Photo: Joe Skibinski
Myles Rowe made history at Iowa Speedway last weekend as the first black driver to win in Indy Nxt, an important landmark in his career and for Force Indy.
The team, part of IndyCar’s Race for Equality & Change diversity programme, is an African American-led operation that co-enters Rowe’s car with Abel Motorsports.
Rowe was USF2000 runner-up and USF Pro 2000 champion with the Force Indy crew before reaching Indy Nxt.
“It’s huge,” Rowe said to media including Formula Scout about the significance of being Indy Nxt’s first black winner.
“For sure it means a lot to me, and I just want more, honestly. It’s great that this is the first, but I’m really looking for multiple wins, and then to carry that on to IndyCar. I don’t like to get stuck too much in the past, and at this point, my head’s already gone to Laguna [Seca in a fortnight].”
He added: “When I feel like I win, I feel like a lot of other people win, which is something great to be a part of.”
Financial support from Team Penske has been key to Force Indy, and Rowe believes that “has shown huge rewards for the whole industry” by supporting mechanics and engineers from diverse backgrounds develop their careers.
“I’m super proud to be able to represent [so many], and be winning now and be upfront. It’s super crucial to be able to see somebody that looks like you, doing well. Someone to look up to, especially when you’re younger. Things are a lot bigger and seem a lot more unfeasible, possibly, especially motorsport-related when you might not have the money to or possibility of even getting anywhere close.”
The victory was earned by hounding Dennis Hauger then pouncing on him as they lapped traffic.
“I knew starting the race that being on new tyres and the track naturally being pretty flatout that it was going to come down to the last half of the race with tyre wear and then also messing around with traffic,” explained Rowe.
“So I was being patient at first. Just trying to take care of my tyres, and then once we got through all the yellows and then we came back up on traffic again, I knew that was going to be the time to get through. I was able to get a bit of a run, and get onto the high line, and able to do what I needed to do in order to get the win. So I’m very happy with that pass.”
Whether he could make a move around the outside was an unknown going into the race.
“In practice, we were doing a good bit of high line running that was actually working. The question was ‘was it going to work in the race?’,” Rowe reflected.
“It was pretty tough doing that, at least when Dennis had clean air. But I knew once we slowed down our minimum speeds that it might be a little bit more feasible.”