Nolan Siegel regarded like a full-fledged IndyCar driver Saturday evening at World Broad Expertise Raceway.
The Arrow McLaren rookie, driving for his third staff since March, competed in his eighth NTT IndyCar Collection race and confirmed a brand new stage of pace and aggressiveness behind the wheel of the No. 6 Chevrolet.
Siegel went on the assault from the beginning of the 260-lap race, and whether or not it was charging throughout his out and in laps or trying and sometimes finishing daring passes, the 19-year-old used WWTR to exhibit his abilities and expertise in a severe approach. He crossed the end line in seventh, a pleasant enchancment over the pair of 12ths that beforehand stood as his greatest in IndyCar.
“I’ve gotten increasingly comfy each weekend,” Siegel advised RACER. “It simply takes time, and it’s exhausting in IndyCar once I’m in a spot the place I can’t afford to make loads of errors, both. It’s exhausting to discover a stability between being aggressive and discovering the restrict, but additionally not having any room for error. So I feel that has translated to being somewhat bit extra conservative than I ought to have been.
“This previous weekend the automobile was the most effective that it’s been since I’ve been in it. I feel that was our strongest weekend as a staff, aside from qualifying. I’ve at all times been comfy at Gateway (WWTR), so it was good to be racing up entrance. And I feel while you’re preventing for a podium quite than a number of spots on the again, it’s a enhance. It’s a distinct feeling, proper? So it was good to be preventing up there, and it pushed me to be extra aggressive.”
Siegel’s No. 6 entry additionally underwent a change of race engineer at WWTR with Robert Gue departing and Brian Campe becoming a member of the timing stand. Regardless of the newest shuffling inside the program, Siegel discovered a strong basis to construct from on the 1.25-mile oval.
“I feel that the entire staff has been by way of loads of adjustments, so I don’t suppose anybody’s actually settled in till now,” he stated. “So the main target has been on working each lap, ending the races, and now I feel the main target is shifting to producing outcomes, which in the end is the objective. Having Campe as properly, the race technique was aggressive. I used to be aggressive. We made loads of passes. The entire thing shifted from ‘let’s survive this race and collect factors’ to actually attacking and attempting to attempting to win. And that was loads of enjoyable for me.”
Monitor familiarity was an enormous assist for Siegel.
“I’m nonetheless studying a lot, however a minimum of Gateway was a spot that I’ve been to earlier than in Indy Professional 2000 and Indy NXT, and examined there,” he stated. “It was the primary time that I really feel like I’ve confirmed up at an IndyCar weekend, and in Apply 1, instantly been comfy quite than spending the beginning of the weekend studying. I spent the beginning of the weekend pushing exhausting, and I feel that it simply elevated our start line somewhat bit and allowed us to get to a greater spot for the beginning of the race.”
The subsequent problem for Siegel will probably be to carry onto the aggressive positive factors he made at WWTR and exhibit them this weekend on the street course in Portland, the weekend after on the Milwaukee Mile oval, and to shut the season at Nashville Speedway.
“I actually hope I can,” Siegel stated. “I feel there’s nonetheless going to be powerful weekends; I haven’t been to Milwaukee or Nashville, and there will probably be a studying curve at Portland. However I spent the summer season break in Indy and went to the sim, we examined at Gateway, and it was the primary time that I’ve been capable of take a step again from the racetrack and deal with among the issues you could’t get finished within the tremendous busy a part of the schedule.
“I’m extra comfy within the automobile as a result of we’ve made some changes to the cockpit; similar to little issues like that. After which we spent fairly a little bit of time at Portland on the sim, which I feel will probably be actually useful. So it’s the primary time that we’re going right into a stretch of races legitimately feeling ready, which is a pleasant change. I feel that Portland would be the strongest street course that we’ve had.
“It’s positively essentially the most ready I’ve felt for a street course up to now. After which Milwaukee and Nashville are unknowns as a result of I haven’t been there. However on the similar time, I feel if the automobile is as robust because it has been, prefer it was actually robust at Iowa, it was actually robust at Gateway, I don’t see any purpose it wouldn’t be that good at Milwaukee and Nashville, and having automobile makes all the pieces fairly a bit simpler.”
