The 2026 Indy NXT by Firestone was the 40th season of Indy NXT by Firestone, the second-highest class of American open-wheel car racing, and the 24th season sanctioned by IndyCar. This was the fourth year of the championship running under the Indy NXT moniker following its acquisition by Penske Entertainment, the owner of the IndyCar Series, in 2022.[1]
The championship was contested over 17 races, beginning in St. Petersburg on March 1 and ending in Laguna Seca on September 6. It was won by Cape Motorsports Powered by ECR driver Nikita Johnson, who in doing so also became Rookie of the Year.
NTT IndyCar Series team Cusick Motorsports entered two cars in Indy NXT in a technical partnership with HMD Motorsports, which had downsized to four cars.[36] In recognition of the changes made to Cusick Motorsports by team director Billy Morgan, the team was renamed to Cusick Morgan Motorsports.[22]
On September 30, 2025, Andretti Global announced that Sebastian Murray would move over from Andretti Cape Indy NXT to the main Andretti team for his second Indy NXT season.[10]
On October 14, 2025, Andretti Global announced their third driver in Max Taylor, who joined the team for his full-season debut after entering six events in 2025 driving for HMD Motorsports.[11]
On October 15, 2025, Cusick Morgan Motorsports announced that their first Indy NXT driver would be Nicolas Stati, who graduated from the Formula Regional Americas Championship.[23]
On October 21, 2025, Abel Motorsports announced that Colin Kaminsky would drive for the team in 2026 on his Indy NXT return after last competing in the series in 2023.[7]
On October 21, 2025, Andretti Global announced Josh Pierson as the final driver in its lineup, who moved over from HMD Motorsports for his fourth Indy NXT season.[12]
On October 24, 2025, Cusick Morgan Motorsports announced that Juan Manuel Correa would drive for the team in his full-time series debut.[25]
On November 6, 2025, A. J. Foyt Racing confirmed reports that it had signed 2025 Indy NXT runner-up Caio Collet to drive the team's No. 4 IndyCar entry.[40]
On November 14, 2025, A. J. Foyt Racing announced the second driver of their Indy NXT lineup would be Nicholas Monteiro, stepping up from USF Pro 2000, where he came tenth in 2025.[14]
On December 17, 2025, Chip Ganassi Racing announced their expanded four-car lineup: returnees Bryce Aron and Niels Koolen were joined by James Roe, who moved over from Andretti Global for his fifth Indy NXT campaign, and Carson Etter, who stepped up from USF Pro 2000 after finishing the 2025 season in 17th with Exclusive Autosport.[20]
On January 13, 2026, Juncos Hollinger Racing announced the first driver of the team's Indy NXT lineup in Ricardo Escotto, who returned to the series after being released by Andretti Cape halfway through 2025. Escotto had previously made his Indy NXT debut with Juncos for a part-time program in 2024.[33]
On January 15, 2026, HMD Motorsports announced that Salvador de Alba would move over from Andretti Global for his third year in the series, taking the final spot in their lineup.[26]
On January 31, 2026, Cape Motorsports announced their second driver in Matteo Nannini, who rejoined Indy NXT after last competing there in 2023 driving for Juncos Hollinger Racing.[17]
On February 19, 2026, Juncos Hollinger Racing announced the final driver of the 2026 grid in LMP3 driver and Indy NXT debutant Alexander Koreiba.[32]
Mid-season changes
One June 1, 2026, Cusick Morgan Motorsports announced that Yuven Sundaramoorthy would replace Nicolas Stati, who was unavailable due to prior commitments, at the WWTR round.[24]
On August 5, 2026, Jordan Missig and Abel Motorsports announced that Missig would end his season early after costs of damage sustained at Nashville were too high. For the remainder of the season, 2024 Indy NXT runner-up and IndyCar driver Jacob Abel would return to pilot the No. 48 car.[6]
Schedule
The 2026 Indy NXT by Firestone schedule was unveiled by IndyCar on September 25, 2025. A total of 17 races were included, the most for the series since 2021.[42]
On September 12, 2024, IndyCar announced that the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company had signed an extension to remain as the series' sole tire supplier until at least the 2030 season.[45]
On July 31, 2025, Fox Sports parent company Fox Corporation announced that it had acquired a one-third stake in IndyCar parent company Penske Entertainment. As part of the acquisition, Fox Sports' TV contract was extended to 2030.[46][47]
