With only five rounds left of the 2024 season in Indy NXT, it could be the end of a chapter as Andretti Global’s Louis Foster and Jamie Chadwick look at a potential graduation next year to the IndyCar Series.
Foster, a 20-year-old Briton, is the current championship leader by a sizable 41 points over rival Jacob Abel (286-245) and has won four of the last six races, in combination with two runner-up results.
One of Foster’s second-place finishes came at the hands of Chadwick, who went flag-to-flag from pole to capture a thrilling race win at Road America last month, becoming only the third woman to win in Indy NXT (following Ana Beatriz and Pippa Mann) and first since 2010 (Mann, Kentucky Speedway).
While the outing stands as Chadwick’s only win to date, she also scored a podium on the Indianapolis Road Course in May and has been frontrunner in numerous races before random clashes negated strong runs. The 26-year-old Englishwoman sits sixth in the championship, but only one point behind Reece Gold in fifth (212-211).
Andretti Global COO Rob Edwards shared his thoughts on their respective progressions, beginning with Foster.
“First of all, we’re thrilled with both of them,” Edwards told Motorsport.com. “I think Louis was torn very much between doing another year of Indy NXT or jumping to IndyCar; trying to find the right opportunity in IndyCar for 2024.
“Not just because he’s winning a lot of races for us, but I think having worked with him now for the last year-and-a-half, he’s a much more complete driver and a lot better prepared to be successful in IndyCar than he would have been after one year in Indy NXT. And for me, he is 100% deserving of getting an opportunity next year.”
And then Edwards went into detail on Chadwick’s improvements and where things stand moving forward.
“On Jamie, huge progress this year,” Edwards said, of the three-time W Series champion. “We have always tried to position that program as we hired her because we believe in her as a driver. Period.
“And I think if you look at the gains she made from last year to this year, she’s made fantastic gains.”
While Edwards expressed how impressed he was over Chadwick’s win at Road America, the racecraft and passing ability displayed at Laguna Seca, namely in the second race when she drove from 14th to sixth, was an equally strong effort.
“Obviously, the win at Road America got a lot of attention, as it should have, but I looked at her drive Sunday at Laguna Seca and for me that was every bit as strong and mature, worthy of recognition as the win at Road America,” Edwards said.
“To battle up from where she qualified to where she finished, passing cars at a track that is tough to pass, and her decision-making and everything else was really impressive. In her case, there is a lot of momentum there. I’m sure there’ll be a push and opportunities to do IndyCar next year.
“I also think that if she needed to do Indy NXT again for another year and then find the right opportunity in IndyCar, then I think that would be a good thing as well. We’re hugely invested in her being successful in that arena and I think has shown over what we’ve been doing over the last year-and-a-half.
“Supportive over whatever her and her group decide to do. But I think that it is important that, whatever she does, if she’s in IndyCar in 2025, then it’s with the right team and the right group that could make sure it’s a success.
“I would hate to see her in IndyCar in an environment or in a situation where it isn’t set up for her to be successful. She does herself so proud with what she does in and out of the car and she obviously gets a lot of recognition for what she’s doing. Motor racing is a fickle business and it’s all about perception and what have you done recently.
“It’s very important to Michael (Andretti, Andretti Global CEO), J-F (Thormann, Andretti Global President) and all of us that she keeps moving forward. If that’s in IndyCar in 2025, great, but if it’s in 2026 when there is a better opportunity for her, then that’ll be great as well.”
Should either or both drivers step up to IndyCar, it is highly unlikely Andretti Global would expand to a fourth entry to accommodate the endeavor.
The team downsized its full-time IndyCar operation to three entries over the offseason, with improved consistency shown as a result, namely with Colton Herta and Kyle Kirkwood, who sit fifth and sixth, respectively in the championship standings.
“We’re running three cars because we believe that’s the right model,” Edwards said. “If you look at ourselves, McLaren, Penske, that seems to be a model and certainly for us this year we’ve been stronger being three cars.
“The ongoing conversations about the charters and so on, it may be that three becomes a natural cap. What we’ve tried to do with Indy NXT drivers is if we had a home for them, like Kyle or Colton, then that’s great and proof of the system working, but if we don’t have a home for them then we think it’s part of someone being an Indy NXT driver for our team to help them find the right opportunity; be part of the process and guide them with no self-motivation, if you will, is generally just try and make sure that they end up in situation that they can.
“Be that Louis, Jamie, those that have come before or those that will come after. I think that’s how we’ll continue to work with our NXT drivers in terms of helping them find opportunities.”
