By: Ashley McCubbin

If you go into a series and you win the opening two races, you are certainly going to catch everyone’s attention. Dennis Hauger accomplished that feat with Indy NXT last season, winning the opening two events.

It brought forth a new nickname – Norwegian Nightmare – and was the start of a memorable campaign as he won the championship six wins and 11 podiums in the 14 races.

“I mean, obviously it meant quite a lot,” he told News From The Pits. “Just winning that championship—there’s some pretty cool names on that list of champions—but also it gave me an opportunity to go to IndyCar, which is a dream come true in itself. So yeah, that title meant a lot for many different reasons, I’d say.”

Hauger has now got the opportunity to run this NTT IndyCar Series season for Dale Coyne Racing, scoring five top-15 finishes through the 13 races this season.

“Just bigger, faster, heavier, more aero—like everything is just a little bit more,” he offered. “But I felt like the car itself felt pretty natural to get into for me. But it’s also so much about strategy. The race is like two hours. Some tracks have over five pit stops, it’s pretty crazy, so that definitely took a bit more time to get used to and understand more of. But yeah, everything’s just bigger and better.

Beyond the car, Hauger notes the emotional aspect of the roller coaster of the series has also been surprising.

“You never really know where you’re going to end up until the very end, so you’ve just got to keep on pushing, keep on working with the team, trying to get better and better,” he continued. “But yeah, that’s definitely been one of the bigger ones.”

As he chases his second top-10 of his first career, Hauger says finding consistency and improving in qualifying.

“I think the races have been pretty good for us, especially at times, but qualifying is probably where I can work a little bit more, just around that one-lap pace, which is kind of surprising to me because that’s what I was good at last year,” he explained. “But it’s obviously a bit different here with the tires and the compounds. So, that’s something I’m still working on, and there’s still like—as a rookie, there’s still so many things to explore and work on. So, it’s just about learning every weekend and trying to gain as much experience as possible.”

This weekend will bring a new challenge with the streets of Markham, a track that nobody has experienced yet.

“Obviously, a new track, which is always fun,” he commented. “You just have to adapt and try and guess right before you get there kind of. So, that makes everything a bit more interesting as well. But hopefully we can carry some of that momentum in Portland, finishing 13th and keep going from that. That would be really good, and finish the season strong.”