Monterey, Calif. (Saturday, July 26, 2025) – Brazilian driver Caio
Collet is not letting up in his pursuit of the INDY NXT by Firestone
championship.
Hours after scoring the top starting position for both Grand Prix of
Monterey races this weekend at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, the HMD
Motorsports driver led all 35 laps of the first race. Collet held off
series points leader Dennis Hauger of Andretti Global for his second
race win this season and his third overall over the past two years.
Collet’s margin of victory was .2092 of a second, making it the
closest INDYCAR-sanctioned INDY NXT by Firestone race at WeatherTech
Raceway Laguna Seca. Collet also is the series’ 11th consecutive pole
winner to reach victory lane at this 11-turn, 2.238-mile road course.
“I think at the beginning of the race we had a really good car with
pace,” Collet said. “I was just pushing, praying that everything
would stay under control.
“But with a few laps to go I started to see a lot of vibration on my
left front (tire), and I’m like, ‘OK.’ So, I worked with my tools,
and I could see Dennis was catching me, catching me, catching me. I was
counting down the laps, praying that the race was over soon.”
Collet also won the Grand Prix of Road America in June. He will start on
the pole for Sunday’s second race, set for 1 p.m. ET on FS1, FOX
Deportes, the FOX Sports app and the INDYCAR Radio Network.
Hauger entered the weekend with a string of five consecutive poles and a
76-point lead over Andretti Global teammate Lochie Hughes. With Hughes
among the eight drivers collected in a series of first-lap incidents and
finishing sixth, Hauger’s series lead grew to 81 points with Collet
now in the second spot. Hughes is third in the standings, 89 points in
arrears. Four races remain.
Hauger has finished first or second in eight of the 10 races this
season. He also has finishes of fifth (at World Wide Technology Raceway)
and eighth (in Race 1 on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course).
He will again start from the second position in Sunday’s 35-lap race.
HMD Motorsports’ Josh Pierson finished third, and he will start Race 2
from that position. It is his first career podium in 33 race starts.
The cars of Abel Motorsports’ Jordan Missig and Andretti Global’s
Salvador de Alba were out after taking contact in the race’s first few
corners. Other drivers involved in the incidents but able to continue
were HMD Motorsports’ Juan Manuel Correa and Max Taylor, Andretti
Global’s Hughes and James Roe, Chip Ganassi Racing’s Niels Koolen
and Andretti Cape Motorsport’s Sebastian Murray.
The race continued under green after that stoppage, which lasted four
laps.