By: INDY NXT BY FIRESTONE (Photo Courtesy INDYCAR)
PORTLAND, Ore. (Saturday, Aug. 24, 2024) – The beat goes on for Louis Foster – quickly, as usual.
Foster continued his march toward the INDY NXT by Firestone championship Saturday by winning the pole for the Grand Prix of Portland with a top time of 1 minute, 2.1396 seconds in the No. 26 Copart/Novara Technologies car fielded by Andretti Global. Foster broke the track record he set by winning the pole last year with the quickest trip around the 12-turn, 1.964-mile road course in three sessions this weekend – all led by Foster.
“Turn 1 is just absolutely bananas here,” Foster said. “My goal this weekend, honestly, was just to get through Turn 1 safely. And the best way to do that is to sit on pole. Happy to have done that.”
Coverage of the 35-lap race starts at 1:15 p.m. ET Sunday on Peacock and the INDYCAR Radio Network. Championship leader Foster has won six of the last eight races this season in the INDYCAR development series.
This was the fifth pole of the season for Foster. It’s also the ninth of his two-season career in INDY NXT, tying him for sixth on the all-time list. The last driver to win as many poles in a season as Foster was current Chip Ganassi Racing NTT INDYCAR SERIES driver Linus Lundqvist, who took six top spots en route to the INDY NXT title in 2022.
Foster, from England, leads the standings by 91 points over Jacob Abel and needs to expand that gap to 108 points after the race Sunday to clinch the title. There are only three races remaining this season.
Brazilian rookie Caio Collet was runner-up to Foster for the third straight session this weekend, qualifying second at 1:02.2922 in the No. 18 HMD Motorsports car. But Collet will start eighth in the race due to a six starting-spot penalty for blocking and avoidable contact in an incident with Jamie Chadwick in the race last Saturday at World Wide Technology Raceway.
Abel qualified third at 1:02.4418 in the No. 51 Abel Construction car fielded by Abel Motorsports, followed by James Roe at 1:02.7614 in the No. 29 Topcon machine of Andretti Global.
Reece Gold qualified fifth at 1:02.6777 in the No. 10 HMD Motorsports. Yuven Sundaramoorthy will join him in the third row after qualifying sixth at 1:02.8024 in the No. 22 S Team Motorsports/Abel Motorsports machine.
Qualifying Saturday for the INDY NXT by Firestone Grand Prix of Portland INDY NXT by Firestone event on the 1.964-mile Portland International Raceway, with starting position, car number in parentheses, driver, time and speed in parentheses:
- (26) Louis Foster, 01:02.1396 (113.783 mph)
- (18) Caio Collet, 01:02.2922 (113.504)
- (51) Jacob Abel, 01:02.4418 (113.232)
- (29) James Roe, 01:02.7614 (112.655)
- (10) Reece Gold, 01:02.6777 (112.806)
- (22) Yuven Sundaramoorthy, 01:02.8024 (112.582)
- (27) Bryce Aron, 01:02.7034 (112.759)
- (39) Christian Brooks, 01:02.9221 (112.368)
- (2) Salvador de Alba Jr., 01:02.7589 (112.660)
- (28) Jamie Chadwick, 01:02.9800 (112.264)
- (14) Josh Pierson, 01:02.8103 (112.568)
- (23) Jonathan Browne, 01:03.0204 (112.192)
- (17) Callum Hedge, 01:02.9215 (112.369)
- (7) Christian Bogle, 01:03.1768 (111.915)
- (99) Myles Rowe, 01:02.9686 (112.285)
- (40) Jack William Miller, 1:04.0255 (110.431)
- (76) Ricardo Escotto, 01:03.3829 (111.551)
