Enzo Fittipaldi absolutely dominated the Indy NXT weekend at Mid-Ohio. After being the fastest in practice and securing pole position for both races in qualifying, the Brazilian won both races having led all 65 laps across the weekend as the historic title fight between him, Tymek Kucharczyk and Nikita Johnson developed further. Feeder Series reviews the action.

By Vincent van der Hoek

Fittipaldi took charge of the Indy NXT championship by winning both races and leading every single lap along the way. In race one, Kucharczyk came home second and Jack Beeton took his first podium in third, while in race two it was Beeton who finished second and Johnson who finished third behind Fittipaldi. 

Practice and qualifying

Practice on Friday gave an early indication of how the weekend would shake out. HMD Motorsports set the pace with Fittipaldi and Kucharczyk claiming the top two spots. Road America race one winner Lochie Hughes posted the third-fastest time in his Andretti Global machine, with Alessandro de Tullio for AJ Foyt Racing just behind in fourth. Johnson, who was the championship leader by six points going into the round, posted the fifth-fastest time.

On Saturday, HMD Motorsports continued their strong form in qualifying by locking out the front two rows with Fittipaldi, Salvador de Alba, Beeton and Kucharczyk. De Alba set the fastest time in group one, 0.0517 seconds ahead of Kucharczyk, with seven-time polesitter De Tullio slotting behind them in third in the HMD-affiliated AJ Foyt Racing machine. Fittipaldi then went even faster in group two to clinch pole position for both race one and race two ahead of Beeton and championship rival Johnson. 

Race 1

Fittipaldi led the field to green and maintained the lead into the opening corner – Turn 4 – while Beeton got past De Alba and into second place around the outside of Turn 5. He sealed it with a move down the inside of Turn 6 as Lochie Hughes, who started in seventh, moved up to fifth around the outside of De Tullio. The Australian challenged Kucharczyk for fourth place at the same corner complex on lap two, but the Polish driver held firm.

The race was interrupted by a caution on lap five due to a mechanical issue for Nicolas Stati, who slowed to a stop exiting Turn 2. At the restart at the end of lap seven, Kucharczyk made two big moves in successive breaking zones to go from fourth to second, first around De Alba into the Keyhole hairpin and then around Beeton into Turn 4. At the front, however, everything was under control for Fittipaldi. 

Nolan Allaer had been running a solid 11th in his first race start of the season for Juncos Hollinger Racing, where he replaced the F3-bound Ricardo Escotto for the remaining road courses per an announcement on Friday. The American, however, brought out the second caution of the race when his car broke down on lap 12 at Turn 10.

The race went back to green on lap 15 with Fittipaldi in full control of proceedings ahead of Kucharczyk. De Alba tried to get around Beeton for third place into the Keyhole, just as Kucharczyk did on the previous restart, but couldn’t get his car far enough alongside. Hughes and De Tullio likewise went side by side into the hairpin with a similar result as Hughes maintained fifth place.

The final caution of the race on lap 22 was caused by Juan Manual Correa, who made a mistake and hit the wall in Turn 12. He eventually rejoined the race a lap down and finished 22nd. 

Just as on the prior restarts, Fittipaldi gave Kucharczyk no chance for an overtake. He controlled the remaining 11 laps of the race to take his third win of the season.

The Pole finished 1.9003s behind his teammate in second place, notching his seventh podium of the year, while Beeton stood on the podium for the first time this season in third.

“Today [I] put it all together,” Beeton said in the post-race press conference. “I knew Salvador wasn’t going to overtake, and honestly I knew it would be hard to overtake Tymek as well. I wasn’t really focusing on trying to overtake. Hopefully if there was another restart at the end, I might have had the pace to re-overtake, but it didn’t happen.”

De Alba finished in fourth, giving HMD Motorsports their first ever 1-2-3-4 finish. Hughes was the best of the rest in fifth place ahead of De Tullio in sixth, while Johnson, who finished seventh, relinquished the lead to Kucharczyk by seven points.

Max Garcia finished in eighth as the best Abel Motorsports entry. Teammate Myles Rowe started in 23rd after suffering a mechanical problem in qualifying but ended up being the biggest mover of the race, rising to ninth. Max Taylor, who went through the gravel on lap two, recovered to 10th but lost significant ground in the championship to sit 75 points behind Kucharczyk.

Race 2

Sunday morning, having set the fastest second-best time in qualifying, Fittipaldi led the field to green again with De Tullio alongside him on the front row. The Brazilian maintained the lead on the opening lap, while further back, Johnson, who started in fifth, overtook Kucharczyk for fourth place around the outside of Turn 5 as the HMD driver got baulked.

