Myles Rowe Makes History with First INDY NXT Win at Iowa

Yahoo

a day ago

With 14 laps to go in Saturday's Indy NXT race at Iowa Speedway, Myles Rowe muscled the high line passing championship leader Dennis Hauger for the lead en route to his first victory in the series. With the win, Rowe becomes the first Black driver to win in the IndyCar feeder series. The win follows a breakout second season for the driver, who finished second last month at WWT Raceway behind Lochie Hughes.
"We've been working, a minute, for this," Rowe told Fox Sports. "We knew we had the pace it was just about waiting until the last lap of the race and seeing that we could do it. I'm so ecstatic, it's really good. Abel Motorsports, they work so hard, my family, my support system, is amazing. I finally did it for them, we don't stop here, we're looking for a lot more than this."
Rowe's second year in INDY NXT is make or break as the sophomore driver looks to impress the IndyCar teams and find a seat in this upcoming silly season or the next. Rowe joined INDY NXT following his 2023 championship-winning season in the USF Pro 2000, becoming the first Black driver to win in an IndyCar-sanctioned event in 2021, and following it up with the championship in his third year.
With qualifying cancelled Friday, as the track was placed under a tornado warning, Rowe started fourth and played the waiting game. With Iowa's repave, the track is flat and the inside line is highly favored, with drivers only going high in passing attempts and to deal with traffic. Rowe waited until Hauger was stuck behind a lapped car and used his oval experience to make the pass coming to the start/finish line with 13 laps to go. He would lead the remaining laps.
"I knew that with the nature of the track being basically flat, especially starting on new tires, passing at the beginning wasn't going to be realistic, trying to wrap it around the outside," Rowe told Fox Sports Georgia Henneberry. "I knew I would have to come to traffic and be a little bit strategic and patient."
Hauger settled for second in just his second oval race of his career, coming to Indy NXT for his rookie season from the European Formula ladder. Hauger has been the runaway star of the Indy NXT season with five wins, but the learning curve is steep on ovals. Hanging on to second showed a better understanding at Iowa than in St. Louis at WWT Raceway last month, where Hauger faded from pole to fifth.
Hauger's Andretti teammate Salvador De Alba took the final spot on the podium after starting sixth. This is De Alba's first career podium in the series.
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