Hauger hurries to Milwaukee pole with Indy NXT title in sight

Dennis Hauger’s grip on the 2025 Indy NXT by Firestone championship trophy got a bit tighter after a record-setting qualifying performance Saturday at the Milwaukee Mile.

Hauger won the pole for the Indy NXT by Firestone at the Milwaukee Mile with a two-lap average speed of 152.639mph in the No. 28 Nammo car of Andretti Global. That’s a track record for a two-lap average for the IndyCar development series, breaking the mark of 151.180mph set by Louis Foster last season.

“Qualifying, we’re there,” Hauger said. “Feels really good. We still have stuff to work on for the race. Hopefully we will figure that out tomorrow.

“I’m super happy. A great step forward for tomorrow’s championship clinch. That’s the goal, so we’ll keep pushing.”

Hauger leads Caio Collet by 54 points – exactly the maximum that can be scored in a race – entering this event with two races to go this season. He will earn a bonus point for pole and only needs to finish ahead of Collet in the race Sunday (11:30 a.m. ET, FS1, FOX One, FOX Sports app, IndyCar Radio Network) to seal the championship. Collet is starting seventh in the No. 76 HMD Motorsports machine.

This was the seventh pole this season for Hauger, who also has won six of the 12 races so far.

Salvador de Alba qualified a career-best second at 151.739mph in the No. 27 Grupo Indi car, as Andretti Global drivers locked out the front row. De Alba appeared to be headed toward a pole run after his opening lap of 153.773mph, breaking the one-lap track record of 151.952mph set by Mark Hotchkis in 1996. But de Alba slowed to 149.758mph on his second trip around the 1.015-mile oval.

“I’m not 100 percent sure what happened on lap two,” de Alba said. “The car was on rails on lap one, but lap two wasn’t the same.”

Callum Hedge qualified third – tying his season best – at 151.336mph in the No. 17 Abel Motorsports machine. Lochie Hughes was the third Andretti Global driver in the top four qualifying spots, stopping the clocks at 150.869mph in the No. 26 McGinley Clinic/USF Pro Championship car.

Myles Rowe, winner of the most-recent oval race at Iowa, qualified fifth at 150.857mph in the No. 99 Abel/Force Indy car. He will be joined in the third row of the starting grid by Bryce Aron, who qualified sixth at 150.852mph in the No. 9 Chip Ganassi Racing entry.

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