape, in the closing stages but clung on to the final spot on the podium.

D’Orlando had to settle for fourth, ahead of Gold, Ireland’s Jonathan Browne, who finished sixth on his series debut, Collet and Rowe.

Pos  Driver   Entrant   Laps   Time   Gap/Retirement 
1 39  Nolan Siegel HMD Motorsports 45 52'49.3943  
2 51  Jacob Abel Abel Motorsports 45 52'50.7902 1.3959
3 26  Louis Foster Andretti Global 45 52'51.2111 1.8168
4 3  M.D'Orlando Andretti Cape INDY NXT 45 52'51.9423 2.5480
5 10  Reece Gold HMD Motorsports 45 52'53.8521 4.4578
6 23  Jonathan Browne HMD Motorsports 45 52'57.3574 7.9631
7 18  Caio Collet HMD Motorsports 45 52'57.7724 8.3781
8 99  Myles Rowe HMD Motorsports 45 52'59.3848 9.9905
9 2  Salvador de Alba Andretti Cape INDY NXT 45 53'01.1506 11.7563
10 7  Christian Bogle HMD Motorsports 45 53'01.7474 12.3531
11 17  Callum Hedge HMD Motorsports 45 53'04.3330 14.9387
12 22  Y.Sundaramoorthy Abel Motorsports 45 53'05.0663 15.6720
13 14  Josh Pierson HMD Motorsports 45 53'05.6183 16.2240
14 11  Nolan Allaer HMD Motorsports 45 53'09.8498 20.4555
15 76  Lindsay Brewer Juncos Hollinger Racing 42 53'24.5177 3 laps /35.1234
16 29  James Roe Andretti Global 41 53'14.2171 4 laps /24.8228
17 21  Josh Mason Abel Motorsports 38 48'20.2954 7 laps
18 40  J.W.Miller Miller Vinatieri Motorsports 36 42'08.2303 Contact
19 27  Bryce Aron Andretti Global 31 34'11.9334 Contact
20 28  Jamie Chadwick Andretti Global 21 53'19.4762 24 laps /30.0819
21 33  Niels Koolen HMD Motorsports 12 14'16.4340 Mechanical
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