{"id":771617,"date":"2026-07-01T07:36:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T07:36:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/771617\/"},"modified":"2026-07-01T07:36:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T07:36:14","slug":"indycar-news-where-top-rookie-dennis-hauger-fits-into-silly-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/771617\/","title":{"rendered":"IndyCar news: Where top rookie Dennis Hauger fits into silly season"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Where
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDennis Hauger on track at St Petersburg. Image: Joe Skibinski<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Hauger currently drives for Dale Coyne Racing but is contracted to Andretti Global.<\/p>\n

He won the Indy NXT title with Andretti in 2025, which earned him an IndyCar berth via Coyne on loan.<\/p>\n

Andretti\u2019s line-up currently consists of Kyle Kirkwood, Will Power and Marcus Ericsson.<\/p>\n

Kirkwood is on a long-term team and Power is understood to be contracted through to the end of 2027, while Ericsson is off-contract.<\/p>\n

Hauger, a former Red Bull junior, was a standout performer on debut, qualifying a stunning third in St Petersburg before finishing 10th.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s had one other top 10 finish \u2013 eighth at the Indianapolis road course \u2013 in an otherwise low-key season.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Despite his inexperience, Hauger has outperformed his teammate Romain Grosjean. They sit 19th and 20th in the standings respectively.<\/p>\n

Hauger\u2019s position in the IndyCar silly season is an interesting one given his ties to two teams.<\/p>\n

A move to Andretti has been rumoured, though there have been no definitive reports that Hauger could switch teams in place of Ericsson.<\/p>\n

\"Dale<\/p>\n

Dale Coyne Racing driver Dennis Hauger. Image: Aaron Skillman<\/p>\n

Asked about his prospects for 2027, the Norwegian driver was coy.<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly, I don\u2019t know yet. Still pretty open, it seems, across the field of the grid,\u201d said Hauger.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, I just have to see the opportunities I can get.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know when I have a good car, I\u2019m capable of winning races and being up on the top.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we showed that when we had a good car in St. Pete. I qualified third for my first race, and I\u2019ve only gotten better, to be honest, as a driver from here.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, we have to look at what opportunities I get, whether that\u2019s with Dale Coyne another year, whether if it\u2019s with Andretti or if it\u2019s somewhere else.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think everyone kind of will slot in more for the next couple of weeks, and we\u2019ll know more by then.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now I\u2019m just focusing on my racing and trying to get the best results I can to show myself as well and also get the results for the team. Then we\u2019ll see where it takes us later in the year.\u201d<\/p>\n

When pressed further on his status with Andretti, Hauger said he \u201ccan\u2019t really talk about the contract stuff\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot too much to say there,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs I said, doing the best I can on track, and we\u2019ll see where it ends up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dixon\u2019s exit from Ganassi looms large in silly season shock<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

As it stands, Hauger is on course to win the rookie of the year title. His nearest rivals are Caio Collet in 23rd and Mick Schumacher in 24th.<\/p>\n

Collet is 30 points in arrears while Schumacher is 41 points back.<\/p>\n

Hauger said he hadn\u2019t given the gong much thought.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery weekend I just try to get the most out of myself and try and get good results,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe results we get and everything we do throughout the weekend is just an end result of the point standings and everything.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust taking it step by step in that sense and not really focusing on that specifically, but for sure you\u2019re only going to be a rookie once, so I want to get that for sure.<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully we can keep that going. 30 points is not a lot, so it can turn around quickly.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like there\u2019s potential for us to go even further, and hopefully we can start gaining even more points.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dennis Hauger on track at St Petersburg. Image: Joe Skibinski Hauger currently drives for Dale Coyne Racing but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":771618,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,206377,127880,806,805,803,804,85],"class_list":["post-771617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-dennis-hauger","tag-indycar-series","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=771617"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771617\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/771618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=771617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=771617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=771617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}