Foster back on top in IndyCar rookie of the year fight

Louis Foster took back the lead of the rookie of the year standings in the NTT IndyCar Series’ visit to Laguna Seca, where he also improved his impressive qualifying average this season by starting in the top 10.

Foster, who turned 22 on race day, has bumped his average starting position up to 11.86 which is among the best drivers in the series and reflective of Foster’s searing pace in his rookie season in IndyCar with Rahal Letterman Lanigan.

His elite mentality is on display every week as while most rookies would be happy with ninth in a 27-car field in their rookie season, Foster is always aiming for more.

“Being P8 and P9 is obviously good for the team, but I think we wanted to be a bit more from that,” said Foster, 

“So it's a little disappointing, I would say, but at the end of the day, we’re in the fight in the top third of the grid. The thing we’re focused on is the delta to P1 and closing that gap. We’ve got to put our thinking caps on.”

Foster has already taken his first pole position in IndyCar, at Road America earlier this season.

In the race at Laguna, all three RLL cars struggled to maintain position, and Foster dropped to 17th at the finish. He did have the 10th best out-lap, which is an art given the car is full of fuel and on ice cold tyres coming out of the pits making the car unpredictable.

“It was an average race for us,” added Foster, driver of the #45 Droplight RLL Honda.

“We struggled on pace and lost eight or nine places in the race. We will review the data to try to find out why and come back stronger. I thought we’d have a good race so it’s frustrating. 

“We will focus forward and work to improve.”

IndyCar’s run of six events in seven weeks gets a brief respite for one weekend, before the series returns at Portland on August 10.