2026 Indy NXT

2026 Indy NXT season
Firestone Indy NXT Series
Season
Races	17
Start date	1 March
End date	6 September
Awards
←  2025 2027  →

The 2026 Firestone Indy NXT Series is scheduled to be the 40th season of the Indy NXT open wheel auto racing series and the 24th sanctioned by IndyCar, acting as the primary support series for the IndyCar Series. This will be 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]

Teams and drivers

All teams will use Dallara IL-15 cars with an AER produced Mazda sourced 2.0 litre engine and Firestone tires. The following drivers and teams are scheduled to compete in the series.

Team No. Drivers Status Round(s) Abel Motorsports 12 Max Garcia [2] R All 48 Jordan Missig [3] All TBA TBA TBC Abel Motorsports with Force Indy 99 Myles Rowe [4] All Andretti Cape Indy NXT TBA Nikita Johnson [5] R All TBA TBA TBC Andretti Global 26 Lochie Hughes [6] All 27 Sebastian Murray [7] All TBA TBA TBC TBA TBA TBC Chip Ganassi Racing [8] TBA TBA TBC TBA TBA TBC TBA TBA TBC TBA TBA TBC Cusick Morgan Motorsports [9] [10] TBA TBA TBC TBA TBA TBC HMD Motorsports [9] TBA TBA TBC TBA TBA TBC TBA TBA TBC TBA TBA TBC Juncos Hollinger Racing [11] TBA TBA TBC TBA TBA TBC TBA w/ HMD Motorsports [12] TBA TBA TBC TBA TBA TBC

Icon Status R Eligible for Rookie of the Year  RY  Rookie of the Year

Team changes

• On August 27, 2025, IndyCar team Cusick Motorsports announced it would enter two cars in the Indy NXT series in a technical partnership with HMD Motorsports that would also see the latter team scale back its Indy NXT program to four cars. ^[9] On September 5, 2025, Cusick Motorsports announced it had rebranded to Cusick Morgan Motorsports after its team director Billy Morgan. ^[10]
• On September 8, 2025, Juncos Hollinger Racing announced its return to the Indy NXT series. The team had previously competed in the series until the 2024 season, when it had elected to temporarily step back from competing in Indy NXT to focus on its IndyCar efforts. ^[11]

Driver changes

• On September 15, 2025, Abel Motorsports announced that 2025 USF Pro 2000 champion Max Garcia would graduate to Indy NXT with the team, driving the No. 12 entry for the 2026 season. ^[2]
• On September 22, 2025, Cape Motorsports announced Nikita Johnson would join the team for his full-time debut in the 2026 season after previously competing in two rounds with HMD Motorsports in 2025. ^[5]
• On September 23, 2025, Andretti Global confirmed that reigning champion Dennis Hauger would move up to the IndyCar series with Dale Coyne Racing. ^[13]
• 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. ^[7]

Schedule

The schedule was released on September 25. ^[14]

Icon	Legend
O	Oval/Speedway
R	Road course
S	Street circuit

Rd.	Date	Race name	Track	Location
1	March 1	Indy NXT by Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg	S  Streets of St. Petersburg	St. Petersburg, Florida
2	March 15	Indy NXT by Firestone Grand Prix of Arlington	S  Streets of Arlington	Arlington, Texas
3	March 28	Indy NXT by Firestone Grand Prix of Alabama	R  Barber Motorsports Park	Birmingham, Alabama
4	March 29
5	May 8	Indy NXT by Firestone Grand Prix of Indianapolis	R  Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course	Speedway, Indiana
6	May 9
7	May 31	Indy NXT by Firestone Detroit Grand Prix	S  Streets of Detroit	Detroit, Michigan
8	June 7	Indy NXT by Firestone at World Wide Technology Raceway	O  World Wide Technology Raceway	Madison, Illinois
9	June 20	Indy NXT by Firestone Grand Prix at Road America	R  Road America	Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin
10	June 21
11	July 4	Indy NXT by Firestone Grand Prix at Mid-Ohio	R  Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course	Lexington, Ohio
12	July 5
13	July 19	Indy NXT by Firestone Music City Grand Prix	O  Nashville Superspeedway	Lebanon, Tennessee
14	August 9	Indy NXT by Firestone Grand Prix of Portland	R  Portland International Raceway	Portland, Oregon
15	August 30	Indy NXT by Firestone at the Milwaukee Mile	O  Milwaukee Mile	West Allis, Wisconsin
16	September 5	Indy NXT by Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey	R  WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca	Monterey, California
17	September 6

Calendar changes

• Indy NXT will see the debut of the Grand Prix of Arlington. This will be Indy NXT's first race in the state of Texas since it held two races at Circuit of the Americas in 2019.
• Barber Motorsports Park, Road America and Mid-Ohio will hold double-headers for the first time since 2021.
• The Nashville round will no longer be the season finale and will instead be round 13, held on July 19, while the Monterey round will move from mid-July to the season finale, held on September 5 and 6.
• Indy NXT will not return to Iowa Speedway.

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
Points	50	40	35	32	30	28	26	24	22	20	19	18	17	16	15	14	13	12	11	10	9

• The fastest driver in each qualifying session will be awarded one additional point.
• Every driver who led at least one lap will be awarded a bonus point, the driver who led the most laps will get two points.

Entrants will score points in the same way drivers score points, including bonus points for pole position and laps led.

See also

• 2026 IndyCar Series
• 2026 USF Pro 2000 Championship
• 2026 USF2000 Championship
• 2026 USF Juniors

References

1. "Indy Lights rebranded for 2023 as "INDY NXT by Firestone"". MSN. Retrieved November 3, 2022.
2. Donahue, Jacob (September 15, 2025). "Max Garcia and ABEL Motorsports to Contest Rookie Season in INDY NXT by Firestone". Abel Motorsports . Retrieved September 15, 2025.
3. "Jordan Missig Returning to ABEL Motorsports in 2026". www.foxsports.com. Retrieved October 8, 2025.
4. Wood, Ida (September 5, 2025). "Myles Rowe commits to third Indy Nxt season and second with Abel". Formula Scout. Retrieved September 8, 2025.
5. "Cape Motorsports Announces Floridian Nikita Johnson will join it's 2026 Indy NXT Championship Campaign". Cape Motorsports . September 22, 2025. Retrieved September 23, 2025.
6. "Lochie Hughes Staying With Andretti Global in 2026". Indy NXT . October 7, 2025. Retrieved October 7, 2025.
7. "Seb Murray To Join Andretti Global for 2026 Season". Indy NXT . September 30, 2025. Retrieved September 30, 2025.
8. "Ganassi expanding Indy NXT program to four cars". RACER. October 7, 2025. Retrieved October 7, 2025.
9. "Cusick Team Joins Series in 2026 in Technical Alliance with HMD". Indy NXT . August 27, 2025. Retrieved September 8, 2025.
10. "Cusick Team Rebrands to Cusick Morgan Motorsports". Indy NXT . September 4, 2025. Retrieved September 9, 2025.
11. "Juncos Hollinger Racing Returning to INDY NXT in 2026". Indy NXT . September 8, 2025. Retrieved September 8, 2025.
12. "Indy NXT getting an overhaul ahead of 2026 | RACER". racer.com. Retrieved October 8, 2025.
13. "Coyne Hires Dennis Hauger for 2026, Enters Partnership with Andretti". IndyCar.com. September 23, 2025. Retrieved September 23, 2025.
14. "INDYCAR Announces 17-Race 2026 INDY NXT by Firestone Schedule". IndyCar.com. Retrieved September 25, 2025.

External links

• Indy NXT website