On lap two, Fittipaldi faced the biggest threat to his race lead from De Tullio, who attempted to go around the outside of Turn 4. Unfortunately for De Tullio, however, he slid off the track and onto the grass, dropping to eighth place. He immediately sought to regain positions, passing Max Garcia and Josh Pierson down the inside of the Keyhole on consecutive laps, but further progress proved difficult.

As a result of the Argentine’s off, Beeton and Johnson were elevated to second and third afterwards and locked in a fierce battle on lap three, but the Australian held on to second place. Fourth was the property of Kucharczyk until lap eight, when Correa, who started in ninth but made up four places in the first two laps, got by into Turn 4.

With the race going caution free, Fittipaldi at the front managed to build a gap of 12.7469s by the time he took the chequered flag to win his fourth race of the season. The Brazilian led all 65 laps across both races and secured the fastest laps in both races. He achieved the first double grand slam in Indy NXT since Louis Foster proved invincible at Laguna Seca in 2024.

“I knew I had a big gap. At the end, I was just kind of competing with myself, trying to get better lap time and stuff,” Fittipaldi said in the post-race press conference.

“It was fun. When the car is in the window and you feel really good in the car, it’s nice and you really enjoy doing the push laps, especially on a track like Mid-Ohio where it’s very fun to drive for a qualifying lap. So I really enjoyed it.… It’s good seat time as well. I work on my skills and stuff on track, so I’m not going to just back off at the end.”

Beeton capped off an excellent weekend of his own with his second podium of the weekend and his personal best finish in second place, sealing a second consecutive HMD 1-2. Johnson finished in third with his sixth podium of the season, while Correa finished in fourth, equalling his best finish from Arlington. Kucharczyk came across the line in fifth.

Josh Pierson finished in sixth as the best Andretti Global driver, with Garcia in seventh the best Abel Motorsports driver for the second race in a row. After his off-track excursion on lap two, De Tullio finished eighth, losing two more places on lap 23, while the Andretti pair of Taylor and Hughes completed the top 10.

By scoring the maximum number of 108 points this weekend, Fittipaldi not only snatched the Indy NXT lead on Saturday but began to stretch it out on Sunday. Kucharczyk sits in second place with 414 points, 17 behind Fittipaldi, just ahead of Johnson with 411 points. 

Taylor lost ground this weekend with a 10th place in race one and ninth place in race two. That means he now possesses 331 points, 100 fewer from Fittipaldi, and has a mountain to climb to catch back up. The same goes for Hughes with 319 points, De Tullio with 302 points and Rowe with 131 points as a total of 270 remain on offer. 

With five races left this season, the championship is looking more and more like a three-horse race between Fittipaldi, Kucharczyk and Johnson. The series will visit its biggest oval yet in the Nashville Superspeedway in two weeks, with Myles Rowe and De Alba looking to ignite a late-season charge at the venue where they finished first and second last year. 

Results	P1	P2	P3
Qualifying, Group 1	Enzo Fittipaldi, 1:09.3690	Jack Beeton, +0.1430s	Nikita Johnson, +0.1700s
Qualifying, Group 2	Salvador de Alba, 1:09.5936	Tymek Kucharczyk, +0.0517s	Alessandro de Tullio, +0.0633s
Race 1 (35 laps)	Enzo Fittipaldi, 47:56.8636	Tymek Kucharczyk, +1.9003s	Jack Beeton, +6.6995s
Race 2 (30 laps)	Enzo Fittipaldi, 36:10.3397	Jack Beeton, +12.7469s	Nikita Johnson, +15.3059s

Standings	Drivers	Rookies
P1	Enzo Fittipaldi, 431	Enzo Fittipaldi, 431
P2	Tymek Kucharczyk, 414	Tymek Kucharczyk, 414
P3	Nikita Johnson, 411	Nikita Johnson, 411
P4	Max Taylor, 331	Alessandro de Tullio, 302
P5	Lochie Hughes, 319	Jack Beeton, 275
P6	Alessandro de Tullio, 302	Max Garcia, 232
P7	Myles Rowe, 300	Nicolas Stati, 160
P8	Jack Beeton, 275	Alexander Koreiba, 133
P9	Juan Manuel Correa, 264	Carson Etter, 131
P10	Josh Pierson, 254	Nicholas Monteiro, 126

Header photo credit: Chris Jones / Penske Entertainment