Photo credit: James Black | Penske Entertainment

Dennis Hauger‘s fantastic Indy NXT start for Andretti has continued onward into the second race weekend of the season, as he took victory at Barber Motorsports Park on Sunday afternoon in dominant fashion.

“We had a good start,” Hauger said. “After that, it was sort of just trying to take care of the rear tires and not push too much.”

Hauger utilized fantastic jumps on multiple restarts to stay ahead of HMD’s Caio Collet, who spent the first part of the race in second position before falling back due to an incident and eventually retiring. The main story on the podium however might be Collet’s teammate who took his second spot, Evagoras Papasavvas, who secured a podium on his debut at 17 years of age.

Papasavvas took the weekend by storm when he put his car on the second row during qualifying, sitting second in the faster group and getting the privilege to start behind Hauger on race day. Keeping his cool, he stuck in front of more experienced drivers such as Andretti’s Lochie Hughes and ABEL’s Myles Rowe to hang onto his second position and run competitive times throughout the race.

“Second place, even if it’s not my debut, is still great,” Papasavvas said. “It’s unbelievable, I never expected anything like this on my debut coming from USF2000.”

The first caution during the race was thrown on the opening lap when ABEL’s Callum Hedge found himself stuck off the course as drivers jousted in the opening position. A brief caution was brought out as well as the second caution.

Hauger’s win marks the first time a series rookie has won his first two races since Ed Jones in 2015. It’ll extend his points gap to well over 20 points heading into next weekend’s race in Indianapolis. He also set the fastest lap of the race with two laps to go, setting a 1:12.841.

Behind Hauger and Papasavvas, Hughes picked up the final podium spot. Rowe finished four and HMD’s Josh Pierson finished behind.

HMD’s Max Taylor had another incredible drive, overcoming a penalty for causing an incident to drive from 17th to 7th in his debut as well.

UNOFFICIAL RESULTS: