NXT Gen Notebook: Championship showdown awaits after Milwaukee weekend of firsts
- Archie O’Reilly
- 4 hours ago
- 9 min read
Reigning USF Pro 2000 champion Max Garcia took his maiden Indy NXT victory for Abel Motorsports in an enthralling affair at the Milwaukee Mile on Sunday.
Meanwhile, the intense championship fight continued, with three points now splitting the top two heading into the season-ending doubleheader. Four drivers remain in mathematical contention, with the three realistic protagonists all within 29 points of one another.
DIVEBOMB tells the story of Round 15 of the 17-race NXT campaign…
A maiden polesitter crowned
Andretti Global’s Pierson stole Saturday’s headlines, as he seized the first pole position of his Indy NXT career, with his 153.434 mph two-lap average ousting HMD Motorsports’ Tymek Kucharczyk by 0.052 mph - or a mere 0.0162s in time terms.
There were mixed fortunes for the three main championship protagonists in qualifying. Entering the weekend third in the standings at 18 points adrift of teammate Enzo Fittipaldi’s lead, Kucharczyk secured a start position four places higher than the Brazilian’s solid sixth place. But Cape Motorsport powered by ECR’s Nikita Johnson, who started the event only one point behind Fittipaldi, recorded his worst qualifying of the season in 15th.
HMD’s Jack Beeton equalled his best start position of the year in third, followed initially by Chip Ganassi Racing (CGR)’s Niels Koolen in a personal best fourth. Almost eight hours later, though, it was confirmed that Koolen was to be docked nine places, having failed the minimum underwing height check in post-qualifying technical inspection.
Cusick Morgan Motorsports’ JM Correa was promoted to fourth, with Max Taylor, Lochie Hughes and Seb Murray fifth, seventh and eighth, as all four Andretti drivers started in the top eight. Garcia and HMD’s Salvador de Alba completed the top 10.
The session was rife with strife, as three drivers failed to record completed runs. Second in the running order, AJ Foyt Racing’s Nicholas Monteiro was denied taking to the track due to a mechanical issue. Then, only third of the drivers who did run, CGR’s James Roe crashed in Turn 2 after a loose moment, which he almost saved before his car then swapped ends.
The most dramatic moment came for the most recent winner, Foyt’s Alessandro de Tullio, who was tracking to go quickest when a snap in Turn 2 sent him into the SAFER barrier with heavy right-side contact. It marked his first qualifying result worse than eighth (achieved on debut) and only third start off the front row, as he pursued an outright-record ninth pole.
Earlier in the day, Abel’s proven oval supreme Myles Rowe had crashed in practice, making rear contact with the same barrier in the troublesome Turn 2. There was also a moment in qualifying for Cape’s Nashville winner-from-pole Matteo Nannini, who spun harmlessly at slow speed exiting pit lane for his run. Nannini started 12th and Rowe only 16th.
A first-time winner as title fight dominates
Leading the field to green for the first time, Pierson got off to a strong start in Sunday morning’s 90-lap race, fending off any pressure from behind and quickly building a lead towards two seconds. There was otherwise some early movement in the top five behind, as Beeton passed Kucharczyk for second and Taylor dispatched Correa for fourth.
The initial run to the green flag had been on the slower side, with calamity narrowly avoided as Jacob Abel - back again with his family team after Jordan Missig’s exit pre-Portland - made contact with Johnson and Rowe in an attempt to manoeuvre between the pair.
Inside the top 10, Garcia was a driver on the move while many others stalled. By Lap 20, the ninth-place starter was past Correa and into the top five, shortly after relegating Fittipaldi to seventh. He soon overtook Taylor, too, and by the end of Lap 30, owing to a wide moment for the Polish driver in Turn 4, had seized third place in pursuit of a first podium.
Pierson had looked comfortable out front, building a lead upwards of three seconds by the end of the first third of the race. But once Garcia had passed Beeton for second on Lap 35, duress quickly grew on the Andretti driver, who was searching for his own maiden win.
Within 10 laps, Garcia had scythed into the dominant race lead, with backmarker traffic also quickly becoming a factor. Pierson had shown composure as pressure mounted, but on Lap 54 came a costly lapse, losing control of his No.29 machine through Turn 2, sliding down the track and hitting the inside tyre wall to end his race from the very front.
As reports continue to link him to possible IndyCar opportunities for 2027, 20-year-old Pierson’s wait for a first Indy NXT victory extended to 52 races.
The incident warranted the first caution of the race, before which Correa had made his way back up to fourth place, thus he was promoted to third after Pierson’s crash. Kucharczyk restarted in fourth, with only Taylor between him and Fittipaldi, who in hand only had Hughes behind him before the forward-charging Johnson, up from 15th to eighth.
Immediately on the restart, Kucharczyk fell to Taylor and was dropped into Fittipaldi’s clutches, though Hughes then managed to pull off his own move on Fittipaldi to become the latest cork in a bottle and demote Fittipaldi into Johnson’s grasp. But Hughes did not remain a factor for long, spinning off Turn 2 on Lap 69 while chasing Kucharczyk to bring out another caution, making light contact with the wall but sustaining no substantial damage.
As a result, this second restart saw the top three in the championship line astern in fifth, sixth and seventh, with Kucharczyk leading Fittipaldi and Johnson. The former was the big loser upon the resumption, though, dropping to eighth, while Johnson made a crucial inside move on Fittipaldi within five laps, lifting him back into the live championship lead.
Out front on both restarts, having inherited the lead off Pierson, Garcia had the benefit of backmarker cars between himself and Beeton. But a third caution soon followed on Lap 78, as HMD’s Salvador de Alba spun and lightly collected Rowe, which left the pair both limping back to the pits. This time, the lapped cars were removed on the restart.
“I was in the lead for probably five feet, maybe,” Beeton claimed with a grin, which Garcia disputed, having forced a momentary side-by-side attempt for the lead. But the move came to no avail and Beeton had looked to have dropped to third, behind Correa.
Fortunately for the Australian, a fourth caution of the race was brandished for a spin by Abel’s Colin Kaminsky - again with no wall contact - just as Correa had edged his way past. But the reverting of positions was not to matter for long, as the race restarted with five laps remaining and Correa executed the move for second again.
At the head of the field, Garcia’s fourth restart was managed with the same composure as the rest, meaning a rookie year of steady progress could finally gain its ultimate reward,
“I didn’t want to do the same thing twice,” Garcia said of managing the jeopardy posed by the restarts. “I did my first and last restart the same; the middle one was different. I was just trying to keep them guessing a bit so I could get a good jump.
“Incredible [to win]. It just is a testament to all the guys at Abel. We’ve been through a bunch of stuff this year. We just stayed with it, kept working, kept developing our car. It paid off.”
Key results & championship implications
Garcia, who had finished fourth on three occasions in the first 14 rounds of his rookie season, led home Correa and Beeton, both of whom secured their first oval podiums.
Taylor followed in fourth, ahead of Johnson, who gained 10 positions to finish fifth and retake the championship lead by three points ahead of Fittipaldi, who dropped to seventh on the final lap. A tricky end to the race saw Kucharczyk fall to 12th, meaning he heads into the pair of races to close the season at Laguna Seca at 29 points adrift of the championship lead.
As it has looked for a while, the title will realistically be won by one of Johnson, Fittipaldi or Kucharczyk. Taylor is a substantial distance back at 77 points adrift of the lead.
De Tullio, who made the pass on Fittipaldi for sixth, was Milwaukee’s biggest mover after gaining a stunning 15 positions in a backup car after his heavy qualifying crash. The top 10 was completed by CGR’s Bryce Aron, Abel - despite dropping to nigh on the rear at the start - and, in the top 10 for the first time, Juncos Hollinger Racing rookie Alexander Koreiba.
Only three drivers failed to finish due to damage: Koolen after a non-caution-causing incident, plus Pierson and Rowe. Hughes continued to finish 14th after his spin, as did Kaminsky in 18th and de Alba - in his final appearance of the season at the track he took his sole Indy NXT win last year - in 19th.
