After a banner year in 2024, Indy NXT returns in 2025 with another packed grid and a new, lucrative television deal with Fox Sports. In this season preview, Feeder Series tells you all you need to know about the IndyCar support series’ 2025 season.

By Jeroen Demmendaal

All things considered, 2024 was an excellent year for Indy NXT. A dominant champion, exciting and competitive rookies, first-time winners, great racing across the board: last year’s season had everything a racing fan could wish for. On top of those, three more drivers graduated to the IndyCar Series, including an early title contender who left halfway through the season to join a top IndyCar team.

In other words, Indy NXT did exactly what it was meant to do. In 2025, it plans to build on that success, with a healthy field of 21 cars and an important new television deal with Fox Sports for the United States market. Fox will broadcast all sessions nationwide via its sports channels and its streaming app, which will likely boost television audiences. That in turn should help drivers and teams bring in more sponsors, improving the overall health of the series for years to come.

As per usual, Indy NXT will hand a scholarship to the series champion to ease their graduation into the IndyCar Series. The 2025 champion will receive $850,000, a prize that is to be used to fund a rookie oval test, participation in the Indy 500 open test, and an entry for the 2026 Indy 500 and one more 2026 IndyCar race.

The calendar

The changes from the 2024 to the 2025 calendar are fairly minor. There are no new tracks, but the gap between the first two races is now a full two months. The oval race at Gateway has moved from August to June, Road America has moved back two weeks to late June, and the doubleheader at Laguna Seca is now a month later at the end of July. The final three rounds now all take place one to two weeks earlier, and as in IndyCar, the entire season will have wrapped up by the end of August at Nashville Superspeedway.

• Round 1: Streets of St Petersburg, Florida (2 March, street circuit)
• Round 2: Barber Motorsports Park, Alabama (4 May, road course)
• Rounds 3–4: Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course, Indiana (9–10 May, road course)
• Round 5: Detroit Street Circuit, Michigan (1 June, street circuit)
• Round 6: Gateway, Illinois (15 June, oval)
• Round 7: Road America, Wisconsin (22 June, road course)
• Round 8: Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, Ohio (6 July, road course)
• Round 9: Iowa Speedway, Iowa (12 July, oval)
• Rounds 10–11: Laguna Seca, California (26–27 July, road course)
• Round 12: Portland International Raceway, Oregon (10 August, road course)
• Round 13: Milwaukee Mile, Wisconsin (24 August, oval)
• Round 14: Nashville Superspeedway, Tennessee (31 August, oval)

The format

All road course and street circuit rounds usually comprise two practice sessions, a qualifying session and a race. In the event of a double-header, there are two back-to-back qualifying sessions. On ovals, there is usually only one practice session followed by an individual qualifying run for each driver, with the starting order determined by each driver’s two-lap average pace.

On road and street courses, the series will continue with the IndyCar-style qualifying format it introduced in 2024. The field is split into two qualifying groups based on practice times. The faster group, with the fastest driver overall, gets the inside line and all odd-numbered start positions for the race. During double-header weekends, the two best qualifying laps of each driver set their starting positions for the first and second races respectively.

Points are handed out to all entered drivers in accordance with the IndyCar points system. That means a race win generates 50 points, second place 40, third place 35, fifth place 30, 10th place 20 and 20th place 10. The polesitter gets an additional point, as does every driver who leads at least one race lap. The driver leading the most laps gets two additional points.

Where to watch

In the US, Indy NXT broadcasts are part of the Fox Sports package and will appear on dedicated sports channels FS1 and FS2. In most of Europe and elsewhere, Indy NXT will be on a paid stream via IndyCar Live.

Teams and drivers

HMD Motorsports

You’d be forgiven for thinking HMD is slowing down – after all, they only have nine cars in 2025 after showing up with ten in 2024. All joking aside, HMD is still the big kahuna of the series, but they have quite a bit of change on the driver front. Nolan Siegel is now at McLaren IndyCar’s squad; Myles Rowe, Callum Hedge and Jonathan Browne have switched teams; Reece Gold, Christian Brooks and Christian Bogle have left the series altogether.

The unofficial team leader is Brazilian crowd favourite Caio Collet (#23), who is also Nissan’s reserve driver in Formula E. The three-time F3 race winner had a good rookie season in 2024 with HMD, but he was unable to compete consistently with leading duo Louis Foster and Jacob Abel and had to settle for third overall. Winning the title will be the 22-year-old’s only goal this year, but he will have to improve his oval racing and reduce the number of unforced errors he makes.

Josh Pierson (#14) returns for a third season, his second full time, in Indy NXT. Still only 19 years old, Pierson has a relative wealth of racing experience in open-wheel and sports car racing, most recently finishing seventh in FR Oceania over the winter. Nevertheless, 14th overall in 2024 was hardly earth-shattering, and the youngster from Oregon will have to make a real jump in performance this year if he is to achieve his ambition of reaching IndyCar.

