Inside Hauger’s IndyCar move: NXT risk, tumultuous testing & Coyne-Andretti bond
- Archie O’Reilly
- 1h
- 14 min read
Call it bold. Call it risky. But how canny it proved to be.
Dennis Hauger took the lesser-trodden path down an ever-more-familiar route in 2025, with the goal of reaching an increasingly popular destination among those from his background.
As the 2024 season drew to a close, he felt his time on the Formula One ladder had run its course. After winning the Formula 3 title in 2021, a three-year stint in Formula 2 boasted four victories and a best finish of eighth in the championship. But despite offers to return to F2, he saw no merit in continuing to pursue a goal which, in reality, had reached a dead-end.
This prompted Hauger, 21 years old at that stage, to explore options outside of the familiarity of the F1 realm. And amid a proliferation of drivers moving stateside from F2 in recent years, it was IndyCar and its purity of racing that caught his eye the most.
But his desire to follow the same road as Christian Lundgaard, Callum Ilott and Marcus Armstrong in moving directly from F2 to an IndyCar seat was quashed by budgetary shortcomings. Such was his determination to switch stateside, though, this did not prove a deterrent.
Instead, the former Red Bull Racing junior opted to spend a season fighting for the title in IndyCar’s own premier feeder series, Indy NXT, with Andretti Global, knowing its rewarding scholarship for the champion would aid a move to IndyCar, should he be successful.
Ultimately clinching the championship with a round to spare, it was a decision to such avail.
“I didn’t really know what to expect,” Hauger recalls, speaking to the DIVEBOMB IndyCar Podcast. “I knew we were quick from testing and stuff, but there were more factors into the season than just being quick on one or two tracks. There were a lot of new tracks for me and ovals were a new thing.”
Hauger ended the season with six wins and 11 podiums, credited with eight pole positions across the 14 rounds too. At the end of it all, a perfect induction to success in American sport, he had a championship ring to boot as he usurped Caio Collet by 72 points.
That ring is not yet on display anywhere. Instead? Still in Hauger’s backpack. But it does mean a whole lot to him.
As he reflects on the year, he is delighted with the decision he made to spend the season in Indy NXT, gain the education it provided and reap the rewards of the platform it allowed for him to build a reputation stateside.
“It gave me a lot of experience on the tracks, gave me some oval experience and I put myself in a bit of respect, creating my own name in the States,” Hauger assess. “That was really good and really smart. But in the end, it all comes from results.
“So I’m happy we were able to do it and it’s made me a bit more ready for IndyCar - maybe than what I would have been if I went straight from F2. So there are only positives to take from the decision. If it didn’t go really well, we might have looked a bit stupid. In the end, really happy we made the choice. I’ve enjoyed the time over in the States.”
Hauger started the season in scintillating fashion, winning four of the first five races to emphatically build an early advantage. While he only won twice more, with four of the final nine rounds on ovals, his front-running consistency was overpowering.
Not once did he relinquish his command over the championship as the season progressed, which quickly caught the eye of IndyCar teams. But for Hauger himself, full focus was on maintaining his lead over the field, with his father and manager Harald Huysman, a former Indy Lights driver himself, at the forefront of discussions.
As wrapping up the championship became more of a formality, Hauger’s Andretti team also supported via their knowledge of and connections within the paddock.
“Most of the year, I was just doing my thing on track, trying to take it race by race and show what I can do,” Hauger explains. “Even mid-season, I had a bit of a gap but it can change so quickly. So I just had to keep working on that and make sure I got the scholarship money.
“When we got closer to the end of the season, it was getting more and more clear. And then when we got to like the last three, four races, we were starting to chat a bit with Andretti and the guys there. With the year we’ve had, it’s obviously been easier to work on that for 2026.”
Eventually, this led to connecting with Dale Coyne about a possible vacancy in his IndyCar team for the 2026 season. Come Round 12 of the Indy NXT season - and the third-from-last event of the IndyCar campaign - at Portland International Raceway, before Hauger had mathematically clinched the title, more of a formal conversation was held with Coyne.
At the very beginning of September, a bombshell. Two days after the conclusion of the IndyCar season, it was revealed that, after prompting a resurgent year for the team in 2025, Rinus VeeKay was to depart Dale Coyne Racing (DCR). He later joined Juncos Hollinger Racing.
But DCR had a replacement firmly in mind. Within three weeks of VeeKay’s exit, it was formalised that Hauger would be stepping into the fold next year.
“Feels really good - more than I could expect,” Hauger reacts. “It’s obviously what I hoped for going into the Indy NXT season, to achieve the championship and get a seat. But the job has to be done and I’m really happy we were able to do it. And obviously to get the opportunity to move up to IndyCar is a dream come true.”
Hauger made the move to Indy NXT with a one-track mind. His 2024/25 off-season consisted of relentless preparation off the track, training hard and watching endless video of each track - all unfamiliar - on the schedule. That relentlessness paid dividends.
It was vindication for venturing off the beaten track. And with Enzo Fittipaldi confirmed to make the same move for 2026 and fellow F2 race winner Victor Martins having twice tested in the series, there are early suggestions that Hauger may be a trend-setting example.
“That’s really cool to see,” Hauger responds. “It’s a great opportunity for many drivers in the States because there is prize money; if you win, you really get an opportunity. And that’s not quite the same case in the European ladder. If you do well, you get the opportunity - and it really shows when P1 and P2 in the NXT championship get the opportunity to do IndyCar.”
Indeed, Collet has also made the jump to IndyCar after his vice-champion run, joining the AJ Foyt Racing squad alongside Santino Ferrucci.
In Hauger’s case specifically, given the barring factor of funding the year prior, the value of the scholarship for the champion - a total of $850,000 - cannot be undertold. It is a unique initiative that is creating an ever-increasing allure around the IndyCar ladder.
“That’s one of the biggest reasons we were looking at Indy NXT,” Hauger admits. “Without that, I wouldn’t have been able to do IndyCar next year.
“I’m getting some help from Andretti as well and Dale Coyne is really supporting me along the way. It’s different factors that’s put me into IndyCar. I’m just really happy I have that kind of support from the teams. They see the work I’m doing and the motivation I have to do good, earn my spot. In the end, without them I wouldn’t be here today.”
Over the years, DCR has built a reputation of nurturing budding talents in the infancy of their careers, which was an unquestionable allure for Hauger as a rookie next year.
As recently as 2020, the team housed Álex Palou, who achieved a podium in his third race, finished 16th in the standings and joined Chip Ganassi Racing, where he has since won four championships in five seasons, at the end of that season. David Malukas, signed with Team Penske for 2026, also spent the first two years of his career with DCR in 2022 and 2023.
After a dire 2024 season, which saw the team finish adrift as the bottom two cars in entrant points, DCR rebounded impressively last year. VeeKay’s 14th in points marked their best result in five years, his runner-up finish in Toronto their first non-oval podium since 2021 and seven top-10 results a drastic improvement on a team-best finish of 13th the season prior.
“Looking at the team, Dale, how they’re all working is nice,” Hauger evaluates. “It’s really like a family. It’s cool to see the guys before. Álex Palou, he finished 16th in the championship but they had some really good races together and he built up pretty quickly with them.
“So obviously I want to do something similar. I feel like we got on it pretty straight away as a team. They’ve taken some big steps this year. They’ve had some really good races and it’s just about strengthening those weaknesses or bad races.
“I wouldn’t say [DCR] was the only option I had but it was the clear option for us, with Andretti as well, to go for that. It felt like the most natural choice.”
When placing together an IndyCar deal, Hauger was keen to maintain a relationship with Andretti, who supported him in reaching an eventual agreement with DCR, after their richly successful season together in Indy NXT.
As part of the deal, Andretti also signed to provide technical support to DCR and offer continued support to Hauger’s career, so impressed they were by his Indy NXT campaign.
“[Andretti] have been a part of the process to help me and now they’re obviously in the technical partnership,” Hauger explains. “That’s been a really cool process. I really had a good time with Andretti this year and we built a really good relationship.
