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Sunday afternoon at Barber - The Indy NXT race…
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…will be remembered for how many of the cars ended up out of the race before crossing the flag stand at the end of it. Only 8 of the 18 starters were on the lead lap as they crossed the finish line. First across was pole-sitter Christian Rasmussen for HMD Motorsports who led the whole way. P2 went to teammate Nolan Siegel from his P2 start while P3 was Toby Sowery who started P5, also for HMD.
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As Christian led the field away at the start Jamie Chadwick for Andretti Autosport got squeezed in Turns 1 and 2 and took suspension damage. She was able to motor to the pits to begin repairs. On lap 3 Kyffin Simpson for HMD tried to go inside Hunter McElrea for Andretti in Turn 5, taking them both off the track with damage. Kyffin motored to the pits, first with Hunter limping behind. Both would rejoin later, laps down as did Chadwick. On lap 7 Danial Frost for HMD took P4 from Toby Sowery, with Josh Green for HMD following through to P5. On lap 12 Jacob Abel for Abel Motorsports was able to get alongside the outside Matteo Nannini for Juncos Hollinger in Turn 17 and was slightly ahead of him as they began the run up the front straight, but Matteo veered right into Jacob, spinning them both out and bringing out a full-course caution.
While circulating under the yellow, Reece Gold for Juncos pitted with what appeared to be a clutch problem - done for the day. The race restarted on lap 18. On lap 19 Danial Frost went off in Turn 1 and came back on, but not before he had lost P4 to Toby Sowery and P5 to Josh Green. James Roe for Andretti was then able to pass Danial for the P6 spot, but a few laps later Race Control made Row give the spot back due to blocking. On lap 26 Louis Foster for Andretti hit the curbing in Turn 9 hard, launching him into the air and sending him into the barriers, with damage, bringing out another FCC. That yellow turned to a red flag as the truck dispatched to collect Louis got stuck in the mud and needed collecting itself. All cars pitted and shut off their engines.
When the race was restarted on lap 31, Jagger Jones’ Cape Motorsports Dallara refused to restart, leaving him in the pits. Cape Motorsports driver Enaam Ahmed passed James Roe to take P6. For the rest of the race the battles were between Nolan in P2 and Toby in P3, and Josh Green in P4 and Danial in P5 - very close racing. On the final lap, lap 35, Danial made a lunge at Josh in Turn 12 and hit the curbing hard enough to get all four wheels in the air, as he slammed into Josh, pushing him off the track and out of the race. Danial lost his front wing but was able to motor around to the finish line. Christian crossed the finish line 1.9 seconds ahead of Nolan, who was a half a second ahead of a charging Toby Sowery.
Hard racing and carnage.
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Notable:
- At the end Jamie Chadwick and Hunter McElrea were 3 laps down, Kyffin Simpson was called in by Race Control and 6 cars were calling the Dallara Parts Man.
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Your WINNER Christian Rasmussen for HMD Motorsports:
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With this result, here are the TOP FIVE in points leaving Barber:
1 - Christian Rasmussen, 86
2 - Nolan Siegel, 81
3 - Danial Frost, 73
4 - Ernie Francis, Jr., 52
5 - Jacob Abel, 52
NOTE: Race Control may yet assess a penalty for Danil Frost that will change his finish order and thus his points.
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The next outing for Indy NXT will be at Indianapolis on the road course, in support of the IndyCar race, May11-13. Next up, the big car race. The grid for this is in post # 18…
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