Siegel steps in as Hauger's race engineer for remainder of IndyCar season

Dennis Hauger has a new race engineer in Ben Siegel, who will look after the rookie for the rest of the season at Dale Coyne Racing.

Siegel made a name for himself with impressive stints as an assistant, development, and performance engineer at ECR before graduating into the lead race engineering role at Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. Siegel won with former RLL driver Christian Lundgaard at Toronto in 2023, and combined to form RLL’s most formidable entry during their tenure with the team.

Siegel takes over from Michael Cannon, who has been away from the team since the Long Beach Grand Prix while tending to personal matters. He stepped onto Hauger’s timing stand for the first time during the Tuesday-Wednesday Indy Open Test, where the Norwegian posted the 17th-fastest lap at 223.257mph.

“It’s an important time for us with Indianapolis coming next,” Hauger told RACER. “I feel there’s good energy and it will take time for the communication to develop between us to know what we’re saying about the car, but it’s been very positive already.”

The reigning Indy NXT champion’s year got off to a promising start with a surprise appearance in the Firestone Fast Six qualifying session at St. Petersburg and 10th-place finish in the No. 19 Honda. He experienced three lesser results before rebounding at Long Beach where the engineering combination of Mike Colliver and Mike Cicciarelli helped deliver Hauger and the No. 19 Honda to 11th.

Through five races, the Andretti Global-affiliated driver holds 16th in the Drivers’ championship and leads the Rookie of the Year standings over AJ Foyt Racing’s Caio Collet (21st) and Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Mick Schumacher (24th).