Photo: Joe Skibinski
IndyCar’s primary feeder series Indy Nxt has a new series director, just four months after its appointment in the position.
Kirk Dooley is taking on the role ahead of the second round of the season, and officially succeeds Richard Buck who did not actually oversee a single race during his tenure.
Buck was hired last December following a three-month search by the series-owning Penske Entertainment organisation, which needed to replace Levi Jones after he departed in September to manage Eldora Speedway.
Formerly a team manager, race strategist and crew chief at multiple teams in Indy car racing through the 1980s and ’90s, Buck also had a junior single-seater involvement in the formerly Indy Nxt-rivaling Atlantics series. He split with Penske Entertainment in February, before Indy Nxt’s season-opening race in St. Petersburg where interim leadership was relied on.
Dooley was IndyCar’s chief of staff from 2015 to ’16, and worked on its technical regulations during that time. He then became director of event operations at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and in 2020 landed a job in junior single-seaters as he was hired by the Skip Barber Racing School as its chief operating officer.
Like his predecessor, Dooley also has team management experience in racing and skills from a very different career spent in special operations for the United States Marine Corps.
“Kirk’s vast experience will be a tremendous asset for Indy Nxt,” said IndyCar’s new president Doug Boles. “His important work developing talent with Skip Barber, combined with his history at IndyCar and IMS, will prove invaluable for a series one step away from the premier open-wheel series in North America.”