Andretti. Ganassi. McLaren. Penske.

Those are just some of the names on the tents and trailers USF Pro Championships drivers will drive past this weekend at Mid-Ohio. For those more than sixty drivers, many of whom are in their teenage years, this is one of the first times they’ll race in sight of the big leagues.

“They basically dictate our future,” Evagoras Papasavvas, a 16-year-old USF2000 driver, said. “It’s very good to do well when IndyCar’s here, so they can see how good of drivers they are.”

As far as drivers who have advanced from the USF Pro Championships, one of America’s top junior racing programs, to IndyCar go, today’s drivers are in good company. Pato O’Ward, Colton Herta, Kyle Kirkwood and Christian Rasmussen are just a few of the many drivers on the grid who have had experience at the USF levels.

However, as far as exposure goes, this weekend at Mid-Ohio might stand alone. Ever since the USF Pro Championships opened their lowest level of competition, USF Juniors, in 2022, there has not been a weekend where all three series have held a tripleheader alongside IndyCar. That changed this weekend.

In USF Juniors specifically, where the average age of the drivers is well below 18, this is the first weekend for many of them will have racing on the Friday and Saturday before a Sunday IndyCar race. One of those drivers is Liam McNeilly, who came from Great Britain to compete in USF Juniors this year, chasing his dream of reaching IndyCar.

McNeilly qualified on pole for this afternoon’s USF Juniors race. To add to the excitement, the 18-year-old received a congratulatory visit after qualifying from former IndyCar driver and current NBC Sports analyst James Hinchcliffe.

“It’s great to get on pole for an IndyCar weekend,” McNeilly said. “In front of loads of people, that’s what dreams are made of.”

Each of the three series will have multiple races throughout the weekend in order to impress those further down in the paddock. They’ll be racing on the same layout, taking the same corners and utilizing the same straightaways as they try to work their way toward the front.

G3 Argyros, a 14-year-old USF Juniors rookie from California, is hoping that in his first year of open-wheel racing, that doing his best at Mid-Ohio can start building the momentum he needs to try to impress those IndyCar teams that he someday desires to have a shot to drive for.

Argyros got a podium in the last race weekend at Virginia International Raceway, and hopes he can land the same again here.

“I think if we put down a good result here and then a good result in Toronto in the USF2000 car, we could definitely get to Portland and I can put myself on the map,” Argyros said.

On the opposite end from USF Juniors, the top level of the USF Pro Championships, USF Pro 2000, might feel a bit more like a tryout for reaching the Indy NXT and IndyCar level.

In just the past year alone, multiple drivers have matriculated out of USF Pro 2000 into Indy NXT, the series directly below the top step. Myles Rowe and Yuven Sundaramoorthy have both progressed after competing in USF Pro 2000 last year. Pabst Racing’s Christian Brooks is doing double-duty this weekend in both Indy NXT and USF Pro 2000.

Brooks’s USF Pro 2000 teammate Jace Denmark qualified on the front row for his first race this weekend and is hoping to make a similar jump forward.

“It’s everything to me to be in the same paddock as IndyCar and Indy NXT,” Denmark said. “They’re two steps I want to get to either next year or the years to follow.”

Denmark is in the striking distance for the USF Pro 2000 title. He’s only 50 points behind Nikita Johnson. If he wins the title, he’ll take advantage of a $681,500 scholarship provided by USF Pro Championships to become the seventh consecutive champion to advance to the next level.

Recognition and the continued pursuit of scholarships aside, one more reason that drivers said again and again that they were excited for this weekend was simple. Many of these young drivers grew up idolizing IndyCar drivers.

In the age of IndyCar legends such as Scott Dixon and Will Power prolonging their career into their 40s, the same IndyCar competitors that many of these young drivers watched their entire lives are still hanging around and still winning races.

For second-generation racer Sebastian Wheldon, whose dad won the Indianapolis 500 in 2005 and 2011, many of the drivers his father competed against are still competing at the highest level, within reach of these younger competitors.

“Just to see them at the same track, it’s special,” Wheldon said.