Indy NXT champion interview: Inside Nikita Johnson’s title-winning season
It was not necessarily the night you would have expected. Because while a party was in order, designated-driver duties beckoned for the centre of those celebrations.
“That seems like my job every time I win or do well,” Nikita Johnson laughs. On this occasion, that extended to a 4am wake-up call to shuttle his friend to the airport the following morning. “Brutal,” he adds. But in an abstract way, it served somewhat as a fitting reminder of the youth that had made the day’s events so historically special.
It was the case six months prior, too, after Johnson - then aged only 17 years and nine months - cemented himself as the second-youngest race winner in Indy NXT history at the time, as he reigned to open the season on his hometown streets in St. Petersburg, Florida.
That Sunday in early March marked an immediate statement of intent to a field which rookie Johnson believes underestimated the might of himself and his Cape Motorsports team, one of series’ smallest outfits, led by brothers Nicholas and Dominic Cape.
“I knew that we’d be for sure top three or top five,” Johnson insists. “I knew we’d be strong. I’ve raced against a lot of these drivers in other championships so I knew where everybody was at.”
Johnson had debuted in Indy NXT in St. Pete the year prior for HMD, while still only 16 years old. He then also ran the third and fourth rounds of the campaign on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course, finishing a best of seventh in the second race of the doubleheader, as he gained initial experience ahead of a full-time move to the series in 2026.
He had kept his options open last year, with Indy NXT one of four championships in which he competed. Having started the year in Formula Regional Oceania, where he finished third in the standings, he went on to focus much of his attention on Europe, running four tripleheader events in the GB3 Championship, after completing 18 of 24 rounds in the series the year prior.
He also ran four FIA Formula 3 events - at the Red Bull Ring, Silverstone, the Hungaroring and Monza - in 2025 as he weighed up a possible future on the Formula One ladder.
But his roots had been in his native United States, where he had finished inside the top three in the standings in every full season competing. That started with a title in the six-race YACademy Winter Series in 2022, which is geared to aid drivers’ transition from karts to cars, before finishing third as a USF Juniors rookie in a campaign he started at only 13 years old.
By the end of 2022, after turning 14 years old in May, he had debuted in USF2000, recording a runner-up result within his eight-race cameo. He graduated to the category full-time in 2023 and finished the season as vice champion.
The same path of dabbling in the category above was followed again at the end of 2023 - and more fruitfully so, as Johnson finished on the podium four times in five USF Pro 2000 races, winning twice to become the series’ youngest victor at 15 years old. He again finished runner-up in points once he ran the full schedule in 2024, winning eight of 18 races.
It was during that 2024 campaign that Europe entered the offing, with Johnson winning twice in GB3 to also become their youngest race winner, aged 16, with success in Zandvoort and at Brands Hatch. He generated a wealth of experience across that year and the next, but by the end of 2025, he had opted to focus his sole attention back on the pursuit of IndyCar.
In late September, it was announced that he would be joining forces with a Cape team with established championship-winning pedigree on the IndyCar ladder. Johnson bought into their vision, despite a tough three years after moving their venture up to Indy NXT.
For 2026, Cape had split from their technical alliance with Andretti Global, gaining new support from Ed Carpenter Racing but operating more on their own terms. Johnson’s trust in the project, which could have been considered a gamble, meant a lot to the team.
“That was an incredibly difficult decision to make,” Nicholas Cape said - speaking in a press conference at Laguna Seca - of parting with Andretti. “When Nikita came, he committed to us not knowing anything - just knowing that we were going to do it ourselves. He came 100% committed just to want to be with us.
“That speaks volumes, when you’ve got somebody with his talent that wants to be with you and we’re starting a new venture. It was a scary proposition but we were open to it. We knew we had to do it for ourselves [and] be us - because we are a bit naughty.”
There was instant vindication for both sides - Cape for their bold separation and Johnson for his faith in the team - in St. Pete, as he started second, took the lead at the start and led all 42 laps to win. Within three rounds, after finishing sixth in Arlington, he had won again in the first race of the Barber weekend, capitalising on a collision between race leaders Alessandro de Tullio and Max Taylor, retaking the early lead of the standings from the latter.
“Nobody thought that we’d be anywhere,” Johnson reflects. “For whatever reason, people were like: ‘Oh, they’re the underdogs. They’re not going to do it. Don’t worry about them.’ We came out swinging and that kind of got in everyone’s head. We came out [at] Barber and we were right there as well. And then we kept getting good results.”