Nolan Allaer (#11) is another HMD sophomore. The 22-year-old Michigander made the jump up to Indy NXT last year from Formula Ford racing in the UK. Despite that challenge, Allaer applied himself well in 2024 and scored a couple of top-10 finishes in a part-time season.

Joining from Andretti for his second year and seeking to challenge for wins is Bryce Aron (#39). A mid-table runner in GB3 and a race winner in Euroformula Open, Aron, 21, was the lowest classified Andretti driver in 2024. Having said that, the Illinoisan’s pace improved steadily throughout the year, and he grabbed five consecutive top-eight finishes in the final five races, including a podium at Portland.

The HMD rookie class is led by two more F3 veterans. Popular German driver Sophia Floersch (#24) will bring a lot of extra eyeballs to Indy NXT as she exchanges the F1 ladder for IndyCar’s. Her pre-season pace in testing was encouraging, and she has said she enjoys Indy NXT’s Dallara IL-15 car and Firestone tyres better than the Pirelli-shod F3 car. It will be a year of learning for the 24-year-old, but she is capable of springing a surprise or two.

The same goes for her former teammate at Van Amersfoort Racing, Australian Tommy Smith (#16). Like Floersch, he often struggled for results in F3, with only one points finish in two seasons, but Indy NXT should present a good new challenge for the 22-year-old after four years on the European open-wheel ladder. Smith has also posted some good times in testing but, like Floersch, faces a familiar challenge in 2025 in that he has never raced at any circuit on the schedule. He joined Pierson in warming up for the season with FR Oceania but failed to score a podium.

Another exciting rookie destined to draw attention is Hailie Deegan (#18). The 23-year-old from California has spent much of her entire racing career in stock cars and off-road racing and has only two prior open-wheel starts in FR Americas, so a switch to Indy NXT is a monumental challenge. Predictably, she has been at the bottom of the timesheets in pre-season testing, but at every track she has improved by leaps and bounds throughout the session. This is set to be the first of a planned two-year campaign, so the real test will come in 2026.

Then there is Liam Sceats (#30), the New Zealander who came to America in 2024 off the back of runner-up finishes in both FR Japan and FR Oceania. The 19-year-old had a strong season in USF Pro 2000 with TJ Speed Motorsports, finishing fifth with a win and four further podiums. We know for certain that he will race at St Petersburg, but there are still questions about whether he has enough budget for a full season.

That leaves the #18, which becomes HMD’s de facto assessment car. It will be piloted by three drivers throughout 2025, all of whom are prime candidates for a full-time seat in 2026 if they can impress.

Nikita Johnson, a standout in USF Pro 2000 and USF2000 in recent years despite his tender age of 16, will take the wheel at St. Petersburg, Indianapolis and Nashville; reigning USF Juniors champion and four-time USF2000 race winner Max Taylor drives in Barber, Detroit, Iowa and Laguna Seca; and HMD academy driver Evagoras Papasavvas races at Gateway, Road America and Mid-Ohio. The 17-year-old Cypriot-American will also serve as a reserve driver for HMD at all rounds.

Andretti Global

Andretti returned to the top of the standings in 2024, grabbing the drivers’ title with Louis Foster and securing the teams’ championship. But like HMD, Andretti has had substantial turnover on the driver front, as Foster, Jamie Chadwick and Bryce Aron have all left the team.

The only driver remaining from last year’s line-up is James Roe (#29), who enters his fourth Indy NXT season after finishing sixth last year. The affable Irishman has improved every season since his debut in 2022, taking his maiden pole and leading the most laps at Iowa, but his progress in 2024 wasn’t as strong as he would have hoped. The 26-year-old is still waiting for his first win, and he needs more consistency if he is to challenge for the top spots in the championship. Fourth time’s the charm?

Arguably the highest-profile arrival in the series is Dennis Hauger (#28), the 2021 F3 champion and a five-time winner in F2. Some assume that the Norwegian will win the title with his eyes closed, and he might very well do so based on pre-season testing pace. On the other hand, his F2 form has been all over the place over the course of three seasons, and both car and tracks are new to him. Either way, the 21-year-old is an exciting addition to the field.

The same goes for Lochie Hughes (#26), the reigning USF Pro 2000 championship and Indy NXT scholarship winner who took five victories last year. The 22-year-old Australian has shot through the American open-wheel ladder and, like Myles Rowe, has the added benefit of having fellow Australian Will Power on speed dial. Having won the 2022 F4 US title and finished third in USF2000 in 2023, Hughes has proven he has the talent to be a regular frontrunner already in his rookie season.

The fourth Andretti car is for Salvador de Alba (#27). As Feeder Series reported last year, the 25-year-old Mexican should have been in this car already in 2024 but was instead loaned out to satellite team Andretti Cape over the winter with a deal to move to the main team in 2025. It didn’t seem to bother him much, because the NASCAR Mexico veteran had a good rookie season, with a strong second half and some stellar oval performances. He might well challenge for the championship.