“Better late than never” for Garcia
The feeling of victory is familiar to Garcia. He was ruthlessly dominant in USF Pro 2000 in 2025, winning nine of the 18 races, claiming a total of 13 podiums and only once finishing worse than fourth. He had been rampant in USF2000 the year prior, too, winning the title with five wins, 10 podiums, 15 top-four finishes and a lowest race result of seventh place.
But compared to those campaigns, his first season in Indy NXT has been somewhat challenging. A fourth-place finish at Barber was his only top-10 result in the first six rounds, though measured progress was reflected by seven top 10s in the ensuing eight races.
But Round 15 in Milwaukee took his season to new heights. With it, Garcia entered the record books as the second-youngest winner in series history at only 17 years and five months, trailing only Colton Herta (16 years and 11 months) and beating Johnson (17 years and nine months in this year’s opening round in St. Petersburg).
“We’ve progressed massively through St. Pete,” Garcia said. “We knew in the off-season it wasn’t going to be easy coming into the season. We didn’t expect it to be this hard.
“We knew if we kept working, we had the right guys - really smart engineers - that won races and championships. We had the right mechanics that were willing to work hard for it. We knew it would take time. We thought it would come a bit sooner but better late than never.”
Having only raced on the 0.686-mile (1.104 km) Indianapolis Raceway Park oval before this season - once in USF2000 and again in Pro 2000 - the oval-racing discipline is rather unfamiliar to Garcia. But he immediately finished eighth at World Wide Technology Raceway and a joint-personal-best fourth at Nashville Superspeedway in Indy NXT this season.
His win in Milwaukee marks the first time he has ever stood on an oval podium, an achievement for which he gives significant credit to oval-winning teammate Rowe.
“Myles has taught me so much this year,” Garcia said. “He’s unbelievable on an oval. Being able to see the data on the first two races, I felt coming here I was confident I could replicate some of it. We knew we had a good oval car. We were testing strong everywhere. It’s easier when we have a really good oval car.”
Correa “did not expect” oval podium
Not only did Correa achieve a maiden oval podium - his first of the season after a previous third-place finish with HMD in Detroit last year - but he secured the first rostrum for the Cusick Morgan team, who are debuting in Indy NXT competition this season.
It has been a mixed year for the driver of the No.68 machine - one of great potential but lacking the ultimate execution of a headline result, including the near misses of two fourth-place finishes. For the podium to finally arrive on an oval, which remains a discipline largely alien to Correa, was something of a surprise.
“We rolled off pretty good through practice,” he said. “I’ve been doing quite a bit of work at home watching onboards, working on the ovals. The speed in quali, that has been okay. But the racecraft, learning how to deal with dirty air, has been a bit of my weak point.
“So I did some work at home. I was able to apply that in practice. We were able to get through the traffic decently. We knew we had a good package. Then in quali, it wasn’t as good as it could have been but it was solid. I did not expect, to be honest, coming into this weekend to be on the podium here. We didn’t test well here.
“We turned it around, had a clean weekend, made the deg work, made the car work. I was smart with my tyres. It worked out for me. Very happy to do it on an oval. It’s quite funny.”
With two races remaining, Correa is ninth in the standings - only 14 points from seventh. He has relished racing on the IndyCar ladder in the past two seasons but, acknowledging there no realistic chance to graduate to the primary series, whether he returns to Indy NXT in 2027 remains unclear, with options such as a sportscar return also being heavily considered.
A look ahead to Laguna Seca
The final weekend of the season at Laguna Seca kicks off with a pair of practice sessions on Friday: one hour at 13:00 PT (21:00 BST) and a final half-hour at 15:30 PT (23:30 BST).
Qualifying for both races of the doubleheader - the drivers’ quickest laps setting the grid for Race 1 and second-quickest laps forming the Race 2 order - takes place at 12:00 PT (20:00 BST). The opening race follows at 15:30 PT (23:30 BST) on Saturday.
The final race of the season commences at 09:30 PT (17:30 BST) on Sunday. Barring a disastrous first race, one would expect at least Johnson and Fittipaldi - if not Kucharczyk, too - to remain in title contention for this final, 17th round of the campaign.
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