Finishing third in Race 2 at Barber and again in Race 1 at Indianapolis, Johnson did not surrender his position atop the championship until Round 7 in Detroit, when he was overtaken for the first time by former FIA Formula 2 race winner Enzo Fittipaldi. Even then, he promptly jumped back into the top spot after the next round at World Wide Technology Raceway, as Fittipaldi could finish only 13th following a mechanical problem in qualifying.
Johnson went four races podium-less from Round 6 through Round 9, but limiting any damage with no result worse than seventh in that stretch - as Fittipaldi recorded results of 13th and 22nd - he again held the points lead from Round 8 until Round 11 at Mid-Ohio.
Tymek Kucharczyk jumped to the lead at that point, before being replaced by the doubleheader-sweeping Fittipaldi - on the comeback trail - one day later.
But having finished third in the second Mid-Ohio race, Johnson was poised to pounce the following weekend in Nashville on a dream weekend for Cape, which saw them finish 1-2 for the first time in Indy NXT, led by the unlikelier driver in Matteo Nannini.
A runner-up finish vaulted Johnson from 20 points behind Fittipaldi to one point clear, as Fittipaldi finished only 11th and title-rival HMD Motorsports teammate Kucharczyk down in 18th - the latter suffering a damaged front wing after contact between the oval-novice pair.
From that point, while Kucharczyk played slight catch-up, Johnson and Fittipaldi scarcely grew further apart. Eighth place in Portland was remarkably Johnson’s worst race result of the year, yet Fittipaldi still only finished one position better off, meaning the lead flipped back in the latter’s favour but still by only a single point with three races remaining.
Fittipaldi may have had more frequent peaks with his four wins, but Johnson continually kept tabs through being a great maximiser and limiting any off-weekends.
“We had a really good consistency on my end and the team,” Johnson assesses. “No matter what, we knew we needed to score points. Even if the car wasn’t the fastest that day, we were going to get a P5, P4, P6 and we were just taking the points and taking the points.
“Other people were making mistakes, driving into other cars or taking themselves out. Ultimately, that hurt them in the long run. Just being consistent and not making any dumb mistakes the whole season helped me end up being in a strong position for the last week.”
Johnson’s measured approach and maturity as a teenager took the Cape brothers aback. And having debuted in IndyCar’s development series in 2007, going on to win 14 USF2000 titles, they have had a litany of super-talented prodigies in their ranks.
“He drives beyond his years,” Nicholas Cape detailed. “He’s level-headed. It’s hard to call him young. When you say he’s young, it’s only in age, not his mentality.”
Johnson flourished in a close-knit environment, where he felt the drivers and their views were entirely valued, rather than being engulfed by wider philosophies at more expansive organisations. As the year went on, his confidence in the team grew and grew.
No matter how they would roll off in practice on any given weekend, they would always end events with a package with which Johnson could fight near the front. Plus, aided by Johnson’s complete absence of damaging-inducing incidents prompting no big repair jobs, reliability proved faultless all season.
“We never had anything fail, even through testing,” Johnson points out. “That’s what happens when you have a really strong group of people that want to work with you, that they put in all their time and effort. That’s what helped me end up being so consistent.
“After we got the wins, I was like: ‘Okay, yeah, we’ve got a good little group of people right here. We work harder than anybody else. So if we just keep doing this, we’re going to end up securing the championship.’
“It was a bulletproof little group. Nobody could get in our little circle and mess us up, no matter what. Everybody was very driven to go get the first championship for them. They all busted their butts out there and worked really long, hard days for us.”
For the third-last round of the campaign at the Milwaukee Mile, with the deficit to Fittipaldi only the solitary point, Johnson had his worst qualifying result of 15th, threatening to send him into the season-closing doubleheader on the back foot if he did not recover adequately. With Kucharczyk on the front row and Fittipaldi starting fifth, there was an opportunity for his title rivals to steal a march heading into the finale.
But Milwaukee is a weekend that Johnson leaves the year deeming as one of the most defining. Typically meticulous, he gained 10 positions on race day, finishing fifth and leapfrogging seventh-placed Fittipaldi late on, while a sequence of poor restarts had demoted Kucharczyk to 12th.
“Enzo and Tymek thought they were going to have great points days and do really well,” Johnson recalls, “and I ended up coming from 15th up to fifth and got in everyone’s heads that, no matter what happens, we’re always going to be there. I can start anywhere.”
In a championship fight of such fine margins, Johnson consciously tried to gain edges on his rivals in a number of ways, including psychologically. So he continued to convey a composed, ‘emotion-less’ front, not getting rattled by any adversity or mind games but equally never showing to be overzealous on his best days.
“I just made sure to stay humble,” he explains. “The biggest thing was not letting anybody see how I felt, even after I won. It was just another day in the office. I think that really got in my competitors’ head, where you can’t do anything to affect me.
“Every time they would try to go behind me and swerve on a pace lap and get in my mirrors, I’d just be like: ‘Alright, you guys are dumb.’ And I just check-brake them or do stuff and then I’d get in their head. I’m like: ‘What you’re doing is pointless.’ That really helped me, getting in their head while leading the championship, which is funny to think about.”
Heading to Laguna Seca for the doubleheader title showdown, the lead had flipped back in Johnson’s favour by three points over Fittipaldi, while Kucharczyk was a longer-shot at 29 points adrift. The lead pair could essentially both control their own destiny.
On a weekend that could easily have become overwhelming while vying for the biggest prize of his career to date, the same calmness continued to emanate from Johnson. He never let thoughts of any ramifications of not winning the championship creep into his head.
His competitors, though? He theorises that the prize and the future weighed on them.
“I just didn’t think about it,” Johnson says of the championship. “I took it one step at a time, knew that we were going to be fine. I also knew that I was probably the best mentally out of the championship competitors because I’ve been in championship fights so long.
“I just saw how all the other guys were looking after some of the races when they wouldn’t do well. [Or] they’d still finish top 10 and they looked like someone killed their dog. That’s a good thing to see and to keep in the memory bank.
“I just knew how to do my job and I just took it one step at a time and didn’t think about the championship or think about IndyCar signings. And I know the other two did.”
Qualifying was solid for Johnson, starting fifth for both races as Fittipaldi struggled to 13th and 12th. Kucharczyk earned the boost of two front-row starts, including pole for the second race, but a cruel twist of fortune struck at the outset of Race 1, as Kucharczyk was spun by Myles Rowe in the Turn 2 hairpin on Lap 1, sending him plummeting to the rear of the field.
Johnson was able to pick up the pieces and promptly moved into second place, where he remained comfortably - even with three caution restarts - for the race’s entirety. Fittipaldi could only salvage eighth, meaning Johnson held a 19-point lead heading into Race 2, guaranteeing that a podium would clinch him the title. Kucharczyk, meanwhile, recovered to 10th but brutally fell an insurmountable 48 points behind the lead.
For Sunday, Johnson very much became ‘the hunted’. But he continued to feel no pressure.
“That played a big part in this weekend, that there was no pressure for me,” he admits. “I could enjoy it like I wasn’t fighting for a championship and this was [just] my final race weekend in Indy NXT. Even in Race 2, I was like: ‘Well, there’s no pressure anymore. I’ve got a good buffer. I can kind of do whatever I want.’”
Catastrophe could have befallen Johnson at the drop of the green flag on Sunday, when Max Garcia turned Josh Pierson into Niels Koolen - directly ahead of Johnson over the crest of the frontstretch at the start. Johnson was fortunate not to be collected from behind as he checked up but, heads-up as always, he had intentionally left a margin to the cars around him and stuck far to the left as Pierson and Koolen speared off-track to the right.
Again promoted to second, it became a race of management for Johnson on old tyres. He knew Lochie Hughes directly behind was on new rubber, as was Fittipaldi in an improved fifth, so he allowed the no-longer-threatening Kucharczyk to streak clear in the lead, as not to overpush and kill his tyres, preventing any late-race vulnerability.
“I was really relaxed and free,” Johnson says. “It was almost like I knew that I was going to win [the title] without thinking about it. I just came into it very calm and chill. Everybody else around me - the whole team and my whole family - were going crazy a little bit.
“I was just like: ‘I’m just going to enjoy this weekend and whatever happens happens. But I know I’m going to do well and I’m going to just drive free and relax.’ That’s what I’ve been doing all year. [But] this race weekend, it was weird because it was the most relaxed I’ve been all year and no pressure, which is crazy to think about because it’s the most important weekend, by far, this whole year. It was interesting to find that out about myself.”
The entire weekend was impeccably executed, with a final pair of runner-up finishes raising Johnson’s season podium tally to nine, which includes two wins. Seeing the chequered flag for both races, it confirmed that he had completed all 656 laps - a decisive statistic - all while finishing no single race worse than eighth.
Crucially, he led the standings after a race for the 12th time in 2026 - and the only time that was ever necessary. With it, at 18 years old and three months, he became the youngest champion in series history, beating Fittipaldi by 29 points and Kucharczyk by 34 points.
“This weekend [is] one of the most defining of the year,” he asserts. “Not really based off myself but maybe based off of what other teams are looking at, that I can come into the final doubleheader with a lot of points on the table - only leading by a handful of points - and be calm, cool, collected and just do the job, do everything right, no mistakes and bring it home.
“This is probably the main weekend that the teams up there in IndyCar are probably looking at. No matter what happened, I was just chill. I just drove free and I brought it home.”
The attention of Johnson and his team - headed by his agent Michael Maroney, alongside his father - now turns to the future. He never intended to return to Indy NXT, in any case, but there is certainly now more leverage in his bid to graduate to IndyCar.
That has always been his priority for 2027. As a fallback, he would be keen to continue in IMSA, having dovetailed Indy NXT with a full-season GTD Pro programme in Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s McLaren 720S GT3 Evo this year, alongside at least an IndyCar reserve role. But he naturally hopes he does not have to enact Plan B.
“I think I’ll be on the grid, for sure, next year,” he states of his IndyCar prospects. “But you never know what’s going to happen. I’m not opposed to anything in IMSA.
“Hopefully I can get signed for IndyCar next year and then do IMSA on the side. It’s such a cool championship that I’d love to do Daytona 24 and be the third driver for some of the endurance races. Hopefully that happens and I can be able to do IndyCar full-time and a little bit of IMSA.”
Throughout the season, as he focused on the championship, Johnson tended to delegate conversations around his future. But while he is not yet finished racing for the year - with two IMSA rounds remaining - he can start to take a more front-facing approach to discussions with any IndyCar suitors.
Then, it will come down to Johnson to deliberate with his entourage on a final decision, should options arise and enable a choice.
“We’ve been speaking to people all year,” Johnson acknowledges. “That’s the name of the game; [you] want to get to know everyone. You’re trying to make connections and meet everyone from the start of the year. We’re going to be talking to people or people talking to us. But I wanted to just win the championship and get that done and dusted.
“We’re going to sit down as a group and figure out what’s going to be the best place for me to grow and learn with the team. That’s the most important part, where we can have a really good working relationship, have a good bond. Because you can be in the best team and your team could hate you and you’re not going to do good.”
Johnson always felt being so competitive at his age, regardless of if he ultimately won the championship, would supplement the allure around him as a prospect. But it helps to have picked up the champion’s scholarship and have the prestige of winning the title - and doing so in a manner, for his age, where suitors may be more enticed.
“It always has a good ring to it when you’re the youngest,” Johnson concedes. “So it’s pretty cool. There’s a lot of good drivers that came through Indy NXT, have won or [been] vice-champion, that have gone on to do great things. And to be at the top of that list, all-time youngest winner across this whole series, is pretty cool.”
The success is made all the sweeter by the fact it has been done while racing for a smaller, family-run team, up against the might of the series’ established champions. Not since Juncos Racing’s success in 2017 had the HMD or Andretti powerhouses been dethroned.
“To beat all the big teams [as an] underdog coming in the championship, win the championship,” Johnson considers, “that’s a cool story.”
Emotions flowed for the team at the conclusion of the finale weekend. While the team-founding brothers were unhingedly jovial as the championship trophy was presented and Johnson was handed his winners’ ring, there was also a teary moment for Nicholas Cape in the post-race media session as he reflected on the magnitude of the achievement.
Johnson himself was still outwardly relaxed amid the joy of his greatest racing achievement. But a teenager who spends much of his free time out on the water fishing at home in Florida - where he promises to take his silverware for a photoshoot - that is simply his nature.
This serene demeanour - a weapon in itself - masks an unrelenting drive.
“I was pretty happy. I’ve got a lot of passion for this. I’m not passion-less; I’m just emotion-less,” Johnson clarifies. “So I just go out and do the best I can do and go do my job and go drive. I had a little bit of emotion after. Nothing crazy. I was happy. I didn’t go do donuts or anything because I was like: ‘This is what I expected to do.’”
The reality is that, while the championship is certainly an achievement, a self-believing Johnson hopes this is only a triumph at the base of a much bigger climb.
That is why his post-race designated-driver duties did not bother him unduly, for he does not want to celebrate this undoubted success like a summit, when he firmly believes these are the foundations of something grander to be forged in many a year to come.
“This is hopefully the start and hopefully this isn’t the biggest championship of my career. I hope I go on to win a few IndyCar championships. I was like: ‘I’ll save the donuts for later because this was just part of my job. This is what I came here to do.’ So I had a calm in-lap and just drove back smiling. Not crying or anything - just smiling and having fun.
“It’s a little bit different than what everybody else does when they win championships. They go crazy. [But] this is what I came here to do and this is a stepping stone for greater things.”
Comments