Enzo Fittipaldi wins wet Indianapolis Indy Nxt race

Photo: James Black

Enzo Fittipaldi claimed his maiden Indy Nxt victory in a wet race on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.

The HMD Motorsport driver took the lead from Lochie Hughes late in the race. Hughes tried to fight back but couldn’t find a way back through and had to settle for second.

Fittipaldi started 10th on the grid but a messy opening lap allowed him to climb up to fourth by the end of lap one. The first promotion came when pole sitter Alessandro de Tullio ran wide at the first corner, dropping him down the order. Hughes passed team-mate Max Taylor to take the race lead while further down the order multiple smaller incidents shuffled up the pack. 

Josh Pierson moved up to third ahead of Fittipaldi and Ricardo Escotto, who started ninth. 

It didn’t take long for the top four to break away, and they had a comfortable gap back to the rest of the pack when it began to rain. Just before the race was halted, Fittipaldi made a move on Pierson to take third and was closing in on Taylor. The safety car and then a red flag stopped running before he could make any further move.

When racing resumed, Fittipaldi picked up where he left off, taking Taylor for second. The top two then escaped down the road, leaving Taylor to battle with Pierson and Tymek Kucharczyk. 

Throughout the closing stages of the race, Fittipaldi and Hughes went side by side multiple times. The wet weather caused spray, but Fittipaldi was able to stay close behind the Andretti driver when he wasn’t alongside.

He managed to find a way through only for Hughes to come back alongside. Hughes at one point ran slightly wide over the grass but managed to continue alongside Fittipaldi, though couldn’t find a way back through.

Further down the order Bryce Aron came to a stop at Turn 3. He was unable to get the car going again and the safety car was called out with less than two minutes remaining. It meant an early end for the race and victory for Fittipaldi.

Hughes took second, his best result of the season, with Nikita Johnson taking his third consecutive podium finish.

Johnson had been at the tail end of the top 10 when the race was red-flagged, but was fast on the wet weather tyres. He climbed up to the top six and joined the tail end of the battle between Taylor, Pierson and Kucharczyk. He picked off the drivers one by one and was just ahead of Kucharczyk when the safety car was brought out. Taylor took fifth ahead of Pierson and Myles Rowe.

Race results (29 laps)