NXT Gen Notebook: Hauger’s Detroit dominance & Correa’s US venture

Credit: Dominic Loyer

Dennis Hauger has extended his Indy NXT championship lead to 38 points ahead of fellow Andretti Global rookie Lochie Hughes after taking his fourth win in five races in 2025 in Detroit last weekend. 

DIVEBOMB presents the key stories from IndyCar’s premier ladders series’ fifth round on the streets of the Motor City…

How the Detroit weekend unfolded 

As has become the norm on the tight, bumpy 1.645-mile downtown track, the weekend had its fair dose of chaos. Throughout the two practice sessions, qualifying and the 45-lap race, you would be hard-charged to find a driver that had, at the very least, not found the runoff.

Qualifying was a tale of Andretti dominance. Hughes led HMD Motorsports’ Caio Collet by 0.5733s in Group 1, only to be usurped by Hauger, who was just shy of an entire second clear of any other driver in Group 2. Hauger overcame a mid-qualifying red flag to take pole after a second crash of the weekend for fellow Andretti driver James Roe.

Impressively, 17-year-old Max Taylor was second in Hauger’s lead group, meaning he lined up third for only his second Indy NXT race. But unfortunately for the young American, he was the highest-placed qualifier caught up in an almighty Lap 1 melee in the race.

A track blockage in Turn 4 led to an immediate red flag on the opening lap, with Abel Motorsports’ Jordan Missig having already spun and suffered wing damage on the run to Turn 3. It was contact between Missig’s fellow Abel drivers Callum Hedge and Myles Rowe, for which Hedge was given a stop-and-hold penalty, that led to the hold-up one corner later.

Taylor was an innocent party after contact with HMD’s Juan Manuel Correa as the pair attempted to avoid the spinning Rowe. Near enough the entirety of the rest of the field formed an expensive parking lot, culminating in Andretti Cape’s Ricardo Escotto running into the back of and lifting Hailie Deegan’s No.38 HMD machine slightly airborne.

Credit: Dominic Loyer

The race restarted with only 13 of the 20-car field on the lead lap, with a mere six cars remaining unlapped by the chequered flag. Rowe, Taylor and Escotto were the only official retirements.

“I saw a bunch of replays before this weekend to prepare and I saw that it was going to be chaos so I kept it clean,” recalled Correa, who was undamaged after Lap 1 contact. “The start was messy. I got lucky to miss the big crash.”

The laps following the red flag saw the Andretti trio of Hauger, Hughes and Salvador de Alba completing the podium positions. De Alba was able to boldly pass Hughes, winner of May’s opening Indianapolis road course race, as the duo tussled hard in second and third.

All the while, Hauger was managing his race and waiting for the opportunity to stretch his legs.

“It was always sketchy after the red flag and then cold tyres again,” Hauger said. “So that was definitely difficult to just stay calm and try and get a good launch on the first few corners before the back straight. But we did the job every time.”

De Alba managed to hold Hughes behind, but on Lap 19, the Mexican driver emerged with significant front wing damage after wall contact. But he continued to hold Hughes behind, even leading to Collet briefly exchanging positions with Hughes. This all enabled Hauger to streak clear.

After five laps of valiant defence, De Alba was ultimately called into the pits as the damaged wing continued to rub aggressively against his front tyres, releasing Hughes. But inside the final 10 laps, there was a familiar image for Andretti as Hughes’ wing similarly became dislodged. 

“I saw Lochie and Salvador fight behind,” Hauger said. “It’s a shame… we could have been one-two-three as a team. But that’s the sport sometimes.”

Hughes was also forced to pit but attrition did mean he remained seventh. Having avoided the chaos marginally at the start, this promoted former Formula 2 and Formula 3 driver Correa to third in only his third Indy NXT race.

Credit: Dominic Loyer

That was not the end of the story. A second stoppage of the race came with five laps remaining as Missig damaged a second front wing of the race with a spin in Turn 2. This allowed the field to pack up for a one-lap, final-lap shootout and Hauger saw his comfortable lead extinguished. 

It was frustrating but the ‘Norwegian Nightmare’ remained composed to expertly control the resumption and still win by over a second ahead of Collet.

“I said on the radio: ‘Oh man,’ because we had a comfortable gap, no real stress,” Hauger said. “The restart, it’s always a bit sketchy. It was fine - didn’t overreact or anything. We knew it was going to be like that around here with some restarts usually at least. That’s how it is and we had to do the job.”

There was yet more adversity as Abel with Miller Vinatieri Motorsports’ Jack William Miller suffered wing damage en route to a maiden top-five finish. De Alba remained on the lead lap after his earlier issue but ended in the wall on the exit of Turn 3, meaning he was classified in eighth.

Hauger ultimately won from Collet, with Correa earning his first podium in his debut street race. The restart was fortunate for Hughes, who was able to limit his losses in the championship to pick up fifth place. Ahead of him, Josh Pierson finished a career-best fourth.

Keeping clean key for Hauger

Thankfully for Hauger, who did ultimately have to contend with lapped traffic, the race’s incidents all occurred in his rear-facing mirrors.