On December 11, 2025, IndyCar announced a new three-person independent officiating board for Indycar and Indy NXT, named IndyCar Officiating Inc. Two members – Ray Evernham and Raj Nair – were voted on to the panel by IndyCar team owners, while the third member – Ronan Morgan – was appointed by the FIA.[48]Scot Elkins was later announced as the managing director of officiating.[49]
The 2026 Indy NXT season began with 24 cars at the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, the series' biggest grid since 2009.[52]Cape/ECR's Nikita Johnson topped the first qualifying group, before Andretti's Max Taylor bettered his time in the second group to take pole position.[53] Taylor covered the inside entering turn one at the start of the race, but a move around the outside saw Johnson claim the lead. HMD's Tymek Kucharczyk slotted into third, before a caution was called at the end of the lap. Two more interruptions followed, but the top group remained static throughout. Taylor shadowed Johnson but was unable to deter him from winning as Kucharczyk held off Andretti's Sebastian Murray for third.[54]
Round two of the season saw a new venue for Indy NXT as A. J. Foyt's Alessandro de Tullio took pole position in qualifying around the Streets of Arlington.[55] The race, shortened to 30 minutes after a schedule change, began under yellow after HMD's Jack Beeton made a huge jump start, Abel's Colin Kaminsky heavily collided with the wall and Kucharczyk pushed poleman De Tullio into an escape road. The race restarted with HMD's Enzo Fittipaldi leading Kucharczyk and Taylor. The trio battled for the lead throughout the rest of the race, with Taylor sliding past Kucharczyk before eventually taking the lead after a second caution period. His maiden win saw him take the championship lead by ten points.[56]
The double-header at Barber Motorsports Park saw De Tullio notch up two more pole positions in qualifying.[57] The first race began with a caution before De Tullio and Taylor began gapping the field after it was withdrawn. Taylor closely shadowed the leader until the pair encountered two CGR backmarkers. Taylor made a move for the lead, De Tullio retook the place one corner later, and the pair collided. Both dropped down the order, with Johnson slipping through to take the lead. The collision saw a second caution, and no changes in the order occurred afterwards. Johnson took the victory, reclaiming the championship lead by 28 points, with Fittipaldi and Kucharczyk completing the podium.[58]
A day later, De Tullio and Taylor once again led the field to green. Taylor initially dropped behind Johnson at the start of the race, before passing him on lap two. The top three then began to pull away from the field, with Taylor remaining less than a second behind the leader throughout the race. On the final lap, Taylor shortened the gap to the leader to 0.3 seconds, but did not risk a move for the lead. De Tullio remained mistake-free to finally convert pole position to victory - his maiden Indy NXT win and A. J. Foyt Racing's first junior series victory since 2003. Johnson took third to remain championship leader as Taylor climbed to second place in the standings, 23 points behind him.[59][60]
The start of the second race of the 2026 Indy NXT Indianapolis Grand Prix
Another double-header at Indianapolis Motor Speedway followed, where De Tullio claimed pole position for the first race.[61] He ran wide at the opening corner, ceding the lead to Andretti's Lochie Hughes as Fittipaldi rose from tenth to fourth amid multiple first-lap incidents. The race was then halted when it started to rain, with all drivers switching to wet tires. Fittipaldi claimed second place off Taylor at the restart before a multi-lap battle with the leader saw him take the lead late on in the race. The race ended under caution, handing Fittipaldi his maiden series win and second place in the standings. Johnson claimed third after rising up the order in the wet and kept his 23-point standings lead.[62]
