INDYCAR: Opening-lap tussle ends Louis Foster’s series debut prematurely
by William Soquet / LASTCAR.info Staff Writer
PHOTO: IndyCar
Louis Foster finished last for the first time in his NTT IndyCar Series career in Sunday’s Firestone Grand Prix on the streets of St. Petersburg when his #45 Mi-Jack Honda retired with damage without completing any of the race’s 100 laps.
The finish came in Foster’s first series start. Across NTT IndyCar Series history, it was the first for the #45, the 121st for Honda, and the 237th for damage-related reasons.
Born in the summer of 2003, Foster began his racing career in go-karts, then moved up to cars when he was 14. He spent one season each in junior formula, then British Formula 4, British Formula 3, and Euroformula. In late 2021, Foster jumped the Atlantic, running a pair of tests for Jay Howard Driver Development. Foster signed with Exclusive Autosport for the 2022 Indy Pro 2000 season and was the class of the field, winning seven races across all three types of track. A championship was almost a foregone conclusion by the time the final weekend began. Andretti Autosport signed the pilot for the 2023 Indy NXT season. There, Foster showed promise, winning two races and placing on the podium four other times, but was mired in a deep field and finished fourth in points behind Christian Rasmussen, Hunter McElrea, and Nolan Siegel. With none of those drivers competing full-time in the series in 2024, the championship was Foster’s to lose. He won it decisively. The last time he finished outside of the top two was at Indianapolis in May. By the time the season ended, he amassed a 122-point gap over second-place Jacob Abel. For comparison, in 2023 the gap between the two drivers was a mere 13 points.
After previously testing an IndyCar with Andretti Autosport at the end of 2023, Foster was forced to look for an IndyCar drive after his title-winning NXT campaign in 2024. IndyCar “silly season” was already in full swing by the time the season was over, with no fewer than four driver deals announced in the weeks following the season finale. Backed with a sum of scholarship money, Foster was one of several drivers in negotiations with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, which had two seats to fill. Christian Lundgaard was off to McLaren, and Pietro Fittipaldi’s seat was his only as long as he brought the funding. However, with the right combination of talent and funding, Foster locked down his seat pretty quickly. Although the initial release on October 9 did not include any mention of whether it would be a full-season drive or a partial-season ride, the team quickly clarified that Foster would indeed pilot the #45 car for the entire season.
Not only did several drivers swap seats for the new season, but entire team structures changed as well. Due to IndyCar’s new charter system, Chip Ganassi Racing contracted from five cars to three, releasing Linus Lundqvist and transferring Marcus Armstrong to Meyer Shank Racing. Prema Racing joined the grid with two entries, enlisting IndyCar veteran Callum Ilott and European formula ace (but IndyCar rookie) Robert Shwartzman.
Another rookie, Jacob Abel, trailed the field in first practice. Abel took over the Dale Coyne Racing #51 entry that rotated through six different drivers last year. The Kentuckian was eight tenths off Devlin DeFrancesco, who returned to the grid this season as Foster’s teammate at Rahal. Foster himself was 12th on the grid, placing between Christian Rasmussen and Conor Daly. Second practice saw a bit of a shakeup on the time charts, as DeFrancesco jumped to 15th on the charts, while Shwartzman was last, Abel was 25th and Foster was 21st.
Foster drew the second group in qualifying, and performed more than serviceably. He clocked in eighth – not enough to make the second round, but still ahead of Shwartzman, Alexander Rossi, Daly, Rasmussen, Sting Ray Robb, and Ilott.
Ilott was the 14th and final car in Group 2, and with no cars sent to the rear of the field before the race, he was alone in his row at the start of the race. He wound through the first complex of turns alone as chaos unfolded in front of him. Nolan Siegel, who started 11th, had to check up ahead of the right-hand Turn 4. Will Power, the 13th starter, got into the back of him, and both caromed into the wall on drivers’ left. Foster was collateral damage, as his machine turned around in the mess.
All three cars left the track and did not return. For a while, IndyCar timing and scoring showed Foster in the 27th and final position, but the FOX leaderboard showed Power in 27th. Eventually, the differences were reconciled, with Foster showing in last across the board. Outside of the three cars that retired in the opening-lap crash, the Bottom Five was filled by Marcus Armstrong, the only other car to retire from the race, and Abel, the last car running under power.
LASTCAR STATISTICS
*Somewhat surprisingly, this is the first last-place finish for the #45 in the IndyCar Series (1996-present).
*Foster is the 17th different British driver to finish last in an IndyCar Series race.
THE BOTTOM FIVE
27) #45-Louis Foster / 0 laps / accident
26) #12-Will Power / 0 laps / accident
25) #6-Nolan Siegel / 0 laps / accident
24) #11-Marcus Armstrong / 46 laps / damage
23) #51-Jacob Abel / 99 laps / running
2025 LASTCAR INDYCAR SERIES OWNERS CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (1)
2025 LASTCAR INDYCAR SERIES MANUFACTURERS CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Honda (1)
2025 LASTCAR INDYCAR SERIES DRIVERS CHAMPIONSHIP
