Photo credit: Chris Owens | Penske Entertainment

Dennis Hauger took advantage of starting at the front of the field to take victory in the Indy NXT season opener on the Streets of St. Petersburg for Andretti, becoming the first driver from Norway to win a race in series history.

He took the win ahead of reigning USF Pro 2000 champion and fellow Andretti driver Lochie Hughes, who finished second in his Indy NXT debut race.

Before the race kicked off, Liam Sceats ended up spending time on pit road because of an issue which had him drop from his fifth starting position on the grid. He eventually re-joined the field 11 laps down.

On the opening lap, HMD Motorsports’s Tommy Smith made contact with Andretti’s James Roe, who was hit by a sliding Chip Ganassi Racing car driven by Niels Koolen to bring out the first caution of the morning. While Smith and Roe eventually went on to continue for now, Koolen ended up out of the race.

Hauger’s pace throughout the opening stages of the race was consistently strong. He set the fastest lap of the race on three consecutive laps in a row from lap five to lap seven.

The next caution came out on lap 10 for the next time when Roe found himself overshooting turn 10 and landing into the wall, in a crash which potentially had to do with the damage he had following his previous incident.

As the race progressed following the restart, ABEL Motorsport’s Myles Rowe began to put pressure on his former teammate Caio Collet. As their battle progressed, it was interrupted on lap 21 when HMD’s Nolan Allaer ended up in the wall.

Collet was able to build his gap back in front of Rowe as the race progressed and the top ten spread out from each other in the closing stages of the race. Due to the number of cautions, the race was also transitioned to a timed finish which cut the race short by around three laps. The race was ended following a caution where ABEL’s Jack William Miller went into the wall.

Hauger, holding off Hughes, took the win. Collet rounded off the podium, with Rowe sitting in fourth behind. Andretti’s Salvador de Alba rounded out the top five. HMD’s Josh Pierson, despite starting at the rear of the field, moved his way up in an impressive day where he landed in tenth.

Unofficial results: