NXT Gen Notebook: Collet sweeps title fight alive as teammates clash

Archie O’Reilly
Jul 31
13 min read

It was a busy and ultimately very dramatic weekend for Indy NXT at Laguna Seca, running Round 10 and Round 11 of the 14-race season in a Monterey doubleheader.

Andretti Global rookie Dennis Hauger entered the weekend with a dominant 76-point championship lead to the chasing pack. But he crashed at the start of the second of two condensed practice sessions on Friday, rebounding to qualify on the front row for both races but seeing HMD Motorsports’ Caio Collet sweep the pole positions.

DIVEBOMB recaps the key events and big stories from two races in California…

How Collet fended off Hauger in Race 1

Collet got an excellent jump from pole to kick off the opening race of the weekend, with Hauger having to work hard to fend off HMD’s Josh Pierson’s Turn 2 attack from third on the grid - where he qualified for both races.

But the race was not green for long, with multiple incidents at the Turn 2 hairpin and further down the road at Turn 3 and on the run to Turn 4 provoking an early caution.

At Turn 2, Andretti Cape’s Sebastian Murray - back after missing Iowa with a concussion - tagged Andretti stablemate Lochie Hughes, who in hand hit and spun seventh-place starter, Niels Koolen of Chip Ganassi Racing (CGR). Further back in the pack, Andretti’s James Roe was sent into a spin by HMD’s Juan Manuel Correa, who was given a drive-through penalty.

Moments later, Murray found himself in the gravel after trying to pass Hedge at Turn 3, with HMD’s Max Taylor finding the gravel in avoidance. Andretti’s Salvador de Alba also spun into the gravel, with him and Abel Motorsports’ Jordan Missig the only drivers to suffer race-ending damage, though Murray later retired with a mechanical issue.

From that point on, the race avoided any further stoppages. Collet controlled the restart well, finding his rhythm and building a second-plus buffer over Hauger.

“Struggled a bit in the first half of the race,” Hauger said. “Couldn’t quite hang on to [Collet]. Then he started dropping a bit more towards the last five laps especially. I wish there was a few more laps. But he didn’t do any big mistakes and minimised that.”

Indeed, as he has been all season long, Hauger was methodical and managed his race with patience. By the final 10 laps, he was within a matter of car lengths of Collet and placing intense pressure upon the Brazilian, who entered the weekend with one win in 2025.

But hanging on ahead of Hauger having managed his push-to-pass expertly, the HMD sophomore stayed ahead in a drag to the line. It was a masterclass in defence to win by a mere 0.2092s.

“Up until lap 20, I had a pretty clean race and everything was going so well,” Collet said. “I started to feel some vibration on my front tyres and I started to ease off the pace a little bit and I could see Dennis coming very, very fast.

“At the end, we just managed the strategy with push-to-pass. The main opportunity was for sure Turn 2 here. It’s a tough track to overtake so I was just having a clean exit off Turn 11 and protecting Turn 2. But the laps, they didn’t seem to go down so quickly when I was leading the race. But in the end we did the job and very happy to win the race.”

Pierson came home third for his maiden podium in his second full season in Indy NXT at only 19 years old, fending off pressure from Abel’s Myles Rowe early on but ending the race with a buffer of almost nine seconds behind.

The field spread was significant among the top positions. Collet and Hauger dominated and Pierson was less than five seconds back, but Rowe, Abel’s Callum Hedge and Hughes were each split by four seconds in a top six which finished exactly as it started. Miller Vinatieri with Abel Motorsports’ Jack William Miller was over 35 seconds off the lead in seventh.

Andretti rivals collide as Collet sweeps

The second race of the weekend was slated to take place in the morning on Sunday - ahead of the IndyCar race, as is standard procedure. But fog wreaked havoc in the mornings across the weekend, cancelling IndyCar’s Practice 2 on Saturday, delaying Indy NXT qualifying and ultimately seeing Race 2 postponed until late afternoon.

As the race finally got underway underneath the beaming sun, the start was just as chaotic as the opening race. In trying to defend from Pierson - unsuccessfully this time - Hauger dropped wheels in the gravel, as did Rowe behind. And carnage ensued in the dust cloud.

All cars safely navigated the hairpin this time, but on the run to Turn 3, HMD’s Liam Sceats moved aggressively across the front of Bryce Aron, causing the CGR machine to momentarily lift airborne and ultimately collect HMD bystander Tommy Smith. The damage was race-ending for Aron and Sceats was handed a 30-second stop-and-hold penalty.

The restart was relatively clean - at least in that a ‘cautions breed cautions’ situation was avoided - but saw Roe make avoidable contact with Correa at Turn 2. Out front though, the top three of Collet, Pierson and Hauger were able to check out again.

Already off the lead lap, a second caution came out on Lap 18 as Sceats found himself in the tyres at Turn 6. There was almost immediately a further caution again, with a big chain reaction into the final corner before the restart damaging several cars.

Missing came to a halt just beyond the pit entrance having been run into by Smith, with contact in the train for HMD trio Nolan Allaer, Correa - the only driver whose race the incident ended - and Hailie Deegan, who was lifted briefly airborne after running into the back of her teammate in the stack-up.

But the biggest moment of drama - and one of the biggest moments of the season so far - came on the restart on Lap 27 after this incident.

It all started as Hughes prematurely jumped teammate Hauger with an inside move in the final corner on the restart. But by the time the pair reached Turn 2, Hauger was back in pursuit of Hughes - also his long-time closest championship challenger.

As Hughes went slightly deep at the hairpin, Hauger lunged opportunistically up the inside but went deep himself, the pair locking wheels and both ending up in the gravel. Hauger made contact with the tyres, ending his race and seeing him finish 16th with a first DNF.

Hughes was beached and ended the race three laps down in 15th. To compound his misery, he was handed a drive-through penalty for jumping the restart.”

“I didn’t see [it happen],” said Collet, who is now Hauger’s closest rival in the championship. “I need to look the video to see what happened. I saw they were side-by-side in Turn 11 on the restart, which I find a little bit odd. But I just focus on my race.

“After that, I saw the yellow. I saw they were both out - my engineer told me. Obviously it’s a mixed feeling. He’s our main rival in the championship but also you are racing for the win.”

In the fight directly behind, there was more teammate contact as Rowe spun in an attempt to make an ambitious inside move on Hedge. Rowe, the recent Iowa winner, was later handed a drive-through penalty for avoidable contact after dealing De Alba a puncture with a dive into Turn 6 once the race restarted.

It was Lap 29 before the 35-lap race finally entered a rhythm again after a punctuated 11 laps.

“We got our rhythm going and then suddenly the gap that I had goes back to zero and we have to do it all over again,” Collet said. “We did a good job on managing the restarts. And also my leg was becoming a bit numb, pumping the brakes [under caution].”

Collet was able to pull clear of Pierson after the final of the four restarts, finishing over three seconds clear in a HMD 1-2 finish as Pierson secured a podium sweep after his maiden rostrum visit on Saturday.

“It’s just unbelievable,” Collet said. “I never expected to come out like this on Friday. We just kept working hard. We had a great car all weekend. [Saturday] was a tough race; [Sunday] a little bit easier. It’s never easy but we made a little bit of an improvement in the car and I could just drive a little bit better. I couldn’t ask for a better weekend.

“Really happy for myself but also for the team to finish 1-3 and 1-2. It’s really, really amazing and I think we needed a weekend like this. I’m just super happy for everyone.”

Hedge was just shy of a further three seconds back as he stood on the podium for the second time in his two seasons in the series. Rookie pair Taylor and Murray both achieved their career-best results in fourth and fifth.

Where does Andretti drama leave Hauger?

After Race 1, Hauger spoke about his mindful approach to the final four races of the 2025 season, knowing that his championship lead over Collet sat at 81 points halfway through the doubleheader.

“[The approach is] a bit of a combination,” he said. “Obviously I race to win. Every time I go on track, I want to be the quickest and I want to be up front. But at the same time, obviously getting to the end of the season, we know we have a good gap.

“We don’t want to mess with that and try to keep the distance. Obviously Collet is P2 right now in the championship but we’ve still got the gap. It’s just about keeping the weekends clean as we have all season and keep working as a team to maximise every time.