“I wouldn’t say collaborate but [to] work together again into IndyCar is really cool. At the end of the day, I’m with Dale Coyne and that’s who I’m working with and pushing for. But I think that can put us in a great spot for 2026. I’m trying to take a few things from here and there from both sides and put it together to make it better for both sides.”
In some ways, it is like the ‘loaning-out’ of Kyle Kirkwood from Andretti to AJ Foyt Racing for the 2022 season. But this time in doing so to another Honda-powered team, Andretti have opted to offer closer-knitted engineering support through a technical alliance.
The details of how partnership will look will be ironed out over the course of the off-season. But from DCR’s side, there is a desire to tap into Andretti’s expertise to improve on some of the glaring weaknesses - namely superspeedways given their struggles at the Indianapolis 500, where their two drivers, VeeKay and Jacob Abel, had to fight one another to make the field earlier this year.
“For the off-season now, it’s been a bit of data, a bit of that stuff,” Hauger details. “Just keeping an open communication before race week and after race week and always staying in touch, seeing what we’re doing and how we’re developing things, [will be important]. How it’s going to look in-season is still not 100 percent but it can be pretty good from both sides.
“Hopefully that can be something good for longer than just one year and for maybe more drivers than me.”
In the most recent example of Andretti shipping a driver out to another team, Kirkwood spent only a single year with Foyt before stepping up to Andretti in place of Alexander Rossi. He went on to win two races in his first season in the No.27 Honda in 2023 and has since risen to finish fourth in the standings in 2025.
The Floridian has recently committed to a new multi-year deal and two-time series champion Will Power has replaced the outgoing Colton Herta at Andretti this off-season. But finishes of 15th and 20th in the standings for Marcus Ericsson in his two years with the team have cast doubt over his long-term future, which could lead to an opening for Hauger in 2027.
For now, though, Hauger will not be drawn on any talk of plans beyond 2026.
“Right now I’m focusing on next year with Dale Coyne Racing,” he insists. “That’s who I’m working with so that’s where the focus is. And what the future holds, I don’t know. But I know I’m going to work as hard as I can to get some good results for next year.”
In the wake of his title-winning Indy NXT season, Hauger has already tested the Indy car three times, while he has also seen it as crucial to be present around the DCR workshop to create a bond with his new racing family.
On-track exploits commenced at the beginning of October with a test at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, where he won in Indy NXT in July. But a crash very early in the day marked a far-from-ideal, somewhat false start to his maiden outing.
“It’s pretty technical, a really flowy track, which was fun,” Hauger describes. “Just pushed the limits a bit and wanted it a bit too much. And on a track like Mid-Ohio, if you go off track, you’re in the grass and then you’re in the wall most likely. That’s how it ended up. [But] no matter if I crashed, I knew I had the pace in the car and it felt good.”
The opening test day was not all wasted as Hauger’s car was repaired and he was able to log some running later in the day. Regardless, he was able to exorcise any lingering demons within two weeks, with a further test day on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.
On another track which brought him success earlier in the year, even up against the experienced likes of Rossi and Christian Rasmussen, Hauger led the time sheets.
“It was a positive bounce back,” Hauger says. “I told the team: ‘Have a good day today [and] no one’s going to remember the first test.’ I’m really happy I just clicked the reset button. I knew we had pace, we had speed and I just kept on working on what I had to do.
“We had a clean day and we showed our true pace and built it up from there. I’m really happy we were able to get a good day like that. It would have been a bit s**t if I had another day with a crash. So it was a really positive day and I enjoyed it.”
Hauger was back on track again in early November as himself and Collet got a first taste of an oval at Nashville Superspeedway. The day started with confidence-building race downforce, which was tuned throughout the test.
“We got some help or a few tips from Andretti in terms of how we can work and gain some different things,” Hauger discloses. “It was a really good day. I got to test quite a few different setups and really just see how the car feels, how it reacts to the downforce levels.
“It was really enjoyable. I got up to speed pretty quickly. It’s a bit easier when you’re alone on track or there is one more car on track; it’s quite different when we get into a race weekend. But it was a positive start.”
