NXT Gen Notebook: De Tullio dominates Portland as tight title fight continues
- Archie O’Reilly
- 1 day ago
- 8 min read
Updated: 5 hours ago
For the first time since his maiden win in March - and having had the cruelty of a disqualification in the meantime - AJ Foyt Racing’s Alessandro de Tullio took victory in Indy NXT last weekend with a commanding display from pole position at Portland International Raceway.
All the while, the championship battle has only become tighter between its three protagonists as three races remain in 2026. With Round 14 and the series’ trip to the Pacific Northwest completed, DIVEBOMB recaps the latest action from a thrilling NXT season…
A record-tying eighth pole
De Tullio was a headline-maker all weekend long, beginning with securing a record-tying eighth pole position of his rookie season on Saturday. Incredibly, it also marked his 12th front-row start of the campaign through 14 races.
It was the Argentine’s time in the less-favoured Group 1 that got the job done for the P1 Award by a mere 0.0033s ahead of Andretti Global’s Lochie Hughes, who paced Group 2. The pair were followed in the starting order by Andretti’s Max Taylor and HMD Motorsports’ Tymek Kucharczyk, who started the weekend third in the championship.
Kucharczyk was the best-placed of the three title protagonists, with pre-weekend points leader Nikita Johnson qualifying ninth for Cape Motorsports powered by Ed Carpenter Racing and Enzo Fittipaldi, who trailed Johnson by a solitary point, 12th for HMD.
Jacob Abel, who ran this year’s Indianapolis 500, competed full-time in IndyCar last season and was vice champion in NXT in 2024, qualified fifth on a surprise return to the series with his family Abel Motorsports team. He replaced Jordan Missig, who was unable to generate the budget for repairs to his car after a heavy crash at Nashville Superspeedway.
Of note, as well as Abel returning to the grid after almost two years, 18-year-old Briton Bart Harrison debuted for HMD Motorsports in place of Salvador de Alba, who will run again at the Milwaukee Mile before Harrison returns at Laguna Seca, amid budget issues. Nolan Allaer also returned in the Juncos Hollinger Racing seat vacated by Ricardo Escotto.
Behind Abel, the top 10 was completed by his teammate Myles Rowe, Chip Ganassi Racing (CGR)’s Niels Koolen, Andretti’s Josh Pierson, Johnson and Cusick Morgan Motorsports (CMM)’s JM Correa. Harrison qualified 17th and Allaer in 22nd.
De Tullio commands attritional race
Naturally, de Tullio did not want to think too much about Turn 1, Lap 1 - nicknamed ’calamity corner’ in Portland - considering his past woes at the beginning of races in 2026, which played a large role in only one win being converted from his first seven poles of the year.
But having towed the field down the dragstrip from the green flag, the 20-year-old mastered this particular race start. All of the leaders got through cleanly - with no changes for position inside the top five - aside from slight contact between teammates Hughes and Taylor.
The biggest strife came in the mid-pack, where 14th-starting Jack Beeton found his HMD machine spun by the late-braking Cape car of Matteo Nannini, who had won the previous race at Nashville Superspeedway. Nannini was handed a drive-through penalty as a consequence and finished the race down in 20th.
There was also some trouble for points-leading Johnson, who ran wide on the exit of the opening complex and fell to 17th. But even by the time the only caution of the race fell early on Lap 3 - for a spin out of the final corner for CGR’s Carson Etter, who made light nose-first contact with the pit wall but ultimately continued - Johnson had already recovered to 13th.
The race restarted at the end of Lap 5 with, again, no change among the top-five starters. In his recovery bid, Johnson promptly dispatched of a strong-starting Harrison to put himself back directly behind title rival Fittipaldi. By Lap 11, the pair in the standings were both into the top 10 and cutting the gains being made by Kucharczyk in fourth.
This charge forward was aided a little by attrition ahead. First, an inside dive from Koolen in Turn 1 caused a half-spin for Rowe, resulting in a weekend-undoing drive-through penalty for the former and leading the latter to drop to 15th. On Lap 13, after running sixth, Pierson was removed from the equation too, pitting due to front-wing damage sustained at the start.
Eventually, this progress forward plateaued at seventh and eighth as passing proved tough, including Johnson being unable to navigate past Fittipaldi. Similar applied up front, where de Tullio’s lead was continually healthy, ahead of the Andretti pair behind.
Beyond occasional backmarker traffic, jeopardy out front remained scarce. De Tullio’s lead at the chequered flag stood at 2.1885s to secure a commanding lights-to-flag victory, with marginally over one second splitting Hughes and, securing his first podium since the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course in May, Taylor behind.
“It wasn’t easy. It’s never easy,” de Tullio reflected. “Start was pretty gnarly with Lochie; he broke pretty late. But we kept it clean. It was a good race. Just one [caution] thankfully this time. Was able to get a good restart, not really have to defend in Turn 1.
“From there, it was just about building a bit of a gap, then managing everything. It feels good to get it done. I think we deserve a lot more this year. That’s the way racing goes sometimes. But I’m glad we never gave up - the whole team never gave up. We kept pushing. They keep giving me a great car to try again and again and again.”
Behind the podium, Kucharczyk came home fourth to oust both of his title rivals, ahead of Abel in fifth on his return and Correa in sixth on his 27th birthday. Then followed Fittipaldi and Johnson, who led Abel’s Max Garcia and an impressive debut from Harrison - turning 19 on race day - to complete the top 10. Allaer was the biggest mover, up 11 spots in 11th.
