De Tullio resists Taylor to claim maiden Indy Nxt victory at Barber

Photo: Joe Skibinski

Alessandro de Tullio held off Max Taylor to take his maiden Indy Nxt victory in race two at Barber Motorsports Park.

The AJ Foyt Racing driver had narrowly missed out on the win in the first race of the weekend after contact with Taylor. This time, the two drivers ran together throughout the race but avoided any incidents. De Tullio managed the pressure to come home 0.3635 seconds ahead of Taylor.

After starting from pole for the third consecutive race, de Tullio held onto the lead on the opening lap. Nikita Johnson in third made the best start and jumped past Taylor to take second, but didn’t hold the position for long. Taylor swept back past on the following lap to resume his battle with de Tullio.

The top two were not able to shake Johnson for most of the race. They would briefly pull a small gap away from the third placed driver, only for Johnson to close back in. The close fighting left little room for error and Taylor opted against any risky moves. There were few attempts to actually find a way past de Tullio and the race leader didn’t put a wheel wrong, allowing him to take his first win of the season.

Behind them, Enzo Fittipaldi kept the pressure on Johnson in the final laps. Fittipaldi spent most of the race having to contend with HMD Motorsports team-mate Tymek Kucharczyk to defend his fourth place position. But in the final laps, Kucharczyk fell back into a battle with Jordan Missig, allowing Fittipaldi to focus forward. Johnson and Fittipaldi ran nose to tail, but there were no opportunities for an overtake and Fittipaldi had to settle for fourth.

Missig was briefly able to get a nose ahead of Kucharczyk in the battle for fifth, but Kucharczyk came back past at the following corner to secure the position.

Fittipaldi and Kucharczyk’s move forwards from their starting positions was helped by contact ahead of them on the opening lap.

Team-mates Myles Rowe and Max Garcia were battling for position when they made contact. Rowe had gone up onto the kerbs and bounced off into Garcia’s path, heavily damaging the front of Garcia’s car. Both were carrying enough speed to keep moving and came into the pits, avoiding any need for a caution. Rowe was eventually able to make it back out on track after repairs, before having to take a penalty for avoidable contact. He later returned to the pits to retire.

The only other significant incident involved Josh Pierson, who had dropped down the order after running wide on the opening lap. Late in the race, he was battling for position with Salvador de Alba just outside the top 10 when the pair made slight contact. De Alba was able to continue, but Pierson was penalised and dropped down the order.

Bryce Aron was one of the biggest movers in the field, coming up from 11th on the grid to finish seventh, ahead of Juan Manuel Correa and Jack Beeton. Seb Murray rounded out the top 10.

Race results (30 laps)