Photo: Penske Entertainment / Joe Skibinski
Indy Nxt champion Nikita Johnson made his IndyCar test debut at Barber Motorsports Park this week with Dale Coyne Racing.
After Formula 2 title contender Alex Dunne drove in the morning session on October 26, Johnson got in the car for the afternoon.
The 18-year-old first raced on the track in 2022 as a single-seater rookie, en route to third in the USF Juniors standings, then he was USF2000 runner-up in 2023 and USF Pro 2000 runner-up in 2024.
He started last year in IndyCar’s support paddock too, but only for two weekends in Indy Nxt as he stepped back down to GB3 and then contested the second half of the FIA Formula 3 Championship season but failed to score.
Johnson returned to Barber this year by competing in Indy Nxt full-time, and claimed one of his two victories there. Seven other podiums and finishing every race in the top eight helped him claim the title, and he also began his sportscar career on home soil in IMSA’s GTD Pro class.
“It was great,” said Johnson of this week’s IndyCar test. “It was faster, more downforce. It was surreal. I watched this (series) forever. To finally be here was so special. It’s just everything I hoped for. More horsepower, more physical, more of everything. It’s just amazing.”
While watching Dunne on track he had thought: “How is this car going to act? How am I [going] to compare it? To finally get in it, it was crazy to finally feel it.”
He labelled Barber as a “great place to do” his first IndyCar mileage, adding he was “very happy to get it out of the system and just keep learning” and that “everything was pretty spot on” in the car as the “only little thing I need to work on is the braking” and “get used to that stopping power”.
As champion, Johnson cannot return to Indy Nxt. He and Dunne are part of a wider group of drivers contending to fill DCR’s two vacant seats for the 2027 IndyCar season.