On Lap 4 of the race, Ricardo Escotto and teammate Sebastian Murray made wheel-to-wheel contact on the straight just a few hundred metres out of The Keyhole.
Murray’s car spun around onto the nose of Escotto, and as it hit the Armco barrier was launched into the air and into a roll.
Both drivers were able to walk away from their respective wrecks and were assessed at the onsite medical centre. They were released without any injuries.
“It’s super unfortunate,” said Murray.
“Honestly, I’m not really sure what happened. We’ll have to have a look at the video when we get back.
“I’m just glad everyone is okay. Massive thank you to the safety team, they’ve done a great job. They were on the scene very, very quickly. Massive thank you to them.
Secure your spot today.
“Obviously apologies to the team. It’s been a good weekend so far and we were hoping to make our way up, but things happen.
“We’ll move forward and hopefully we can perform better.”
Escotto, who was seen kneeling down after the incident, said he was physically fine but was angered by the clash.
He blamed Murray for drifting across the track and causing the contact.
“I’m okay. It was a very scary one,” he said.
“Thanks to the AMR Safety Team, I’m all right — just a bit frustrated and very angry.
“It took me a lot to be contained and try to calm me down. It was a very unfortunate incident, especially having my teammate beside me.
“It just feels bad that we are in this situation, because at the end of the day we shouldn’t be racing like that.
“We were on the straight and he moved and obviously that makes contact. The racing is very close, very close margins. When you make a mistake like that, it just comes to this.
“I’m just happy I didn’t even get to see him as much because it was hard to control myself.”
After a lengthy clean-up, Hauger went on to dominate the 33-lap race.
The former Red Bull junior defeated ex-Alpine Academy driver Caio Collet by 3.3s while Australia’s Lochie Hughes was 5.9s adrift in third.
“It was not easy. The first couple of laps were not the easiest,” Hauger said of the race restart.
“Once we got into a rhythm, it was just spot on. We just had a perfect race, so we’re happy about that.”
With his fifth victory this season, Hauger extended his lead in the standings over Hughes to 47 points with six races remaining.
Indy NXT returns on Sunday, July 13 (AEST) at Iowa Speedway in support of IndyCar.
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