How rookie Foster achieved a memorable first IndyCar pole
- Archie O’Reilly
- 5 hours ago
- 6 min read
Louis Foster could not quite muster the words to do justice what he had just achieved.
On only his ninth weekend in the big league, the Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (RLL) rookie became an IndyCar pole-sitter at the famed Road America.
“It’s crazy,” he said. “I don’t know… I don’t really know what to say. Obviously massive thank you to the team. They’ve done an amazing job. I guess it’s the moustache [being shaved]. I don’t know, man.”
The Briton, who was dominant champion in Indy NXT last year, admitted to struggling somewhat throughout practice at Elkhart Lake. And even on his final lap in the group phase of qualifying, an error left him on the bubble.
But the lap he had on the board was laudably good enough that he scraped through into the Fast 12 in sixth place.
“When we got through to the Fast 12, I was surprised because I messed up my lap,” Foster admitted. “I did my first banker lap. We were only doing one push lap with the reds because of the heat. You get one chance every time.
“I come into the last corner - but the first corner of the timing line, Turn 14 - I lost two-and-a-half tenths. I knew the lap was done. At that point, I was pretty convinced I wasn’t going to make it through to the Fast 12. Luckily, my first lap was just enough to make it through.
“When I went out, the car was really good. We didn’t touch a lot. We changed wing a little bit. For me, it was about having a consistent balance throughout the runs to be able to optimise my driving.”
Having transferred by a fine margin, Foster headed into the Fast 12 not feeling entirely confident again. Thought even turned to conserving the softer alternate tyres but the team maintained belief in their young driver.
“I said to the guys: ‘I don’t think I have the car to make it through the Fast Six. Do you want throw some used tyres on and maybe get a spot or two and see how it goes?’” Foster recalled. “They were confident in the ability of the car and myself to be able to push into the Fast Six, which obviously was the right call in the end.”
Going into the Fast Six, once again conserving alternate tyres was top of mind given the guaranteed top-six start. And Foster ran the pole shootout on used tyres, meaning gunning for a maiden P1 Award felt a distant prospect.
But the Briton delivered a magical 4.014 miles and still managed to oust runaway championship leader and three-time champion Álex Palou by over a tenth-of-a-second.
“Top-six starting spot for us is awesome alone,” Foster said. “We just ran out, did the out-lap and pushed on the used reds. By the time I went through Turn 1, I was about two-tenths up, then maintained that throughout the lap, gained about a tenth or so in a couple corners.
“The reds held on really, really well, clearly. Still a little bit in shock.”
Like the vast majority of drivers, Foster relishes the challenge of the idyllic Road America circuit. But since deviating to the North American open-wheel ladder, it was a rare track where the former USF Pro 2000 and Indy NXT champion had not taken a pole.
He has won once in four attempts - his first-ever visit in Pro 2000 in 2022 - but has not performed quite to his lofty standards.
“I was saying to the team before this weekend it’s not a track I’ve tended to have great success,” Foster explained. “I have always been okay here; I was second last year in Indy NXT. The year before I had an okay result [with sixth].
“To get the monkey off my back with this track is great.”
Foster is coming off the back of the two biggest crashes of his career to date. He was on course for possible top 10 results in Detroit, when he was taken out by a suspension failure, and then at Gateway, when he struck the wall in Turn 4 and was collected heavily by Josef Newgarden.
The Detroit accident and impact into the rear of Felix Rosenqvist saw that chassis pierced. But incredibly, the car that was essentially T-boned by Newgarden was repaired for Foster to take pole position the following race - only six days later.
“The boys have been working their asses off, I’ll be honest,” Foster said. “Massive props to the 45 boys. They needed this [result] to push themselves through the summer stretch. All credit to them because they worked endlessly these last two weeks. They’ve rebuilt the car twice.”
Foster’s teammate Graham Rahal qualified sixth, making the Fast Six for a third successive road-or-street course race. It was a second front-row start for the team in that stretch, with Rahal starting second on the Indianapolis road course - when Foster also started third.
It was a much-needed rebound from a disastrous Gateway, where not only did Foster and Devlin DeFrancesco have incidents, but Rahal was off the pace and finished seven laps down. The team pulled together and rallied as a collective.
“Absolutely massive,” Foster reacted. “Teamwork is really the key for us at Rahal Letterman Lanigan. As soon as Graham finished his group stage, he jumps out of his car, the first thing he does is runs to me, lets me know about certain things that he learned in the session.
“If that’s not teamwork, I don’t know what is. I don’t see any teams or drivers doing that. It is a really family feeling at RLL. All three of us are super close. That really helps us push the programme forward.”
Including two Fast Six results - his pole and May’s third place at Indy - Foster has advanced to the Fast 12 in each of his first four road course races in IndyCar. But 11th place remains his best result in his first eight races as a rookie.
“We’ve had very, very good qualifying results,” Foster said. “I’m super happy. But we need to do well in the race. That’s right now my target, to focus and be with the team and make sure that we’ve got the race car to be able to battle up front and try to retain our position as long as possible.
“We’ll go for a win if we can. We have a fast car. Full focus on the race. We have to bring in some solid points.
“It’s all been in the races we’ve had our issues. That’s why I’m so set on making sure we have a good race. There’s a hell of a lot more on offer tomorrow. This shows that our qualifying performance at RLL is strong as a contending team. We have to make sure we have the race pace to battle with the big boys.”
Foster is still 24th in the standings and trails PREMA Racing’s Robert Shwartzman by 18 points in the Rookie of the Year standings. He knows the big points are paid on Sundays and is keen to capitalise on having the best possible starting spot.
He will allow the achievement of pole to sink in after the weekend but, testament to his mentality, immediately turned his attention to the next task at hand.
“The target obviously is going to be to retain the lead first lap,” Foster admitted. “As long as we can lead the first lap… I’m sure Alex and Kyle [Kirkwood] and the guys behind me are going to want to try to get past me as soon as possible. We’re not going to make it easy for them.”
Foster has spent the season growing a striking moustache. But for $1000 at a charity event on Thursday - in significant part thanks to IndyCar legend Dario Franchitti - FOX Sports announcer Will Buxton shaved Foster’s facial hair.
His first competitive session stache-less? A pole position to boot.
“When we shaved it off, I was sad,” Foster said. “I was in shock in the mirror every morning so far, jump-scaring myself. If we win, I’ll never have a moustache again, that’s for sure. But we’ll see.”
Even Palou was handing Foster stick for his divisive but committed sporting of the moustache.
“I give him s**t for that because he sold it only for a thousand bucks,” Palou joked. “It worked… well, what didn’t work was the moustache. So now he figured out.”
But moustache or not, Foster has impressed for an RLL team continuing to emerge as one of the series’ best on road courses. Off the back of one of his biggest career milestones to date, it is high time the starring rookie cashes in on a deserved headline race result.
