Hauger looking to seal IndyCar's Rookie of the Year crown - and strengthen case for a 2027 ride

IndyCar’s three rookies have managed to find each other in the Rookie of the Year championship and arrive at Laguna Seca stacked 22nd, 23rd, and 24th in the Drivers’ standings with a single race left to determine whose name will be inscribed on the RoY trophy.

Dale Coyne Racing’s Dennis Hauger, the 2025 Indy NXT champion, leads the trio in 22nd with 223 points and has Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Mick Schumacher (205) and AJ Foyt Racing’s Caio Collet (193) in tow as the cluster of RoY contenders look to close their first chapter in the IndyCar Series in style.

For Hauger, who hopes to stay with the Coyne team for 2027, delivering the RoY to his team owner and crew would be a perfect end to a long season.

“It would be really cool to win it,” Hauger told RACER. “There’s some incredible names who’ve won it, and then you think about what they’ve achieved after winning it, so it would be a meaningful thing to win for me. It’s the only thing I can win this season, so yeah, it’s what I want to get for myself and for the Coyne team.”

The Norwegian opened 2026 with championship-winning race engineer Michael Cannon in charge of the No. 19 Honda. But that changed after four races, and the changes continued until Ben Siegel was hired by Coyne to finish the year with Hauger.

Siegel and Arrow McLaren’s Christian Lundgaard formed a powerful duo during their time at RLL, and with his inclusion at Coyne, Hauger has benefited from Siegel’s talent and the consistency he’s brought which every rookie needs.

“I really like Ben; he's a great guy and we work pretty well together,” Hauger said. “Obviously, it’s not been easy. I think Caio obviously has had that stability with the same engineer. Mick, I think, has chosen to change engineers, but for me, it's been more of forced changes with engineers because of different situations. But that got me to Ben in the end, which is good, and to get some more consistency has been good.

“The first half of the season was the best statistically because we were P14 or something in the championship at the time, and it's been a bit more of a rough second half of the season, but I think there's different reasons for that. But overall, we've been working really well together. He's a super guy, and creates some good atmosphere in the team as well.”

The 23-year-old hopes to be retained by Coyne, but like many drivers heading to Monterey, his future after Sunday’s season finale is both undecided and in the hands of others who will choose whether he get to continue and have a sophomore year in IndyCar.

“Coming into year two, if I've had a second year in that series, has been always really good for me,” he said. “You just go into that year with a bit more knowledge, you what you need, and that just brings another level of confidence. I know my capabilities. It's just about putting things together, so I'm hopeful that I can show that next year.

"It's the only thing you work for as a young driver. You have your focus on one thing, and that's winning and doing the best you can on track. So that's literally all I have my focus on right now.

“Hopefully we can find something good next year. I'm not sure what the future holds 100 percent yet. I think it's looking better and better, but I haven't signed anything, so it's always a bit of a rough part of the year, I guess. You’re trying to settle something down, get some weight off your shoulders and know that you just have to go out there now and start pushing and working. But we'll see. Right now, I can just control what I do on track and try and show that I should stay. Hopefully, we can have a good week here and get the rookie championship.”