Callum Hedge has finished fourth overall in his rookie season in the Indy NXT Series for HMD Motorsport.
Despite missing most of pre-season testing due to an untimely bout of appendicitis, the 2023 Formula Regional Americas champion secured five top-five finishes, including one on his oval debut at Iowa, and a further three top tens over the season. He also featured on the podium on the streets of Detroit, where he had a third-place finish.
He secured his championship position of fourth, as the second-top rookie, in the final round at Nashville Superspeedway over the weekend despite a difficult race in which he finished 10 laps off the pace after taking damage on Lap 11.
With qualifying for the race abandoned due to rain, he had lined up fifth, based on his position in the championship entering the event.
Contact with Myles Rowe on Lap 11 damaged the #17, and HMD Motorsport were forced to box the car for repairs. Hedge eventually returned to the track to finish the race, albeit well off the pace.
Andretti Global’s Louis Foster, who secured the title last round at Milwaukee, drove to his eighth victory of 2024, ahead of rookie Yuven Sundaramoorthy, to finish with a dominant 122-point advantage over runner-up Jacob Abel.
Brazilian rookie Caio Collet completed the championship top three, 104 points ahead of Hedge, who finished one point to the good of Mexico’s Salvador de Alba.
Hedge has indicated a return to the Indy NXT Championship is on the cards for 2025 as he looks to go three better than he did this season.
For Foster, Nashville’s victory capped off a season of domination where he earned his eighth win in the last 11 races. He never finished lower than second in the final 11 races of the season, dating back to mid-May, and qualified on the front row in the last ten races.
In total, Foster led the series in wins (eight), poles (seven), laps led (362 of 640, 57 per cent), top-five finishes (13) and top-10 finishes (14) in 14 races this season.
After the race, he finally got to celebrate with some victory donuts.
“I would have loved to have done them at Milwaukee, but we had to baby the car for one more weekend,” Foster said of the celebration. “But now we can. Yeah, it’s good. If in doubt, go flat out.”
As a prize for winning the Indy NXT Championship, Foster receives US$850,000, which can be applied to an oval test at Texas Motor Speedway, the Indianapolis 500 open test and Rookie Orientation Programme, entry to the Indy 500, and entry for an additional IndyCar race.
Header Image: Penske Entertainment: James Black
