LEXINGTON, Ohio (Sunday, July 6, 2025) – Dennis Hauger stayed calm after an unexpected break Sunday and expanded his INDY NXT by Firestone championship lead with a victory in the Grand Prix at Mid-Ohio.
Hauger, from Norway, earned his fifth win in eight starts this season in the INDYCAR development series. His lead over fellow Andretti Global rookie Lochie Hughes grew to 47 points in the standings with six races remaining this season.
Pole sitter Hauger led every lap to beat Caio Collet’s No. 76 HMD Motorsports car to the finish by 3.3220 seconds to earn the 300th overall win across all series in Andretti Global’s rich history. Hughes placed third in the No. 26 McGinley Clinic/USF Pro Championship car.
“The team did an amazing job getting the balance for the race,” Hauger said. “Huge congrats on the 300th win, really cool to be a part of that history.”
Salvador de Alba placed fourth in the No. 27 Grupo Indi machine, the third Andretti Global car in the top four. Josh Pierson rounded out the top five in the No. 14 HMD Motorsports entry.
The race, originally scheduled for 35 laps, ended up being a timed race due to a massive crash between Andretti – Cape Motorsports teammates Ricardo Escotto and Sebastian Murray that triggered a red flag on Lap 5 for repairs of barrier damage caused by the impact.
Hauger pulled away from Collet on the start, building a gap of around one-half second. Then, Murray and Escotto were racing side-by-side on Lap 4 through the fast “kink” section of the track between Turns 3 and 4 on the 13-turn, 2.258-mile circuit when their wheels touched, hurling the No. 2 DREAM RACING DUBAI entry of Murray and the No. 3 Frank’s Red Hot car of Escotto into the barrier, with Murray going airborne.
Both cars suffered heavy damage, but neither driver was hurt. The remaining field returned to pit lane and climbed from their cars as facility crews and the INDYCAR AMR Safety Team needed approximately 37 minutes to make the major repairs.
Once the race resumed, Hauger again held off Collet. With 20 minutes remaining, Hauger led by seven-tenths of a second.
That margin grew to more than a second over the next few laps. Then with about six minutes remaining, Hauger dropped the hammer and padded his lead to two seconds. He kept the pace high until nearly the very end of the race, turning his quickest lap of the event on the third-to-last trip around the track.
“It was not easy; the first couple of laps were not the easiest,” Hauger said of the resumption of the race. “Once we got into a rhythm, it was just spot on. We just had a perfect race, so we’re happy about that.”
The next INDY NXT by Firestone race is Saturday, July 12 at Iowa Speedway, the second of four oval races on the 2025 schedule.
