Foster takes IndyCar Rookie of the Year honors in Nashville

Louis Foster made use of a mistake by rival Robert Shwartzman to earn the IndyCar Series’ Rookie of the Year honors.

It was a mistake of his own early in the race with the No. 45 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda where the blocking of David Malukas, who crashed moments later when they made contact, was met with a drive-through penalty that tipped the RoY battle in Shwartzman’s favor.

But the PREMA Racing driver gave the advantage back when he matched the blatant blocking with the checkered flag almost in sight. His move on Santino Ferrucci led to contact, and like Foster, Shwartzman was summoned to pit lane for a drive-through of his own on the 220th lap of 225.

Until the move to impede Ferrucci was made, Shwartzman and the No. 83 Chevy were in full command of the RoY contest. With his penalty, the PREMA driver fell to 14th at the finish line, which was clear of Foster in 20th, but with the full-season tally completed, Foster earned 213 points to the 211 taken by Shwartzman.

“I'm super pleased,” Foster said. “I think one of the main goals we had this year was to win this title. A lot of bad luck at the start of the year meant it was probably closer than I would have wanted to be, honestly. Kind of had to hang on at the end and really hope that Robert messed up, which he did, because we didn't have the car today.

“Beside that, the RLL team have been absolutely incredible all year. We've had our ups and downs, but I think we've been able to bounce back from those downs pretty well. All credit goes to them.”

Shwartzman, also like Foster who wanted to find race director Kyle Novak to dispute his penalty, disagreed with the decision by race control.

“That’s the final round finished,” he said. “I don’t really have much to say after we lost the Rookie of the Year battle in the final few laps after my drive through penalty. I was defending my position on the restart and got the penalty, so we lost out on the title and on a top 10 finish as I was running eighth at the time. It’s a shame because the car was really fast and I was having a lot of fun, so I’m sure we could’ve finished in the top 10 even though I did make a mistake in the final pit stop. Thanks to the team for the great car; it felt really good all weekend – just a shame with the final result.”