“If we have a car that’s P2, we’ve got to be P2 and not worse and just keep the mindset like that for the rest of the year.”

But 24 hours later, that fell out of the window for Hauger. After Hughes’ illegal pre-restart pass, Hauger really did not need to force the issue into Turn 2. But he made the risky lunge, misjudged and initiated the race-ending contact with his teammate.

At worst, Hauger was probably going to finish third, seeing now-closest title rival Collet win but still picking up a strong haul of points. As it was though, he left Race 2 with a mere 15 points as opposed to 36, seeing Collet cut his gap to 42 - now less than a race win’s worth of points.

Before Laguna Seca, Hauger’s worst finish had been eighth after an early-race incident at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course in the first race of the season’s other doubleheader. Heading to Race 2 in Monterey, he had only once more finished lower than second - with fifth at Gateway - with wins in half of the first 10 races.

But it was his messiest weekend yet, crashing fairly heavily in practice, rebounding in qualifying but feeling “too slow” to match Collet in Race 1, then suffering the dramas of Race 2.

Can Collet win the championship?

With Collet, a pre-season title favourite after finishing third in points as a rookie last season, having more than halved his pre-weekend gap to Hauger, there is suddenly more than a slim chance that he could fight for this championship.

“It’s definitely some luck,” Collet said of what it would take after Race 1. “I need him to have a crash or a really bad luck weekend because obviously he will be there in the front. If I win the race we will be second or third; it’s not that if I win the race he will be P10.”

But the following day, that ‘luck’ - if you can call it that - came for Collet as he stayed clear of any chaos out front. It may still take a little more luck in the final three races given Hauger’s stellar rookie year, but Laguna Seca proved to Collet that Hauger is not unbreakable.

“For sure,” he said of whether his belief has increased. “From now on, anything can happen. There’s a lot of points still to play. The last two are ovals so anything can happen. We just have to keep pushing to win the races.

“Bad luck happens. I had it in Barber; he had it here with the [Laguna Seca] contact. Hopefully we can put a good show into the end of the year and whoever wins it really deserves it. We just have to keep pushing for more weekends like this.”

Collet’s start to the season was mixed as Andretti flew out of the blocks with their rookie pair. He had been on the podium four of the first six races but suffered a mechanical failure in Round 2 at Barber which left him chasing from early on in the year. It was Round 7 at Road America before he and HMD broke Andretti’s winning start.

But Collet has restored momentum, now with eight podiums in 11 races - compared to six across his entire rookie year - and Barber his only result outside the top five. Three victories now is only two shy of Hauger’s tally.

How protagonists’ future are looking

With Hughes now having dropped to third in the standings at 47 points behind Collet and 89 adrift of Hauger, the title will realistically go to either Hauger or Collet with three races to go. But what does next year look like for the protagonists?

“Obviously we’re all fighting for the goal which is IndyCar,” Hauger said. “But it’s not easy to find seats so obviously that’s something you’re working on and aiming for for 2026.

“But we’ll see how it goes. I consider Caio a strong driver. We’ve been fighting against each other since we were kids. We’re both pushing each other to the limits out there. Hopefully we can both find something but we will see how it goes.”

Reaching the end of his second year in Indy NXT, Collet shares the same goal - as does everyone as they enter the top rung on the American open-wheel feeder series ladder. But the Brazilian continues to thrust himself into the limelight.

One of the biggest obstacles though? His rivals in the series, particularly Hauger.

“We all know how hard it is to get to IndyCar these days so there’s not a lot of seats left,” Collet said. “And Dennis is one of the best drivers out there. I consider myself at the same level as well.

“Hopefully there is two seats next year. I don’t think that will be the case. It’s very hard to get a seat nowadays. But my job is just to deliver on track and other factors to see if I get an opportunity or not.”

Pierson’s patience gets rewarded

Pierson was only 17 years old when he made his debut in Indy NXT in 2023, completing a nine-race part-season schedule and achieving five top-10 finishes and a best result of sixth.

He then competed in a first full season in 2024, finishing 14th in points with six top-10 results but only managing a best result of seventh. But returning for 2025, now 19 years old, Pierson has really started to come into his own.

