Photo: Gavin Baker Photography
Max Garcia has explained the key factors that underpinned his run to the USF Pro 2000 title this year as a rookie.
Still only 16, Garcia is set to step up to single-seaters’ second tier in 2026 as the USFP2000 crown earned him a $594,500 (£438,541) scholarship prize to be spent on securing a full-time seat on next year’s Indy Nxt grid.
Although his USFP2000 campaign is wrapped up and there are two races left of Indy Nxt’s season, which are both on ovals and would be invaluable for experience since the lower series only race on one, Garcia will not debut at the next level in 2025.
“I won’t be able to make my Indy Nxt debut this year. For two reasons,” Garcia said in conversation with Formula Scout.
“One, I am still too young to get a license. And two, I would need to do a rookie orientation test on an oval which I have not done [yet].”
Next year will be Garcia’s fourth on the Road to Indy. He graduated from the USA’s junior karting scene to USF2000 in 2023 with Pabst Racing, and missed the first round of the season due to not yet being 14 years old. After finishing sixth on debut, Garcia was a regular in the top 10 and two podiums helped him come ninth in the standings.
He remained in the championship and with Pabst for 2024, which resulted in five victories, five other podiums, seven poles and the title. Garcia clinched it in the penultimate race, and got the job done even earlier in USFP2000.
This year the Pabst driver was crowned with three races to spare, and ended the season with nine victories, four other podiums, nine poles and 12 fastest laps. Only two drivers have more wins than him in USFP2000 this century.
“The key to being good at so many tracks we’ve gone to this year, is being able to communicate very well with my engineer,” explained Garcia. “So he can understand what I mean when I ask for the car to do something a little bit different and maximise the car’s potential at each track.
“The reason I was straight away a contender in USFP000 is because I have experience in a car now. My first year of USF2000 I had never raced a car and I was young and trying to learn the car and procedures that come with racing a car.”
A major contributing element to Garcia’s race-winning form was Pabst, with the car it provided him with and also how it worked with him on race weekends. But he will have to move on from the team next year as it does not compete in Indy Nxt.
“It’s very important to have a good environment around you while you’re trying to perform at the highest level. I think all of us at Pabst have a really good relationship not only at the track but outside of it as well,” Garcia reflected.