Andretti Cape Indy NXT

Teaming up with Andretti ahead of the 2024 season proved the right decision for Cape Motorsports. The outfit’s debut year in 2023 was a difficult one, but De Alba did well in the lead car last year while Michael d’Orlando demonstrated his considerable talent in a part-time campaign in the second car.

For 2025, Andretti Cape has hired another quick Mexican to lead the line-up in Ricardo Escotto (#3). The 20-year-old finished 13th and ninth in two USF Pro 2000 campaigns in 2023 and 2024. He then stormed onto the Indy NXT scene in Detroit last year with Juncos Hollinger Racing – and immediately got disqualified for ignoring a drive-through penalty. It was a telling moment that showed Escotto is still a bit rough around the edges, but if they can polish them, Cape might have a diamond on their hands.

The other car is for Sebastian Murray (#2), who was 18th in GB3 in 2024 with a best race finish of seventh. The 17-year-old Scotsman’s move to Indy NXT is a surprising one considering his relatively limited single-seater experience and the fact that earlier this winter, he tested a USF Pro 2000 car for TJ Speed. Learning is the name of the game for Murray.

Abel Motorsports

Abel Motorsports is moving into a new era in 2025, as it has lost the driver who was in a way its raison d’etre. Jacob Abel has left his family’s team and has graduated to IndyCar with Dale Coyne Racing, but Bill Abel and his staff have a fresh stable of exciting talent to nurture.

Myles Rowe (#99) and the Force Indy entity behind him have left HMD and moved over to Abel for their second year of Indy NXT. That Rowe, 24, is fast is not in doubt; his many race wins and USF Pro 2000 title prove that. Last year proved something else, however, which is that Rowe still makes too many mistakes. In the last eight races, the Brooklyn resident scored only two top-10 finishes, and that record needs to improve. But if it does and if he gets in a groove as he did en route to the USF Pro 2000 title in 2023, he might well be unstoppable.

Like Rowe, Callum Hedge (#17) also made a transfer from HMD to Abel. The 21-year-old New Zealander, who dominated Formula Regional Americas in 2023 before coming to Indy NXT, had a good rookie season in 2024 and finished fourth overall. With only one podium finish, however, he definitely has room for improvement in his sophomore year. If everything falls into place, he should regularly challenge for podiums and wins.

After a handful of races in 2024 with Abel, Jordan Missig (#48) graduates to a full-time role for 2025. The 26-year-old from Illinois has never been in championship contention in five previous years of open-wheel racing, but he is a hard worker and he usually stays out of trouble.

The fourth car was originally destined for Yuven Sundaramoorthy, but he ran into unexpected financial trouble and had to back out. Instead, Jack William Miller (#40) joins the Abel fold, as father Jack Miller Sr has decided to stop running the Miller Vinatieri family team as a standalone operation. For Miller, the Abel-MVM merger can prove only beneficial, as he now has three other drivers with whom to compare data.

Chip Ganassi Racing

This year, Chip Ganassi Racing returns to Indy NXT for the first time since 2008. It may be a way to keep staff occupied now that they downsized their IndyCar team from five to three cars, but who cares? CGR are a great addition to the field, and while their mechanics and engineers might be a bit rusty when it comes to Indy NXT machinery, they’ll figure it out soon enough.

Leading the team is Ireland’s Jonathan Browne (#9), who joins from HMD for his second year in Indy NXT. His rookie year was decent, but that’s about it – no driver aims to finish 13th overall. Whether the 24-year-old can improve on that in 2025 will depend on whether Ganassi can take the fight to HMD, Andretti and Abel in their first year back in NXT.

The second car is for Niels Koolen (#10), who attracted attention for his two-round F2 stint last year. The 23-year-old is a bit of an enigma, and his results thus far raise the question of what exactly he aims to achieve in his racing career. He finished a distant 37th in FR Europe in 2023, dabbled in several classes of sports cars in 2024 and scored only one top 10 in Indy NXT in 2024 before leaving halfway through the season. Pre-season testing pace suggests that this will be another year of treading water for the Dutchman.

Juncos Hollinger Racing

Finally, there’s also a departure from the 2025 field, announced two weeks ago. Ricardo Juncos returned to Indy NXT in 2023 after a one-year hiatus, together with new co-owner Brad Hollinger. And now JHR is gone again after two seasons in which they largely made up the numbers. Most would agree that the Lindsay Brewer experiment didn’t work in 2024, while part-time entrant Escotto has signed with Andretti Cape.

JHR then pulled another stunt by announcing TC2000 driver Miguel María García, virtually unknown in the United States, as their 2025 driver in November. The Paraguayan and JHR never appeared at a test for unclear reasons, however, and a rumour that Garcia did not get a license was denied by the series when asked by Feeder Series. It’s a painful fall from grace for a team that used to win races and championships in Indy Lights and USF Pro 2000.

Header photo credit: Matt Fraver