NXT Gen Notebook: Major crash mars Mid-Ohio as Hauger wins again

Archie O’Reilly
Jul 11
7 min read

Dennis Hauger extended his Indy NXT championship lead to 47 points ahead of fellow rookie and Andretti Global teammate Lochie Hughes with a fifth victory in eight races at Mid-Ohio. DIVEBOMB tells the key stories from a weekend marred by a major crash…

Drivers unharmed as Murray flips

The headline-grabbing moment of Indy NXT’s Mid-Ohio visit came on Lap 4 between Andretti Cape teammates Ricardo Escotto and Sebastian Murray. Contact between the pair resulted in a major crash, destroying both cars and sending Scottish rookie Murray airborne.

Escotto got a run on his teammate through the Kink down to Turn 4 - the fastest section of the track - and made contact with the left-rear corner of Murray’s car with his right-front tyre. Both were hooked into the barrier and the nature of the impact lifted the No.2 machine off the ground with a rare vertical flip and further airborne twist upon landing.

Murray mercifully missed the flag stand above where his car lifted off, with two mangled race cars emerging from a dirt cloud within a massive debris field. Both drivers thankfully emerged unharmed - credit to the integrity of the Dallara-built cars.

“It’s super unfortunate,” said Murray, the driver 10th in the standings, on the FOX broadcast. “I’m not really sure what happened. I’m just glad everyone’s okay. A massive thank you to the safety team - they’ve done a great job. They were on the scene very quickly.

“Obviously apologies to the team. It’s been a good weekend so far and we were hoping to make our way up. But things happen. We’ll move forward and hopefully we can perform better.”

The pair were naturally shocked by the magnitude of the accident, with Escotto getting down on his haunches to process what had happened after emerging from his car. Murray was headed to the safety vehicle but diverted to greet his teammate.

It was an incident tough to lay blame either way - an unfortunate racing incident. But Escotto was displeased with Murray.

“Thank God I’m okay,” the Mexican driver told FOX. “It was a very scary one. Thanks to the AMR Safety Team, I’m alright - just a bit frustrated and very angry. It took me a lot to be contained and just try to calm me down.

“It was a very unfortunate incident, especially having my teammate beside me. And it just feels bad that we are in this situation because, at the end of the day, we shouldn’t be racing like that. We were on the straight and he moved and obviously that makes contact.

“Racing is very close - very close margins - and when you make a mistake like that, then it just comes to this. I’m just happy I didn’t get to see him as much because it was hard to control myself.”

How Hauger returned to winning ways

The race was ultimately shortened from the planned 35 laps to 33 laps due to a red flag for a clear-up and repairs after the Murray-Escotto accident. But on either side of the early stoppage, it was Hauger domination as he led every lap once again.

The race start was clean from the Norwegian rookie, maintaining the lead ahead of the Road America winner, HMD Motorsport’s Caio Collet, as Hughes held off HMD’s Josh Pierson - ultimately passed by Andretti’s Salvador de Alba - to hold onto third place.

The red flag for the Lap 4 accident quickly quelled the race’s early rhythm but normal service was resumed upon the resumption after a delay of approximately 37 minutes. In a final 42 minutes of racing, it was again Hauger leading with assurance having got the jump on Collet and Hughes on the restart.

“It was not the easiest first few laps for me,” Hauger said. “But once we got into a rhythm, it was pretty good. It was nice on the restart. From then on, it was just about managing and trying to keep it clean.”

Hauger did indeed keep it clean. The lead group initially remained bunched together but Hauger controlled the pace with passing difficult. And in the closing laps, the championship pulled the plug and pulled away to lead Collet over the line by over three seconds.

“It was an awesome day,” Hauger said. “Great car out there. We really nailed the balance, which was nice. After Road America, a bit of a struggle there [finishing second], we just really put things together.

“And to be a part of Andretti’s 300th win and be a part of their history is really cool. So it was just a really great day - a good day for a championship. It’s always nice to get a win.”

It was a weekend of meticulous progress from Hauger, who started a little on the back foot; by his standards, that being finishing second in both practice sessions. But he rebounded to take pole and never looked back.