The second race at IMS saw Taylor start from pole position after setting the fastest second-best lap.[63] The race began with chaos as the top three all ran off in the opening corner. This allowed Kucharczyk, who had started fifth, to seize the lead. Taylor recovered to second and began chasing the leader. He attempted an overtake on lap 4, with Kucharczyk prevailing after slight contact. Taylor kept pressuring him, with Kucharczyk eventually suffering multiple lockups. Still, he held him off and was able to claim the first win for a Pole in Indy NXT history. Fittipaldi completed the podium in third as Johnson took sixth, his advantage over newly second-placed man Kucharczyk reduced to eleven points.[64][65]
Mid-season rounds
De Tullio earned his fifth pole position of the season in Detroit ahead of Taylor and Kucharczyk.[66] On the opening lap, Hughes collided with De Tullio at turn 3, dropping the polesitter several laps behind the field. Fittipaldi sustained front wing and nose damage in the ensuing chain reaction, while Kucharczyk took the lead. He held it until a restart on lap 27, when Abel/Force Indy's Myles Rowe attempted a diving pass for the lead at turn 3. Both drivers ran wide, allowing Fittipaldi to thread his car through to take the lead. He maintained the top spot through multiple restarts, ultimately winning under yellow ahead of Rowe and Kucharczyk to take a seven-point championship lead over Johnson.[67][68]
The season's first oval round at WWTR saw Hughes claim pole position as Rowe and Fittipaldi were both excluded from qualifying.[69] Hughes held the lead early on, while Rowe climbed up the order to 15th by the time an early caution came out. Pierson passed Hughes shortly after the restart as Rowe continued his climb, taking fifth on lap 28 before picking off the top four shortly thereafter and claiming the lead on lap 48. He managed the rest of the race afterwards to take a historic victory after starting last, as Hughes sank to sixth and de Tullio claimed second over Pierson. Fittipaldi had a technical issue at the start and ultimately came 13th, dropping two points behind Johnson in the standings.[70][71]
De Tullio took two more pole positions in qualifying for the Road America double-header.[72] The opening race began with multiple caution periods that disrupted the first half of the race. De Tullio managed that opening part from the lead as Hughes rose from fourth on the grid to second. A restart on lap nine then saw Hughes able to take the lead. He then built a 0.7-second lead over the field and controlled the rest of the race to claim Andretti's 100th win in series history. Teammate Pierson passed De Tullio on the final lap to make it an Andretti 1-2. Series leader Johnson finished sixth and championship chaser Fittipaldi suffered bad luck again, finished 22nd and dropped to third in the standings.[73][74]
The second race of the weekend began with contact between Hughes, Pierson and Beeton off the start that put all three drivers out of contention. De Tullio built a lead at the front as JHR's Matteo Nannini passed Johnson for second place. Kucharczyk meanwhile climbed up the order after starting 16th, reaching fourth by lap six before dropping back down to eighth after a restart. He spent the final ten laps fighting back to third place, but Nannini and De Tullio were too far for him to reach. De Tullio took victory, before a tire rule infraction saw him disqualified post-race. Nannini therefore claimed his second series victory, with Johnson taking the final podium spot to now lead Kucharczyk by six points.[75]
Pole position for both races at Mid-Ohio went to Fittipaldi, who broke the lap record on his fastest lap as he took his maiden P1 start.[76] De Alba and Beeton started behind him, before both got overtaken by Kucharczyk after an early caution period. Two more safety car interruptions followed, but Fittipaldi remained faultless on both restarts, leaving no opening for Kucharczyk to attack. His continuous pace advantage over the field saw him set the fastest lap on the final lap before he won the race. Kucharczyk, Beeton and De Alba completed a historic HMD Motorsports 1-2-3-4. Pre-race points leader Johnson equaled his worst finish of the season in seventh, handing a seven-point lead to Kucharczyk.[77]
Fittipaldi continued where he left off in race two, this time with De Tullio starting alongside him. The Argentine tried taking the lead on lap two, but ran off track and fell down the order. That handed second to Beeton, with Johnson following in third after overtaking Kucharczyk on the opening lap. Cusick Morgan's Juan Manuel Correa then also moved past Kucharczyk into fourth on lap eight as Fittipaldi began building a gap to the field. The race went ahead without interruption, allowing Fittipaldi to extend his lead to more than twelve seconds. The Brazilian took took victory again to sweep the weekend and claim a 17-point lead over Kucharczyk, with Johnson a further three points behind in third.[78][79]