“It was a clean race,” he said. “That was the key around there, keep it clean. Once I got a gap, it was just about managing and trying to keep the overtake, getting through the lap cars clean. A good day, a good week and overall P1 in every session.”

The bumpiness of the Detroit streets is a far cry from the smoothness of the likes of Monaco, Baku and Jeddah, which Hauger became accustomed to on the Formula One circuit. But he still produced a masterclass.

Credit: Dominic Loyer

“I enjoyed it a lot,” Hauger said. “It’s completely different compared to what I’ve done before but it was awesome. You really have to be on the limit and a bit over the limit to find the time around there. It was an awesome experience and a unique place. I had a lot of fun.”

It remains a two-horse race out front in the championship, with Hauger’s buffer back to Hughes comfortably enough for now. Collet sits 84 points off the lead in third - where he finished as a rookie last year - and Rowe remains the only other driver with a sub-100-point gap to Hauger in fourth.

Collet searching for momentum

After a strong rookie season last year, featuring one win and a total of six podiums, Collet came into the 2025 season as a title favourite. But despite three podiums in five races, the Brazilian and his HMD squad are lagging behind Hauger, Hughes and Andretti.

“Right now, we just need to keep working hard and reduce the gap and really fight, because so far this season [Hauger and Andretti have] been a step ahead,” Collet said. “We need to keep our heads down, keep working hard and hopefully next race, next couple of months, we can fight and maybe bring the championship fight.

“I kept it clean [in Detroit]. Safe race. It was a good week in general. We are struggling a little bit but for the team it was very nice to finish second, third and fourth. Hopefully it gives us some momentum into the rest of the season.”

The story of Correa’s NXT move

After returning to F2 for two seasons and competing in F3 the two years prior having overcome multiple major leg surgeries after a crash at Spa-Francorchamps in F2 in 2019 which tragically saw young French driver Antoine Hubert lose his life, Correa decided it is time for a new chapter in his career.

In the last two years, he has made a transition from Europe back to his native United States. He has been coaching drivers in USF Juniors and happened to cross paths with HMD team president Mike Maurini while in attendance at Barber Motorsports Park last month.

An opportunity arose.

Credit: Dominic Loyer

“This year has been finding my ground here and seeing what opportunities there are for my career,” Correa said. “I was literally going bathroom on my scooter, I crossed Mike. And Mike and I go back a long way - karting days here in the US.

“He’s like: ‘Hey, what are you doing here?’ 

“I was like: ‘Not much.’ 

“He’s like: ‘You want to drive Indy NXT?’

“I was like: ‘Yeah, let’s do it.’” 

Sure enough, one week later, Correa was in the car on the Indy road course for the doubleheader weekend. Not even a month later, he is a podium-sitter in the series.

“It was within 24 hours that we had signed a contract, I did my medicals and I was on my way to Indy for the GP,” he said. “Pretty random coincidence but I’m so happy to be here. I’m enjoying every second of it. I love driving whatever car it is and this is a great series.

“I’ve been following IndyCar for as long as I’ve been following F1. I just took the European route because certain things in my career drove me that way. But now that I’m here, [IndyCar] is the ultimate goal. This is the place to be.”

As well as continuing his open-wheel pursuits, Correa has also driven LMP2 cars in IMSA and the World Endurance Championship (WEC). But his sudden Indy NXT move means his sights are now primarily set on IndyCar.

“IndyCar is an amazing category,” he said. “There are top-level categories all over the world; you have F1, you have WEC, you have IMSA, IndyCar, maybe Formula E. In my opinion, the racing in IndyCar is possibly the best one. 

“It’s a spec series, extremely high level. The teams have good budgets, good engineering. The tracks are awesome. You have a bit of everything. There’s an element of ovals which I still haven’t explored. It’s always appealed to me in a way. 

“Indy NXT was not my plan… 28 days ago I was not going to be here. I was going to be coaching throughout the season and trying to find a drive next year somewhere. The opportunity just came and I took it. I’m glad I did.”

Credit: Dominic Loyer

Correa was caught up in an incident in the opening race of the Indy doubleheader and finished the second race 14th, qualifying 20th for both races. Qualifying ninth in Detroit was a significant improvement, with a third-place finish a drastic jump in race result.

The Detroit result is emblematic of the smoothness of Correa’s adaptation so far.

“It hasn’t been that difficult,” Correa said. “Everything is different, but to drive a race car fast, there’s only one way to do it. I’ve applied a lot of the experience I have from the previous categories I’m coming from, even to this [Detroit] track. 

“It’s nothing like we have over [on the F1 ladder] in terms of bumpiness but a lot of the ways you go fast on the street circuit are the same - for example in Monaco [and] it has some elements of Baku in it. 

“I’ve just been finding the right window with the car and that’s the main limitation for me right now. It’s not a matter of confidence, it’s just this is a car that likes to be in a different window to be fast compared to the F2 or the F3. And unfortunately, I haven’t had any testing time to really explore that yet. 

“Right now, I’m going based off what Caio likes to drive and trying to adapt to that. But I feel pretty good with the car and I think we’ll be competitive for the rest of the year.”