Dennis Hauger Dominates, Leading Every Lap on the Way to Grand Prix of Mid-Ohio Victory

Norway’s Dennis Hauger continued his dominant 2025 campaign yesterday, starting on the Pole and leading every lap on the way to his fifth victory of the season in the Grand Prix of Mid-Ohio in the INDY NXT by Firestone Series. The win likely carried a little more weight than some of the others, as his victory was the 300th overall win for the Andretti Global racing organization. The victory was Hauger’s fifth victory in eight races on the season, and it allowed him to expand his lead in the Championship Standings to 47 points over fellow Andretti Global teammate Lochie Hughes.

The race got off to a wild start, as Andretti Cape Motorsports teammates Ricardo Escotto and Sebastian Murray were racing hard, side-by-side through the kink section of Turns 3 and 4 on Lap 4 when their wheels touched, sending both drivers hard into the wall, with Murray going airborne in the process. Despite the severity of the crash, both drivers were able to walk away from the crash without injury. The race was ultimately under a red flag for nearly 40 minutes while the AMR Safety Team made repairs to the affected part of the safety barrier and track. Once the red flag was lifted, the remaining portion of the race was timed, with a total of 33 of the originally scheduled 35 laps being run when it was all said and done.

When the green flag waived again, drivers were able to go back to racing, albeit in a much calmer fashion from there on out. Hauger ran strong and hard all race long, running his fastest lap of the race on Lap 31 and cruising to a 3.322 second victory over Caio Collet. Collet, who started and finished the day in second position, ran the fastest lap of the race, posting a time of 70.4168 seconds on his final circuit of the day. Hauger’s teammate, Lochie Hughes, started and finished the day in third position, continuing his streak of finishing inside the top five in all eight races so far in 2025. Salvador de Alba moved up one spot over the course of the race, locking in a fourth place finish, while Josh Pierson picked up another top five finish on the year, coming home in fifth position, 6.8225 seconds off the pace.

Also finishing in the top 10 were ABEL Motorsports teammates Callum Hedge in sixth place and Jordan Missig in seventh, rookies and HMD Motorsports teammates Juan Michael Correa and Evagoras Papasavvas in eighth and ninth place, respectively, and Myles Rowe, who was one of the biggest movers of the race, picking up three spots on the way to a tenth place finish.

The rest of the field finished as follows: Jack William Miller in 11th position, Bryce Aaron in 12th, James Roe in 13th, Niels Koolen (who also improved three positions during the race) in 14th, rookie Tommy Smith (who also improved three positions during the race) in 15th, Nolan Allaer in 16th, rookie Hailie Deegan in 17th and Sebastian Murray and Ricardo Escotto finishing in 18th and 19th, respectively, following their wreck. Besides Murray and Escotto, all other drivers finished on the lead lap and there were no other cautions for incident through the remainder of the race.

With six races remaining in the INDY NXT by Firestone season, Dennis Hauger holds a solid 47 point lead over his teammate, Lochie Hughes, in the Championship Standings. Caio Collet sits in third, 83 points back, Myles Rose is 135 points back in fourth place and Josh Pierson sits in fifth position, 147 points behind.

The INDY NXT by Firestone Series returns to oval track racing on Saturday, as it visits Iowa Speedway for the 2025 INDY NXT by Firestone at Iowa Speedway. Coverage can be seen on FS1, with green flag coverage beginning at 1:30 PM EST.