There was a flashpoint in pit lane after the chequered flag as Beeton confronted countryman and HMD ally Nicolas Stati, whose actions as backmarker traffic Beeton was unhappy with. Beeton had been in the wars late in the race, twice coming to blows with Rowe at Turn 1, including an airborne moment over the kerbs and into Rowe on the final lap.
While Beeton salvaged 13th on a tumultuous day, Rowe finished the race a lowly 22nd as the final car on the lead lap - ahead of only Stati and Etter.
De Tullio’s character-building year
In many ways, it has been a brutal year for de Tullio: so quick - arguably the quickest - yet still almost 100 points out of the championship lead with three races remaining.
Much of the adversity he has faced has hardly been his fault, either, whether being taken out from the front in Arlington or at Barber or in Detroit. Or chiefly, dominating at Road America, only to be disqualified for illegally using a set of his teammate’s tyres, which had more prior laps on them thus placing him at a disadvantage, due to an innocent mix-up.
“That really ruined our chance for the championship,” de Tullio said. “If not, I think we’d be much closer - top three, around there. [The next race], Mid-Ohio, was difficult because of that. Mid-Ohio, you still think about the past a little bit when it’s happened so many times: you do everything right one weekend, put yourself back in it, it gets taken away.
“That was the toughest. It was even tougher than all the times I’ve been taken out. Once Mid-Ohio was done with, [I was] much better, more calm again.”
But through the ups and downs of his maiden season in Indy NXT, de Tullio is having to remind himself of his inexperience, having raced USF Juniors in 2022 but not returned full-time to cars until a big jump to USF Pro 2000 last year. That accentuates the positives, while the negatives have provided a character-building experience.
“Out of the difficulties, you also learn a lot,” he explained. “Basically, last year was my first year back in cars. Before that, I was in karting. I went from karting to Pro to now this. Everything is coming quite fast. I don’t have much experience, if we’re realistic.
“Going through these tough experiences is also going to make me stronger and better. In the moment, it’s difficult. I hate it when it happens. [But] when you think back on it, it’s something that makes you stronger. It’s something that’s going to happen, especially in my first years.
“At this level, when everyone wants to win, there’s going to be stuff that happens. It’s normal. Just not beating up yourself over it is very important. Just get stronger and learn. Even from the bad stuff, there’s always positives to take. That’s what we’ve done this year.
“The team has supported me, my family has supported me, my sponsors have supported me. I have all that behind me. That’s the most important, to keep fighting and pushing.”
De Tullio sees the importance of the pace he has shown over a single lap, plus now multiple times the ability to convert when preventative factors out of his control do not arise, in proving his raw ability. But his immediate future remains unclear and undecided.
“Of course I want to be an IndyCar driver,” he admitted. “But right now, I’m just focusing on what I have to do as a driver. Obviously I have to think about next year, but we still have races left this year. It’s about executing and finishing off strong.”
Taylor’s podium return & Hughes’ future
Taylor’s start to the year was electric, at points. He claimed pole at the outset in St. Petersburg, won the next round in Arlington and ended the first six rounds with four top-two race finishes and a firm footing in the title fight.
But the seven rounds from Detroit to Nashville saw no further podiums recorded, only two top-five results and a fading from the title picture. He was often still fairly quick, but some errors crept in, misfortune struck and he found himself regularly on the back foot in races.
A return to the podium in Portland was a welcome sign of an issue-free weekend.
“I’m not very experienced. This is only my fourth year racing cars,” Taylor asserted. “Just learning a lot, making some mistakes. We’ve had some bad luck [but] taking the learning experiences as we go, try to put it all together.
“We always have really good pace. We always end up saying ‘we should have, could have, would have’ been on the top step of the podium. But just about taking what we can, learn and putting it together a bit better.”
Still behind his teammate in the standings, though in his second full season after putting up a strong fight for third in the championship last year, the story has been similar for Hughes. His runner-up finish in Portland was only his third podium of the season, with rostrums required in each of the final three rounds to only even equal his rookie tally.
Having not kicked on and contended for the title as expected, the waters have been muddied a little in terms of Hughes’ future. At present, next year’s plans are unconfirmed.
“Not too sure at the moment,” he disclosed. “Just taking it race by race. Similar for me this year: a lot of pace, a lot of races like Nashville last time out where we were fighting for the win and ended up really having nothing to show for it. Open for anything right now.”
One point remains standings difference
Having finished ahead of Johnson in the lower end of the top 10, Fittipaldi gained two points on the Cape driver in Portland to retake the championship lead with three races remaining.
But Johnson’s one-point lead has flipped to only a one-point advantage for Fittipaldi. Behind them, from 24 points back, Kucharczyk is still very much in the game at now a mere 18 points behind the lead of his Brazilian teammate.
It would still take a catastrophe for the lead trio for anyone else to factor into the title picture. In fourth, Taylor is 80 points behind, with Hughes (-90) and de Tullio (-98) the only other drivers still within 100 points of Fittipaldi. Rowe (-132) is mathematically still just alive, with Beeton (-160) wiped out of contention should the lead pair start the next race.
There are two weekends off for Indy NXT now before the season resumes with a single race - the third and final on an oval this year - in Milwaukee. The season concludes one week later with a high-stakes Laguna Seca doubleheader.
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