Rookie Louis Foster Hopes to Celebrate His 22nd Birthday Sunday with a Strong Run in No. 45 RLL Droplight Honda at Laguna Seca
Foster Has One Pole Position and Impressive Qualifying Showings in his Rookie Campaign
By: Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (Photo Courtesy RLLR)
MONTEREY, Calif. (July 24, 2025) – This Sunday (July 27), rookie racer Louis Foster hopes to celebrate his 22nd birthday by standing on the victory podium (top three) in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES Java House Grand Prix of Monterey at the WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.
And the driver of the No. 45 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Droplight Honda has high expectations for Sunday’s 95-lap main event on the legendary 2.238-mile, 11-turn road circuit after recent top qualifying runs at Indianapolis, Road America (pole position), Mid-Ohio and Toronto Indy. And a strong finish in Sunday’s event would be the icing on his birthday cake.
There are reasons Foster has optimism as he enters the 14th stop in the 17-race NTT INDYCAR SERIES North America tour after a solid INDYCAR test run in December and double victories last year in the INDY NXT races at the famed road course.
“I love WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca,” said Foster. “My second (INDYCAR) test with RLL was there last December. I like the track and the area. It’s a fun track and hard to get right. It’s a quite high commitment circuit as well. I think we should be good there. We’ve been really fast on the road courses.
“On the street courses, we’ve been good, not great, but on the road courses we’ve had some really strong pace. We’ll see what happens when we get there but I don’t see a reason why we shouldn’t be fighting for more appearances in the (Firestone) Fast Six in qualifying.”
The Rahal Letterman Lanigan team has a lengthy history at the historic road course including Bobby Rahal’s four consecutive NTT INDYCAR SERIES wins from 1984-1987. Rahal also clinched his third INDYCAR Championship at Laguna Seca in 1992. Bryan Herta won twice there (1998-1999) and Max Papis once (2001).
Foster is now in a battle for the NTT INDYCAR SERIES “Rookie of the Year” honors as he is tied with Robert Shwartzman for the rookie points lead. This weekend’s race will be important for that coveted crown and Foster is ready to go.
“Obviously, I’m thinking about that in the back of my head and where Robert is in relation to my standings,” Foster said. “If we’re having a bad race but I’m still ahead of him, I’m thinking ‘well at least there is that.’ At the end of the day, it’s definitely something we want to win, but I feel like it’s something that with the pace that we’ve had shouldn’t really be a question. We’re focusing a lot higher than that right now. We’re looking at the big picture, but we want to make sure we finish the races and wrap that up.”
This weekend at Laguna Seca, Foster will team up with RLL drivers Graham Rahal in the No. 15 RLL WWEX Honda and Devlin DeFrancesco in the No. 30 RLL MI-Jack Honda.
The Java House Grand Prix of Monterey race weekend starts with the NTT INDYCAR SERIES machines on track on Friday at 2 p.m. PDT with a practice session. The second practice round takes place on Saturday at 8:30 a.m. PDT followed by qualifying and the Firestone Fast Six at 11:30 a.m. PDT. Sunday’s 95-lap feature race is set at 12 p.m. PDT. The 212-mile event will air live on FOX, the FOX Sports app and the INDYCAR Radio Network.
