Photo credit: Joe Skibinski | Penske Entertainment

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Immediately after Dennis Hauger got off the track for his first Indy NXT test with Andretti at Indianapolis Motor Speedway last weekend, the Norweigan smiled from ear to ear with excitement.

“It’s all quite new,” Hauger told IndyCar Media after the Indianapolis test. “Even for (the) race weekend, it’s a bit different than what I’m used to. Even just the basic stuff, like the rolling starts.”

Hauger showed record-matching pace for a series rookie in his first test. Only Hunter McElrea and Oliver Askew have been able to place their cars in the top two at the Indianapolis test as rookies since 2017. Hauger found himself just over one tenth off of ABEL’s Myles Rowe for the top spot.

Being at a track like Indianapolis is something Hauger had looked forward to for a long time.

“(It’s) always been a dream of mine to come here, even just to watch,” Hauger said. “To be on the track driving, even though it’s not the oval, it’s awesome. And to do that with Andretti is a dream come true.”

The next weekend, Hauger put in another good performance at Barber Motorsports Park when he set down the ninth-fastest time of the day on a new track for the 21-year old. The result was impressive in particular as Hauger only ran 39 laps compared to the 80 or more each of his teammates ran. Despite this, Hauger still remained within a few tenths of his teammates.

See the full results from Barber here.

Indianapolis and Barber are two tracks that Hauger will face early in the season. They’re the second and third races on the calendar. That’s after he races on the street circuit in St. Petersburg, Florida at the start of March.

Hauger carries more street circuit experience than most into this season. In 2024 alone, he won the FIA Formula 2 sprint race at Jeddah and landed a podium at Monaco.

Where Hauger doesn’t carry experience is on ovals. Ovals pack the latter half of the Indy NXT season with three of the six races being at them, and Hauger likely will not have the chance to test on them until 2025.

However, in the meantime, he’s making it count where he’s comfortable.