Tymek Kucharczyk takes first Indy NXT win in Race 2 on Indy road course

Motorsport photo

Tymek Kucharczyk (HMD Motorsports) captured his first career Indy NXT win in a stellar drive in the nightcap of the doubleheader weekend at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.

The 20-year-old Polish driver started fifth and made an opportunistic move for the lead after frontrunners drifted off course in Turn 1 of the opening lap. Despite pressure for all 30 laps, he held serve to win by 0.6273s over Andretti Global’s Max Taylor on the 2.439-mile, 14-turn road course. Kucharczyk becomes the first driver from Poland to win in IndyCar’s developmental championship.

“What a special day,” Kucharczyk said. “To do it here, going back to November, my first time in an Indy NXT car and now winners here at Indy is just spectacular. So grateful to my sponsors, to my team. Tremendous job. It was a tough race. It was really, really hard to up Max behind me, who was pushing me for the whole race. Except for any lockup that I made during the race, it was a pretty flawless execution. Yeah, super happy.”

Enzo Fittipaldi (HMD Motorsports) backed up his Race 1 win with a third-place finish in the second race. Lochie Hughes (Andretti Global) took fourth, with Alessandro De Tullio (AJ Foyt Racing) in fifth.

After six of 17 races, Nikita Johnson holds an 11-point lead over Kucharczyk (231-220). Taylor sits third (-14), ahead of Fittipaldi (-16), and Hughes (-64).

The Race

Pole-sitter Taylor led a three-wide run into Turn 1, with both him, front row mate De Tullio and Josh Pierson (Andretti Global), who started third, all ended up briefly off course through the opening corner. Johnson was also pressuring for the lead, but fell back due to being directly behind Taylor. As a result, Kucharczyk went from fifth into the lead.

Kucharczyk led the initial four laps, but Taylor put the opening corner issue away and chased down the Polish driver. Taylor attempted an outside pass for the lead into Turn 1, with the two touching slightly and Kucharczyk able to successfully defend the top spot.

Both Kucharczyk and Taylor held a 1.7s lead over third-place setter Enzo Fittipaldi.

On Lap 9, Myles Rowe (Abel Motorsport) was running 15th and under pressure by Bryce Aron (Chip Ganassi Racing), who rolled off last after dealing with a mechanical issue on pit lane, when he overshot Turn 1 while locking up his front tires in a plume of smoke and went to the runoff road before calling for “brake failure” over the radio. Rowe ended up on pit lane and eventually became the first retirement of the race.