“We knew we had the pace,” he said. “It was just about tuning things and putting things together for qualifying. So we did that. We got a good lap in and got the pole. [In the race], we tried to predict the balance and the track. It changed a lot throughout the weekend. I’m really happy we went in the right direction there and got that win.”

Collet left frustrated but remains content

Collet remains 83 points adrift of Hauger in points but now sits only 36 points adrift of a possible runner-up finish with six races remaining. A podium at Mid-Ohio marked his sixth of the season, equalling his tally as a rookie last year.

“It’s a tough track to overtake,” Collet said. “At the beginning of the race, I thought I could get [Hauger]. I think he was struggling a bit more than me. But all of a sudden he just started pushing a little bit more and then the gap was increasing and increasing.

“Towards the end, I was able to match his fastest lap, but still on average pace he was just a little bit quicker than us. Also we missed a little bit on qualifying [in second]. Overall, okay. I’m happy to be here but obviously we are all here to win. It’s a little bit frustrating.”

Hughes on a rookie’s learning journey

Reigning USF Pro 2000 champion Hughes has been a picture of consistency in his maiden season in Indy NXT, with seven podiums in eight races and a worst finish of fifth. But it continues to be a learning journey as he looks to close the gap on Hauger.

“It’s just constantly learning,” said Hughes, who has won twice this season. “Sometimes coming to some of these tracks that I’ve driven in the little cars, it was almost harder sometimes. You’re so used to the way you drive it with your feet and everything and you get in these heavy cars and you don’t drive it like that.

“It just takes a little bit to get used to that. I feel like we’re always there; just need that slight bit more. I found something in qualifying which Dennis does, which helps him in qualifying but not so much the races. Hopefully I can start doing that kind of stuff.

“But that’s just learning bigger cars and where you’re going at the time and everything.”

Hughes battled some back pain at Mid-Ohio so was relieved to see the chequered flag after a race following but unable to pass Collet. He remains well-placed in the championship.

Odds and ends through the field

Still sitting fourth but 135 points off Hauger’s lead, it was a frustrating day for Abel Motorsports’ Myles Rowe, who had only once finished outside the top five in 2025. He was confined to a 13th-place start and an early off-track excursion set the tone for his race.

Rowe was ultimately the race’s biggest mover, albeit with only three positions gained to a second-worst result of the season in 10th, but will have been frustrated by a scruffy day. He twice went off-roading trying to pass Miller Vinatieri with Abel Motorsports’ Jack William Miller, also later venturing off track in an attempt to overtake HMD’s Evagoras Papasavvas.

Elsewhere, there were strong days for De Alba in fourth and Pierson in fifth having exchanged positions at the start. Sitting fifth in the championship, Pierson leads De Alba by a single point and trails Rowe by 12 points in the battle for fourth.

Last year’s fourth-place championship finisher Callum Hedge, having moved to the Abel team from HMD in the off-season, remains a lonely seventh in the standings having finished sixth. Seventh place was a second-best career result for Abel’s Jordan Missig, following respectable rookie HMD pair Juan Manuel Correa and Papasavvas.

Slowed-down Iowa challenge awaits

A return to oval racing beckons as Indy NXT takes on Iowa Speedway on the Saturday of IndyCar’s doubleheader weekend. But such were the speeds at a series test at the short oval, some adjustments have had to be made.

“We were surprisingly too quick,” Collet said. “The series is trying to slow us down a little bit so we’ll see how the rules play out. We’re looking forward to going back on an oval. We had a really good race last time out in Gateway - very exciting for all the fans.”

There are now unknowns for drivers given the alterations made in the wake of the test.

“Don’t know what to expect now they’re going to slow us down,” Hughes said. “The top five or eight of us at the test were quick enough to qualify for an IndyCar race. So that would be cool… they should just let us race.”

Points leader Hauger will be competing in only his second career oval race when he visits Iowa. Gateway was an invaluable experience but saw him drop to finish fifth late on after battling for the lead for the majority of the race.

“There’s definitely room for improvement,” he said. “Obviously qualifying was good - we got the pole. It’s just such a different way of racing when we go into the races on an oval. We had a test in Milwaukee after that and I feel like I got a bit more rhythm into it, understood a bit more how to race. Hopefully we can put that into work.”