Round 9 at Iowa was his first result of the season outside the top 10, albeit 11th place continuing an ultra-consistent start to the year. His strong first eight rounds saw him secure his first four top-five finishes and only two results worse than sixth.

It was ramped up to new heights at Laguna Seca, though. Saturday saw the teenager on the podium for the first time, bettering that third-place result with his Sunday runner-up finish. He stood up to the series’ leading drivers and leaves the weekend fifth in points.

“It feels fantastic, honestly,” Pierson said. “Especially for us coming off of a rough year in ‘24, to be able to stand on the podium in both races here is really strong. Particularly this track last year I struggled at. Coming back and walking away with two podiums is fantastic.

“If you had told me this is how my weekend was going to go, I wouldn’t have believed you. As a driver, I still have lots more to work on and more to improve. So just looking forward to the next time on a track and just trying to keep chipping away at what I can.”

It has been a journey of development for Pierson since making his Indy NXT debut in 2023, also featuring a sportscar racing after finishing fourth in the USF2000 championship at only 15 years old in 2021.

Pierson is a race winner in the LMP2 category in IMSA - at the Daytona 24 Hours no less - and in the World Endurance Championship. He believes this aided his education in racecraft, race pace and qualifying pace, and should he graduate to IndyCar, he will have existing experience of pit stops and strategy too.

“A lot of progress shown since starting in 2023 with the partial year,” Pierson said. “It’s been a pretty wild ride for me. Especially with my early career, I was accelerated pretty fast to the World Endurance Championship and to IMSA - so pretty high-level sports car racing. I was lucky to learn from some of the best in that area and those categories.

“I had higher expectations for myself, the initial years in Indy NXT, but very quickly realised that we had a lot of to work on. It’s just been a wild ride trying to piece things together and figure that all out.

“In total, I think what I’ve accomplished in this brief amount of time has been pretty incredible. And I owe all that to Stephen Simpson, my driver coach; Alex Vedie, my engineer at HMD - and really all the guys there.

“Even some of the drivers like Caio have given me lots of pointers and help. That’s what makes this sport so special is we’re all competitors but we still have a friendly nature and a friendly side off the track. Really grateful to everyone that’s been helping me so far.”

Hedge puts shine on a difficult season

After finishing fourth in the standings as a rookie last year, there was an expectation that 2023 Formula Regional Americas champion Hedge could be in title contention in 2025. But switching from HMD to Abel, it has been a testing year for the New Zealander - the opposite effect that the same move has had for teammate Rowe.

Hedge headed to Laguna Seca with seven of nine race results inside the top 10, but with only a single top-five finish, he had not replicated the heights of five top fives last season, including a podium in Detroit. Fifth in Race 1 on Saturday at Laguna Seca marked a return to 2024 form though, before then capitalising on the Andretti pair colliding to finish third in Race 2.

“It was a solid weekend,” Hedge said. “We’ve had a pretty tough run, to put it bluntly. We’ve not really put together a weekend. We’ve really just struggled to carry out pace from testing into the race weekends and not really too sure where we’ve gone wrong there.

“We struggled a lot in the hot temperatures. We’ve spent a lot of time looking at it, trying to work on what we can do. Just a big credit to the Abel Motorsports crew; they’ve stuck behind me. My sponsors have continued to back me all the way through the tough season.

“Got a podium. Obviously it was helped out by the two in front of me coming together. But big credit, big thanks to all the guys for sticking behind me and [we will] see if we can push on for the last few races this year.”

Odds and ends from the weekend

Only 19 cars took to the Indy NXT grid at Laguna Seca after news that Andretti Cape had parted ways with Ricardo Escotto, leaving Murray as the team’s only entry.

Both races were attritional, with only 12 cars on the lead lap in Race 1 and nine by the end of Race 2. Collet, Pierson, Hedge, Rowe and Miller were the only drivers in the top 10 and on the lead lap in both races.

Behind Hauger, Collet and Hughes, Rowe leads Pierson, De Alba and Hedge as the only drivers within 200 points of the championship lead. Miller, Koolen and Missig currently round out the top 10.

Along with career-best results for Taylor and Murray in Race 2, Allaer levelled his season-best result in ninth in Race 1 and Deegan notched career-best results of 12th and 11th.