Taylor moves into Indy Nxt lead by winning disrupted Arlington race

Photo: Travis Hinkle / Penske Entertainment

Andretti Global’s Max Taylor became an Indy Nxt race-winner and took the points lead in round two on the streets of Arlington.

Yellow flags were brought out before racing even got underway following an incident at the rolling start.

Jack Beeton had come out of line and passed poleman Alessandro de Tullio, with Tymek Kucharczyk the making slight contact with the rear of de Tullio’s car and send him up the escape road. Further back, an incident for Colin Kaminsky sent him into the barriers, causing heavy damage that required a recovery.

The next 13 minutes were spent behind the pace car as Kaminsky’s car was cleared. Beeton initially had the lead, but pitted with damage to his front wing, leaving Enzo Fittpaldi at the front of the field.

Green flag action finally began with 16-and-a-half minutes remaining of the race. Fittipaldi held onto the lead while Kucharczyk battled to keep Taylor behind. Taylor initially could not find a way past, but he and Kucharczyk soon caught Fittipaldi to make it a three-way lead fight.

The two HMD Motorsports drivers ran side-by-side multiple times. Kucharczyk briefly managed to take the lead with a move down the inside, only for Fittipaldi to retake it at the next corner. 

In a risky move, Taylor dived down Kucharczyk’s inside and came close to making contact with Fittipaldi. He managed to avoid a collision, and hold onto second.

The order then changed as Cusick Morgan Motorsports’ Juan Manuel Correa overtook Kucharczyk for third.

Another caution period began when Andretti’s Josh Pierson stopped on track. He had been battling side-by-side with HMD’s Salvador de Alba when the pair made slight contact and Pierson hit the barriers.

Racing resumed with just under four minutes left. Fittipaldi got a good restart, but Taylor had better pace once his tyres came back up to temperature, and found a way through two laps from the end.

Fittipaldi then slipped back into a fight with Kucharczyk, who had reclaimed third from Correa before the caution period, while Taylor went mistake-free up front and won by 1.8925 seconds.

Correa finished fourth ahead of Andretti’s Lochie Hughes, who took fifth from Cape Motorsports by Ed Carpenter Racing’s St. Petersburg race-winner Nikita Johnson late on.

Seb Murray (Andretti), Matteo Nannini (Cape) and Myles Rowe (Abel Motorsports with Force Indy) occupied the next places. Rowe was battling de Alba after the restart before de Alba got out of shape and came to a stop on track. He was able to get going without assistance, but dropped to the back of the pack, while de Tullio recovered to 11th.

Race results (15 laps)