The INDY NXT by Firestone championship fight resumes this weekend with a doubleheader at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.
Just six points separate rookie contenders Nikita Johnson and Tymek Kucharczyk atop the standings entering the weekend.
SEE: Race 1 Details | Race 2 Details
Leader Johnson (photo, top), 18, has recorded six podium finishes in 10 starts, including victories on his home streets of St. Petersburg and in Race 1 at Barber Motorsports Park.
Kucharczyk, 20, of Poland, also has six podium finishes. His breakthrough first victory came in Race 2 on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.
Kucharczyk’s HMD Motorsports teammate Enzo Fittipaldi slipped from second to third in the standings after Road America and trails Johnson by 27 points.
Andretti Global rookie Max Taylor also lost ground during the Road America doubleheader. Taylor entered the weekend 27 points behind Johnson but left 61 points back after finishes of 12th and 17th.
Race 1 is scheduled for 1 p.m. ET Saturday, July 4. Race 2 follows at 10 a.m. ET Sunday, July 5. Both races will air on FS1, FOX One and the INDYCAR Radio Network powered by OnlyBulls.
INDY NXT on Fourth of July Weekend
Saturday's race marks just the fifth time the series has competed on Independence Day.
The previous Fourth of July races took place at Kansas Speedway in 2004, won by Thiago Medeiros and at Watkins Glen International in 2009 and 2010, won by JR Hildebrand and JK Vernay, respectively. The most recent July 4 race occurred at Mid-Ohio in 2021, when Kyle Kirkwood earned the victory.
The series also has raced four times on July 5: 1987 at Cleveland, won by Didier Theys; 1992 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, won by Bryan Herta; and during the 2008 Watkins Glen doubleheader, won by Raphael Matos and Richard Antinucci.
First-Time Winner Again?
Three of the last four Mid-Ohio winners earned their first career INDY NXT victory at the circuit.
Hunter McElrea accomplished the feat in 2022, Louis Foster followed in 2023, and Caio Collet did the same in 2024.
Dennis Hauger (photo, above) won at Mid-Ohio last season as a rookie, but by then he had four victories. He remains the only driver in that span to win at Mid-Ohio and capture the championship in the same season.
Five drivers have earned their first career victories this season: Johnson of Cape Motorsports Powered by ECR, Fittipaldi and Kucharczyk of HMD Motorsports, Taylor of Andretti Global and Alessandro de Tullio of AJ Foyt Racing.
Entering this weekend, AJ Foyt Racing’s Nicholas Monteiro (0-for-11), JM Correa (0-for-19) and Nicolas Stati (0-for-9) of Cusick Morgan Motorsports, Seb Murray (0-for-23) and Josh Pierson (0-for-47) of Andretti Global, Abel Motorsports’ Jordan Missig (0-for-29), Max Garcia (0-for-10) and Colin Kaminsky (0-for-18), Chip Ganassi Racing’s Bryce Aron (0-for-38), Niels Koolen (0-for-33), James Roe (0-for-63) and Carson Etter (0-for-10), HMD’s Jack Beeton (0-for-10) and Juncos Hollinger Racing’s Alexander Koreiba (0-for-10) are winless in their INDY NXT career.
Doubleheader Returns to Mid-Ohio
This weekend marks the first Mid-Ohio doubleheader since 2021.
Doubleheaders at Mid-Ohio are hardly uncommon. From 2014-21, every Mid-Ohio visit featured two races, including two separate doubleheader weekends in 2021.
Five drivers have swept Mid-Ohio doubleheaders:
- Jack Harvey (2014)
- Santiago Urrutia (2016)
- Pato O'Ward (2018)
- Oliver Askew (2019)
- Kirkwood (July 2021)
This is the fourth of five doubleheader weekends on the 2026 schedule. The season finale at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca on Sept. 5-6 also features two races.
No driver has swept a doubleheader this season. Johnson and de Tullio split the wins at Barber Motorsports Park, Fittipaldi and Kucharczyk won at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course, and Lochie Hughes of Andretti Global and Matteo Nannini (Cape Motorsports Powered by ECR) won at Road America.
Can de Tullio Continue Qualifying Dominance?
De Tullio enters the weekend with seven poles in 10 races, including three of the last four in the No. 14 AJ Foyt Racing entry.
He has captured five of the six poles available during road course doubleheader weekends this season at Barber, Indianapolis and Road America.
The single-season INDY NXT record is nine poles, set by Pato O'Ward in 2018. Ed Jones in 2016 and Thiago Medeiros in 2004 each earned eight.
De Tullio (photo, above) is tied with Hauger (2025), Oliver Askew (2019), Rinus VeeKay (2019), Colton Herta (2017), Greg Moore (1995), Bryan Herta (1993) and Paul Tracy (1990) with seven poles in a season. With seven races remaining, he has multiple opportunities to match or surpass O'Ward's record.
De Tullio has started on the front row in every race except the season opener on the streets of St. Petersburg, where he qualified eighth.
Despite his qualifying success, he has just one victory, Race 2 at Barber Motorsports Park. He crossed the finish line first June 21 at Road America, but he and teammate Monteiro were penalized after the race and scored 23rd and 24th, respectively.
He has converted front-row starts into only three podium finishes, his Barber Race 2 win, second at World Wide Technology Raceway and third in Race 1 at Road America. As a result, he sits seventh in the standings, 101 points behind Johnson.
Weekend Schedule
The series opens the weekend with a lone practice session at 2 p.m. ET Friday (FS2, INDYCAR Radio powered by OnlyBulls).
Qualifying for both races begins at 9 a.m. ET Saturday, followed by Race 1 at 1 p.m. ET. Both sessions air on FS1 and INDYCAR Radio powered by OnlyBulls.
Race 2 starts at 10 a.m. ET Sunday (FS1, INDYCAR Radio powered by OnlyBulls).
Track Specs: 2.258-mile, 13-turn road course
Qualifying Record: Dennis Hauger, 1:09.7431 (116.553 mph), July 5, 2025
Push To Pass Parameters: 150 seconds of total time with a maximum time of 15 seconds per activation
Your Privacy Choices | Closed Captioning 