Closing rounds
Nashville Superspeedway hosted the second oval round of the year, and Nannini claimed pole position in qualifying.[80] He held his lead as Johnson took second, before a caution came out when Correa collected a spinning car. Rowe challenged Nannini for the lead when the race resumed and overtook him on lap 18, before Nannini moved back in front. Another caution followed, before Hughes also entered the lead battle. Slight contact between Rowe and Hughes then allowed Nannini to build a gap, before Johnson was able to return to second. Nannini was unchallenged for the rest of the race and won, with Johnson retaking a single-point championship lead over Fittipaldi, who came eleventh.[81][82]
Qualifying in Portland saw De Tullio beat Hughes to take the eighth pole position of his campaign as championship leaders Fittipaldi and Johnson qualified ninth and twelfth.[83] Johnson dropped to 17th at the start as the top group held their positions. The top three of De Tullio, Hughes and Taylor remained unchanged throughout the race, with Kucharczyk spending the race in fourth to close up to the points leaders. Fittipaldi and Johnson worked their way up the order to minimize the damage to their lead, with the former finishing seventh to retake the championship lead by a single point over the latter in eighth. Kucharczyk's fourth place meant he was now 18 points off the lead.[84][85]
Pierson took his maiden pole position in qualifying for the penultimate weekend at the Milwaukee Mile.[86] He led Beeton and Kucharczyk from the start, controlling the opening stint as Kucharczyk first battled Beeton, but then ran high on lap 30, allowing Abel's Max Garcia through. A move on Beeton followed on lap 35, before Pierson spun out of an unthreatened lead on lap lap 54 and crashed. Garcia took the lead and easily held on to claim his maiden victory. Kucharczyk slipped down the order in the final stages, handing the podium places to Correa and Beeton and ultimately finishing twelfth. Johnson was able to move past Fittipaldi, take fifth place and claim a three-point championship lead.[87]
The first leg of the season-ending double-header at Laguna Seca began with another pole position for Pierson.[88] Kucharczyk started second, but contact with Rowe on the first lap saw him spin around and drop to 24th. Johnson avoided the incident and slotted into second place, with Garcia taking third. From that point on, Pierson controlled the race in front as Kucharczyk worked his way back up the order. Aided by a series of late cautions, he was able to recover to tenth place as the order at the front remained static. Pierson took his maiden victory as Johnson in second grew his championship lead over Fittipaldi, who finished eighth, with Kucharczyk now virtually out of championship contention.[89][90]
Kucharczyk started the final race of the season from pole position. Pierson in second was hit by Garcia and spun into Koolen, with Johnson narrowly missing the crash to slot into third. That became second when Garcia was handed a drive-through penalty for the incident. Kucharczyk led the field on the restart and pulled away. He dominated the remainder of the race and won by 6.5 seconds to collect maximum points in the championship fight. Still, with Johnson resisting pressure from Hughes to finish second and Fittipaldi recovering from twelfth on the grid to fifth at the finish, Kucharczyk ended the season third in the standings, with Johnson taking the championship title with a 29-point margin.[90]
Championship standings
Scoring system
Position
1st
2nd
3rd
4th
5th
6th
7th
8th
9th
10th
11th
12th
13th
14th
15th
16th
17th
18th
19th
20th
21st
22nd
23rd
24th
Points
50
40
35
32
30
28
26
24
22
20
19
18
17
16
15
14
13
12
11
10
9
8
7
6
The fastest driver in each qualifying session was awarded one additional point.
Every driver who led at least one lap was awarded a bonus point, the driver who led the most laps received two points.
↑van der Hook, Vincent (February 24, 2026). "Indy NXT: 2026 season guide". Feeder Series. Archived from the original on September 16, 2026. Retrieved September 16, 2026.
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Nikita Johnson 