Hauger finished no worse than fifth (on debut at World Wide Technology Raceway) in his four oval events in Indy NXT this year - his first taste of the discipline. He notched runner-up finishes at Iowa Speedway and the Milwaukee Mile before finishing third at Nashville.
The 2026 season will provide another marked step up as he attempts to qualify for his first Indianapolis 500 in May, an event at which he was embedded with Andretti last year.
“Nashville is the closest you get to the Indy oval but I don’t really have too much of an expectation yet,” he admits. “I’m just going to enjoy getting on track for the first time. We’ll take it a step at a time. But honestly, I felt pretty quick and pretty comfortable straight away in Nashville so hopefully it will be the same feeling in Indy.
“It’s just insane to go there for the first time on track and not watch, just be in the car and drive it yourself. I’m looking forward to get it started.”
A relief from the initial outings for Hauger is that he has felt immediately comfortable in the Indy car - the quickest car he has ever driven. After his success in F3, he struggled to ever feel at home in the F2 car. But moving to Indy NXT, a more pleasant feeling returned - something he was desperate to be replicated in the Indy car.
The Indy car has been likened to the F2 car by some drivers with experience of both, though any fears that it may not suit his style have already dissipated.
“When I went into the F2 car, I didn’t really feel natural,” Hauger divulges. “I’m really happy I got the feeling that it felt natural in the car, otherwise it would have been a bit worrying.
“[It is] similar in some ways but quite different in terms of driving style. Even with the hybrid now in the [Indy] car, [the F2 car] feels more heavy. With the steering ratio as well, it’s a bit different. So the style becomes quite different within the car, which for me went a bit more into my direction in terms of braking techniques and all this stuff.”
As well as getting Hauger accustomed to the car, including the in-cockpit adjustments at his disposal, which he admits he enjoys, the early tests have allowed him to get used to working with the team at the track. This includes building a rapport with esteemed Michael Cannon - often regarded as IndyCar’s equivalent of Einstein, such is his engineering genius.
“It’s really cool to see the steps he’s taking with us and the way he works step by step,” Hauger says, “also to test me, see how my feedback is for next year.”
Nashville was Hauger’s final test before the turn of the year. He is now back home in Norway for the festive period, where he plans to disconnect in between his training regime, working remotely with the team and studying more footage.
While he will race at every track in the Indy car for the first time next year, he will have the benefit of knowing the majority of tracks from his Indy NXT exploits. Aside from the Indy 500, Long Beach is the only track new to solely the rookies given the unfamiliar Phoenix Raceway and street tracks in Arlington and Markham are fresh additions to the calendar.
Still, Hauger is measured in his expectations for the learning year ahead. But he will not waver from the mindset which has brought him to much success in his young career.
“I don’t want to change my approach,” he rallies. “I want to go out there, look at the tasks I have ahead of the weekend and try to just do the job. And if that’s P1 sometimes, that would be awesome. If it’s P5, P10, P15, we’ll see. If I aim to be 20th or 15th, I would lose already with that kind of mindset. We’ve shown some decent pace so it’s just about keep working.”
As achieved by 2024 Indy NXT champion Louis Foster with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing last year, Hauger’s primary target is to take rookie honours in his battle with, as thus far announced, Collet and former Formula One driver Mick Schumacher.
“The first goal is to be the Rookie of the Year,” he suggests. “From a championship point of view, it’s a bit hard to say. Because looking at Álex Palou in his first year, he came 16th; VeeKay this year came 14th.
“So if we can be in the top 15, I would be happy. If we could be in the top 10, I would be really happy. It depends on the steps we’re taking in the off-season now and see how we get on in the first few races.”
Headline results would be the dream outcome for Hauger, especially if he can bring DCR their first race victory since Sébastien Bourdais in St. Petersburg in 2018. But above all, this rookie season is about laying the foundations for something much bigger.
“I really want to get a few good results - hopefully a podium or a win would be a goal. But for me, it’s just about building experience. It seems like we can be quick, so just building experience with fuel saving, hybrid stuff - there’s quite a few different factors.
“But I want to go out there and do well. I always do. I race to win. And sometimes we might have a car that will get us there; sometimes we won’t. But we’re going to give everything.”
