The penultimate round of the 2025 Indy NXT season is in the books, and Tony Quinn Foundation Ambassador Callum Hedge has once again delivered impressive results at the front end of the field.
The Kiwi brought the #17 Abel Motorsports car home to finish fourth at the Milwaukee Mile overnight, finishing just behind the trio of Andretti Global machines. Here’s how the weekend played out.
Hedge entered the weekend in fine form, off the back of a P5 and podium at Laguna Seca and a fourth place in Portland, edging ever closer to the Top 5 in the Championship.
Sitting just 21 points away from the mark heading into Milwaukee, he was also carrying a hot streak of Top 7 finishes stretching back to June at World Wide Technology Raceway.
With oval events offering less track time than the road and street courses, every lap would count in Milwaukee. Drivers were given only a single practice session to dial themselves in around the 1.6km (1-mile) oval, and Hedge wasted no time showing pace.
He circulated inside the Top 10 throughout before unleashing a late flyer of 24.5937 to go sixth fastest, less than three-tenths off championship leader Dennis Hauger.
After logging 64 laps, the #17 Abel Motorsports machine looked right in the mix for Qualifying.
In Qualifying, the grid would be decided not just on outright speed, but on a two-lap average, meaning consistency was also key. With the running order set by reverse entrant points, Hedge was one of the later drivers to head out, with Bryce Aron holding the benchmark at that stage with a 48.4449.
Hedge’s opening lap of 24.2383 was immediately competitive, just six-hundredths off Aron, and he backed it up with a blistering 24.0515 on his second tour, two-tenths quicker than Aron’s own effort. That combined time of 48.2898 was enough to put the Kiwi on provisional pole, a brilliant run under pressure.
Salvador de Alba was next up and laid down a stunning first lap of 23.7623 to go half a second clear, though he faded on the second, still just enough to edge out Hedge.
The remaining runners couldn’t better Hedge’s effort until Hauger closed the session with a 24.0256, followed by a superb 23.8521, giving him pole with a 47.8777. That left Hedge third overall, neatly splitting the Andretti armada and once again showing his ability to fight right at the sharp end.
Starting from the second row, Hedge lined up third on the inside with Australian Lochie Hughes alongside in fourth. Hughes got the stronger launch and carried momentum around the outside into Turn 1, edging ahead as they turned in.
Hedge kept his nose down on the inside, and the pair ran wheel-to-wheel through the corner before Hughes found the better exit and slipped ahead by the end of the straight. That left him in fourth, tucked in behind the leading trio and with a small gap back to teammate Myles Rowe in fifth.
From there, he settled into a rhythm, keeping within striking distance of the front three.
By the halfway mark, he remained just a couple of seconds adrift. A caution on Lap 47 for Jack William Miller’s spin briefly bunched the pack, but at the restart, Hedge slipped just outside the tow of Hughes ahead.
While the gap slowly widened, he showed composure to absorb late pressure from Aron, who had climbed into contention.
Inside the final 20 laps, Hedge chipped the gap to Hughes back under a second while still keeping Aron behind. In the closing laps, Hughes pulled away again as he chased Hauger, leaving Hedge to bring it home in fourth, just two seconds off the podium at the flag.
The result keeps Hedge seventh in the Drivers’ Standings but trims his deficit to Josh Pierson in sixth to only 10 points. De Alba’s win pushed him further clear in fifth, though Hedge remains firmly in the fight for a Top 5 finish with one round to go.
There’s no time to rest; the Indy NXT season concludes this weekend at Nashville Superspeedway.
Header Image: Penske Entertainment – Paul Hurley
