Hometown hero Nikita Johnson claims first INDY NXT win on Streets of St. Petersburg
- Jeffrey Hrunka
- 6 hours ago
- 3 min read
Jeffrey Hrunka - INDYCAR Contributor
Nikita Johnson ends Max Taylor’s perfect weekend, passing him on the opening restart of the INDY NXT by Firestone GP of St. Petersburg, leading 42 laps for his maiden INDY NXT SERIES victory on Sunday, March 1.
"I knew I just wanted to get to the front," Johnson said. "That's the biggest thing. Just wanted to control the race. I know that I'm pretty good at that, so I knew that I was going to do it as fast as I could. And I saw there was an opportunity coming into turn one, so I went for it and stuck it."
Max Taylor, driver of the Andretti Global No. 28, dominated the weekend, topping both practice and qualifying sessions ahead of raceday on Sunday. All it took was the start on lap one, turn one to get it done. However, four cautions before Lap 21 of the race forced Johnson to battle Taylor on a series of restarts.
He gave all credit to his former mentor, Ron Hornaday on this skill.
"I raced legends cars, and I had a really good coach named Ron Hornaday, and he helped me with my restarts and got it pretty locked down in legends cars," Johnson said. "I took that experience to this and I just knew that the track was going to be pretty greasy in the last turn, so I changed it up multiple times.
For Taylor, this marked his first race around the circuit and his second on a street course since racing on the Streets of Detroit with HMD Motorsports last season. His second-place effort marked the first podium finish in the series.
"It was definitely difficult," Taylor said. "The track seemed to not have a lot of grip out there, so it was hard to keep the tires in the window and find the acceleration point in the last corner for the restarts. I got close once or twice, but yeah, just not enough."
Several other drivers made their debuts on the Streets of St. Petersburg, one of which was rookie Tymek Kucharczyk, driver of the HMD Motorsports No. 71, who claimed his first INDY NXT podium in his first race in the series.
"I think we've done a pretty decent job, executed well that we can. It's not the easiest one, probably for my debut," Kucharczyk said. "I have two guys next to me, much more experience on this track, and luckily, they didn't give me any tips."
The series of early cautions forced INDY NXT SERIES officials to switch the race to revert to its 55-minute timed rule. On lap 27, drivers were told that they had 17 minutes until the race was official.
Rookie Jack Beeton, driver of the HMD Motorsports No.45, brought out the first caution after making contact with the turn four wall during the opening lap of the race.
This was followed by errors from rookies Nicholas Monteiro, driver of the A.J. Foyt Racing No.4 and Carson Etter, driver of the Chip Ganassi Racing No.11, who made contact with the barriers on laps 4 and 16, respectively.
Chip Ganassi Racing’s errors didn’t stop there as Neils Koolen, driver of the No.10 and James Roe, driver of the No.8, made contact with one another in turn two in the penultimate restart of the race. However, once the race was shifted from a lap count to a timed affair, drivers fell in line, with Taylor and Johnson leading to the finish.
The duo stretched their gap to the field to three seconds, but with the speed out of Taylor, he only got within five-tenths before Johnson pulled out a second gap on his Andretti Global foe.
INDY NXT SERIES Firestone GP of St. Petersburg Results:
Nikita Johnson #21 (R) - (WINNER)
Max Taylor #28 -0.699s
Tymek Kucharczyk #71 (R) -5.506s
Seb Murray #27 -6.086s
Lochie Hughes #26 -7.182s
Myles Rowe #99 -14.132s
Josh Pierson #29 -14.54s
Salvador de Alba #17 -17.320s
JM Correa #68 -18.422s
Alessandro de Tullio (R) #14 -19.093s
Jack Beeton #45 (R) -19.518s
Max Garcia #12 (R)-21.122s
Ricardo Escotto #76 -22.168s
Jordan Missig #48 -26.397s
Chris Kaminsky #57 -26.962s
Nicolas Stati #15 (R)-28.335s
Enzo Fittipaldi #67 (R) -29.524s
Bryce Aron #9 -31.479s
Mattero Nannini #20 -33.536s
Alexander Koreiba #75 (R) -36.614s
James Roe #8 -22 laps (DNF)
Neils Koolen #10 -22 laps (DNF)
Nicholas Monteiro #4 (R) -26 laps (DNF)
Carson Etter #11 (R) -37 laps (DNF)
The INDY NXT SERIES returns to action for the first-ever street race on the Streets of Arlington for the Grand Prix of Arlington on Sunday, March 15, at 11:00 am ET on FS1.
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