Twenty-three INDY NXT by Firestone drivers took advantage of the six-week break in the schedule before the Month of May at Indianapolis for a series group test April 14-15 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.

The INDYCAR development series races in a doubleheader July 4-5 at the 13-turn, 2.258-mile road course near Columbus, Ohio.

It’s time for some itemized deductions.

Many Top Contenders Step Up

Think of the great title races in recent INDY NXT history, and they often have boiled down to two drivers: Pato O’Ward vs. Colton Herta in 2018, Kyle Kirkwood vs. David Malukas in 2019, Dennis Hauger vs. Caio Collet in 2025.

That may not be the case this year. The title contention party may be growing.

The top five in the current standings all occupied the top five overall at the end of this test. Series leader Nikita Johnson (photo, top) topped the test with a best lap of 1:09.6773 in the No. 21 Cape Motorsports Powered by ECR machine, followed by Max Taylor (second in standings) at 1:09.8792 in the No. 28 Susan G. Komen car of Andretti Global and Enzo Fittipaldi (fourth in standings) at 1:09.9163 in the No. 67 HMD Motorsports car.

Alessandro de Tullio (fifth in points) was fourth at 1:09.9785 in the No. 14 AJ Foyt Racing machine, while Tymek Kucharczyk (third in points) rounded out the top five at 1:10.0398 in the No. 71 HMD Motorsports entry.

Just 60 points separate the top five in the standings after four races, and the gaps even tighter on the time sheet this week at Mid-Ohio. Just .3625 of a second separated the top five in this test.

Max Taylor

Rookies Continue To Rule

Last season, Hauger became the first rookie to win the INDY NXT championship since Kirkwood in 2021, and there’s a bit of an asterisk.

Kirkwood was ready to jump to the series in 2020 after winning the 2019 USF 2000 title, but that season was canceled due to the global pandemic. So, who knows if Kirkwood would have stayed for a second season if he didn’t win the title in his originally scheduled rookie year?

But it sure looks like this year may be a second consecutive season in which a first-year driver in the series takes home the biggest trophy. Among the top five drivers in points and on the time sheets this week at Mid-Ohio, only Taylor isn’t classified as a series rookie.

And Taylor (photo, above) missed rookie designation by a slim margin. He competed in six of the 14 INDY NXT races last season in conjunction with his full-time USF Pro 2000 campaign. Those six starts were enough for Taylor to lose his rookie stripes for the 2026 season.

The top returnee among full timers in the 2025 series is JM Correa of Cusick Morgan Motorsports, sixth in the standings. He was 12th overall at the Mid-Ohio test at 1:10.4606 in the No. 68 entry.

Tight Time Sheet

The 13-turn, 2.258-mile Mid-Ohio circuit is a roller coaster, with plenty of elevation change and corners of varying radius and length. That leads to plenty of opportunities for mistakes, but the overall time sheet showed remarkable parity.

The top 14 drivers all were within one second at the end of the test. All 23 drivers were within two seconds of leader Johnson.

Up Next

The series continues May 8-9 with the Grand Prix of Indianapolis doubleheader on the 14-turn, 2.439-mile road course at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Then a three-week gap follows until the Detroit Grand Prix on Sunday, May 31. It’s go time for the series from that point, with six races between June 7 and July 19.