Impressive race pace and top 5 finish for de Alba at Laguna Seca double-header
Andretti Cape INDY NXT took a trip to the west coast this weekend for a double-header event on the famous Laguna Seca course. The team fielded just one car, with Salvador de Alba piloting the #2 Grupo Indi entry for both races.
de Alba spun during his qualifying run on Saturday, and ended up touching the barriers along the front stretch with the nose of his car. After coming to the pits to have the crew replace the damaged front wing, he only had a short amount of time left to complete his qualifying runs. Since the single session set the grid for both races, de Alba was mired in the middle of the field for the start of both events.
Starting 15th for Saturday afternoon’s race, de Alba took care to keep out of trouble amid all the traffic. He gained one position when Reece Gold slid off the track on lap 6, then made a move to pass Callum Hedge shortly after the restart.
He was able to make up a couple more positions towards the end of the race, capitalizing on small mistakes from those around him. At the end of 35 laps, de Alba had gained four positions and earned an 11th place finish.
The work was not done yet for the weekend, and the Cape crew prepared for a second race just 24 hours later. On Sunday’s race, de Alba wasted no time moving up through the field from 11th as soon as the green flags flew. He pulled out of line to make it three wide coming into the first hairpin at Turn 2. Christian Brooks drifted wide into the gravel as he and de Alba raced wheel to wheel, but de Alba was in the advantageous position and completed the pass.
While defending against an attempt from Brooks to retake the position on the next lap, de Alba swiftly dodged around James Roe to move himself up into eighth.
He gained a couple more positions from a dust-up between Reece Gold and Jacob Abel as those drivers were battling for the final podium spot late in the race. de Alba also made a pass on Myles Rowe with less than 10 laps remaining, which moved him all the way into the top five.
The fifth place result was the best finish of de Alba’s young Indy NXT by Firestone career, and boosted him into ninth place in the overall points standings. The racer from Guadalajara was pleased to have two strong race performances coming off a bout of disappointing mechanical trouble at Road America.
The team returns to action in two weeks’ time for a race around Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, a track that features nearly as much elevation change as Laguna Seca.
Salvador de Alba
“Both races going forward. We started quite good out of the trailer, then struggled some. We said it’s time to follow our [Andretti] team-mates and that’s what we did. It was a pretty good race. The second one for sure we had way more speed than the first. First time top five in the race, that’s pretty good result and a good prep for the second part of the season.”