Can Nolan Siegel Pull The Hat Trick

Alex Palou is going for his third straight win in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES on Sunday. Can Nolan Siegel do the same a few hours prior in the INDY NXT race?

Siegel just graduated high school a few weeks ago. Now, the 18-year-old is eyeing a third straight win in as many races.

He won the second leg of the doubleheader in Detroit last month, he followed that up with a big win the last time out in Road America and is now looking for his third straight win on the season this Sunday in Mid-Ohio (11:30 a.m. ET, Peacock, INDYCAR Radio Network).

As a result of two straight wins, he’s opened up a 40-point lead in the championship standings after entering the last race two points behind.

In six starts this year, he has a top two in three of them.

He’s made six USF2000 starts (16th, 17th, 3rd, 9th, 5th, 6th) at Mid-Ohio and two in the Indy Pro 2000 Series (3rd, 7th).

He starts sixth.

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Andretti Autosport

It’s been a wild season thus far for the storied organization. They’re 0-for-6 in regards to race wins. Last year, they won 7 times. I thought Road America the last time out would be the spot that they picked up their first win as they swept the podium there in 2022. However, their best finisher on that day was third.

Now, maybe Mid-Ohio is the spot.

Nolan Siegel hasn’t had a ton of success here before while Andretti has won 9 of the last 10 here. They went 1-2-4-5 in this very race last season and defending race winner, Hunter McElrea returns and eyeing his first win of the season.

McElrea charged from 13th to finish third in Road America as he now has three top four finishes in his No. 27 entry in the last four races run. It’s just can he start the race from a better position? He will roll off fourth on Sunday.

Louis Foster could be the next best for them. He has three top six finishes in the last four races including two of which being on the podium. He starts on the front row in second.

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Can Christian Rasmussen Rebound?

Christian Rasmussen picked a bad day to have a bad day in Road America. He finished last. Nolan Siegel won. Rasmussen’s points lead went from +2 to -40. Can he rebound on Sunday?

So far, yes. Rasmussen won the pole on Saturday afternoon. Good thing for him, qualifying is everything here. He should know too.

He finished fourth here last year and needs at the very least a podium to keep this from getting out of hand.

Rasmussen has won here in every step. He won in 2019 in USF2000 in a weekend he finished 1st and 2nd respectively. He won four of the six visits in 2020 with finishes of 1st, 1st, 1st in one race weekend and 14th, 20th, 1st in the other.

In four Indy Pro 2000 starts here in 2021, he was 1st, 5th, 1st and 3rd.

That’s 13 Mid-Ohio starts with 7 wins.

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Top Stat

12 of the last 13 races here were won from the front row including 9 straight. 10 of those 13 races were won from the pole. The last 20 Indy Lights races here were won from the top two Rows.

Weekend Schedule

Friday:

1:55-2:40 pm: Practice

Saturday:

8:35-9:20 am: Practice

2:05 pm: Qualifying

Sunday:

11:35 am: Command

11:40 am: Green Flag (35 laps or 55 minutes)