INDY NXT SERIES: GRAND PRIX OF MONTEREY RACE 2

July 27, 2025

Caio Collet

Callum Hedge

Josh Pierson

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Welcome as we wrap up the INDY NXT by Firestone Grand Prix at Monterrey, Race No. 2. Caio Collet, driver of the No. 76 HMD Motorsports car. Two wins this weekend. Third win of the season. Fourth of his career. Now just 42 points out of first place, cutting 52 points into that deficit over the weekend.

Josh Pierson also joins us. Again, driver of the No. 14 HMD car with two races and two positive podiums. A best career finish, runner-up finish this afternoon. Top 5 of 2025.

Also, joining us Callum Hedge, driving the No. 17 ABEL Motorsports car, with his first podium of the season. Second of his career. Callum started fifth today. Best finish since Detroit last year for Callum Hedge.

Caio, we'll begin with you. I'm not sure you could ask for a better weekend. Your thoughts on another double-win weekend for you.

CAIO COLLET: Yeah, it's just unbelievable. I never expected to come out like this like on Friday, to be honest. We just kept working hard. We had a great car all weekend. Yesterday was a tough race. Today a little bit easier. I mean, it's never easy, but it's like we made a little bit of an improvement in the car, and I could just drive a little bit better. Yeah, put a little bit of a gap in the beginning of the race.

After all the restarts, I think we did a good job on managing the restarts. And also my leg was, like, becoming a bit numb, pumping the brakes behind the cars.

It was a good weekend, and I couldn't ask for a better weekend, to be honest.

THE MODERATOR: Many thought maybe Dennis would be able to clinch the championship at Portland. That cannot happen now. That's how tight this championship has now become.

CAIO COLLET: I don't know what to say. I am always fighting for the win, and I think bad luck happens. I had it in Barber. He had it here with the contact. Hopefully we can put a good show into the end of the year, and I think whoever wins it really deserves it. I think Lochie is still in the fight as well.

THE MODERATOR: Top 5 are all still alive.

CAIO COLLET: It would be a nice end, I think, and we just have to keep pushing for more weekends like this.

THE MODERATOR: Josh, congratulations. Nice weekend here at WeatherTech Raceway. Some thoughts on your career best finish. On the restarts, did you have anything for Caio?

JOSH PIERSON: Not on the restarts, I didn't have anything for Caio. His pace was a lot stronger that mine. HMD rolled out a fantastic car for us. Happy to walk away with a one-two for the team. We had a great package. For myself, a career best finish. I'm very happy to walk away second. One step higher, but still trying to find that last step now.

So, yeah, really solid weekend for myself, and happy to walk away with second.

THE MODERATOR: Callum, long time coming. Detroit must seem like a lifetime ago when you were on the podium. Just your thoughts on a podium finish here at a legendary racetrack.

CALLUM HEDGE: It was a solid weekend. We've had a rough season so far. We really haven't been able to put together a weekend. Yeah, big thanks to the sponsors and the people behind me that have stood by my side, Tony Quinn Foundation, Giltrap Group, Steve Horne, and Tasman Motorsports group. Really owe a lot to them. This podium is for them. I want to make a special mention to the ABEL Motorsports crew for sticking behind me as well.

THE MODERATOR: All those legends helping you out this season. Questions, please.

Q. Caio, how was the situation with as many yellow flags, caution periods? Does this interrupt your rhythm also in the race?

CAIO COLLET: Yeah, a little bit. We got our rhythm going, and then suddenly everything -- like the gap that I had goes back to zero, and we have to do it all over again. We had a great car the whole weekend. Really happy for myself, but also for the team to finish one, three and one, two today. It's really, really amazing, and I think we needed a weekend like this. I'm just super happy for everyone.

Q. Caio, what was it about this track that you liked the most that kept you up in front?

CAIO COLLET: I don't know. It's just a track that I enjoy driving. A lot of flowing corners, so it's very technical. If you do a mistake, you're off in the gravel, so there isn't a lot of room for mistakes.

It's just an enjoyable place. It's not only to myself, but the team put together a great car, and my job was much easier on track. Big thanks to them. Hopefully we can do more weekends like this.

Q. Josh, this is your second podium of the weekend. How does that feel after your season?

JOSH PIERSON: It feels fantastic, honestly. Especially for us coming off of a rough year in '24, to be able to stand on the podium in both races here is really strong. Particularly this track last year I struggled at. Coming back and walking away with two podiums is fantastic.

If you had told me this is how my weekend was going to go, I wouldn't have believed you. I think as a driver, I still have lots more to work on and more to improve. So, yeah, just looking forward to the next time on a track and just trying to keep chipping away at what I can.

Q. First of all, for Caio, did you see in your mirrors what happened with Lochie and Dennis? How did you find out about it? What did you think when you heard that that happened?

CAIO COLLET: I didn't see any to look the video after to see what happened. I saw they were side-by-side on turn 11 on the restart, which I find a little bit odd, but I just focus on my race. After that I saw the yellow. I saw, yeah, they were both out. My engineer told me.

Obviously it's a mixed feeling. I mean, he's our main rival in the championship, but also you are racing for the win. Yeah.

Q. I know you spoke yesterday about the championship. I kind of just would like your take now with the gap down at 42 points. Does that give you more belief that it's still on, and how do you now go about approaching these last few races?

CAIO COLLET: Yeah, for sure. I think from now on anything can happen. There's a lot of points still to play, and I think we had a really strong weekend last year. The last two are oval, so anything can happen, to be honest. We just have to keep pushing to win the races.

Q. For Josh, you obviously came into INDY NXT at a pretty young age. Can you talk a bit about how you've managed and built up your expectations over time? Just take us a bit through kind of the journey of development that you've been on over these last two and a half years to now get to this point.

JOSH PIERSON: Yeah, it's been a pretty wild ride for me. I think especially with my early career. I was accelerated pretty fast to the World Endurance Championship and to IMSA. So pretty high-level sports car racing.

I was lucky to learn from some of the best in that area and those categories. You know, I had higher expectations for myself, the initial years in INDY NXT, but very quickly realized that we had a lot of to work on, especially from the -- it's just been a wild ride trying to piece things together and figure that all out.

Yeah, in total I think what I've accomplished in this brief amount of time has been pretty incredible, and I owe all that to Stephen Simpson, my driver coach; Alex Vedie, my engineer at HMD; and really all the guys there. Even some of the drivers like Caio have given me lots of pointers and help.

That's what makes this sport so special is we're all competitors, but we still have a friendly nature and a friendly side off the track.

Yeah, really grateful to everyone that's been helping me so far, and a really strong weekend for the No. 14 car.

Q. Can you take us through how this year has been for you. Moved teams and maybe not hit the heights that you did last season. How do you evaluate some of the progress you've made this year and kind of where it's stacked up against what your expectations were coming into the year?

CALLUM HEDGE: Yeah, we've had a pretty tough run, to put it bluntly. We've not really put together a weekend. We've really just struggled to carry out pace from testing into the race weekends and not really too sure where we've gone wrong there. We struggled a lot in the hot temperatures.

Yeah, we've spent a lot of time looking at it, trying to work on what we can do. Just a big credit to the ABEL Motorsports crew. They've stuck behind me. My sponsors have continued to back me all the way through the tough season.

Got a podium today. Obviously it was sort of helped out by the two in front of me coming together, but yeah, big credit, big thanks to all the guys for sticking behind me, and see if we can push on for the last few races this year.

THE MODERATOR: Quite a weekend. Thanks, everyone.