Photo credit: Travis Hinkle | IMS Photo

It doesn’t take that long to spell out the main change in the upcoming Indy NXT season, only three words actually: Nationally televised races.

There’s very few things that sound more beautiful than that for a series looking to grow its profile, and that’s what fans of the series based in the United States will get in 2025. Not only did IndyCar manage to get their races on television with their new broadcast deal with FOX, they managed to loop in their top development series too. Not just for the races, but for qualifying and practice sessions as well.

It’s a game-changer for the series. It has helped draw in drivers like HMD Motorsports’s Hailie Deegan to make the move from NASCAR and all the commercials and video shoots have made Andretti’s Lochie Hughes compare working with FOX to feeling like a Hollywood movie star.

So, if any year is the year where Indy NXT is going to break through barriers and grow exponentially in its profile, place bets on 2025 being the year. It’s part of the reason why USOpenWheelNation, after years of providing coverage to series below Indy NXT in the USF Pro Championships, has hopped on board. I’ll be on the ground covering the first race of the season on the Streets of St. Petersburg. A full breakdown and schedule of race times can be found at the end of the preview.

Additionally, television coverage is beginning to expand beyond the United States due to some of the stars with global reach who the series is attracting. Dennis Hauger’s involvement has contributed to looping ViaPlay broadcasting races across Scandinavia. Fans of Sophia Floersch in her home country of Germany can watch on Sky Sports. 

There’s also a prize package of $850,000 for the champion driver, which is to help them fund an Indianapolis 500 ride in 2026 and assist with their transition to the IndyCar Series as a whole.

So with that higher level of exposure and intrigue surrounding the series, there is a field of drivers who have flocked there to take advantage of it. Nine confirmed drivers are rookies to the series and a few of them are expected to make splashes right off the bat, combine that with established returners like HMD’s Caio Collet and ABEL’s Callum Hedge, there’s a flurry of talent looking to make an impact in 2025.

The title contenders

At the top of the field expecting to challenge for the title are a group of drivers who have put together stellar times in preseason testing and are looking forward to continuing their success, whether that success is that of which they achieved in Indy NXT or abroad in 2024.

Caio Collet was fast in the offseason nearly everywhere Indy NXT tested for HMD Motorsports: he found himself at the top of the timesheets in Barber and Laguna Seca and right up there with the leaders at Indianapolis. The 2024 series rookie of the year lacks many weaknesses: he has landed on the podium on street circuits, road courses and ovals. He has shown IndyCar-level versatility already and should be fighting right near the top if he looks as strong as he did in the middle of 2024, when he had a run of six consecutive top-five finishes at five circuits.

The only driver to have come close to leading as many offseason testing sessions as Collet in the months leading up to the 2025 season has been Dennis Hauger, the former Red Bull junior and one of the top drivers to come out of Norway in recent years who will drive for Andretti. Hauger is electrifying on street circuits. In his years in Formula 2, he has won at Jeddah, Baku and Monaco. His precision and ability to lay down fast lap times in city streets has led to him becoming a specialist of sorts and given that the season starts at St. Petersburg, Hauger has the chance to strike right out of the gate at a type of track track which is his bread and butter. As with many European drivers however, Hauger will lack oval experience.

Hauger had many tight battles in testing with his Australian teammate Lochie Hughes, who is going to have the experience of coming up through American open-wheel racing and having raced on many of the tracks Hauger has not. Hughes’s resume speaks for itself: a champion in two of the last three seasons in Formula 4 United States in 2022 and then USF Pro 2000 in 2024. 

He has dominated at the lower levels below Indy NXT across the country and is going to carry that experience and a hefty scholarship from winning last year’s top level of the USF Pro Championships. Keep an eye out for Lochie at St. Pete, Mid-Ohio and Road America, all tracks he has won in recent years at lower levels.

Speaking of drivers who have dominated at the lower levels of American open-wheel racing before moving up to Indy NXT, Callum Hedge made the offseason move to join ABEL Motorsports and is a driver who could very well be near the top of the standings in 2025. He showed flashes of brilliance with top-five finishes on tracks ranging from Detroit to Iowa and has shown offseason pace in testing.

 At the final session in Laguna Seca a few weeks ago, he found himself just one-hundredth off the top time. In a long line of exciting New Zealand-based drivers to come to America, Hedge is the latest of them to shine and expect him to take big strides and challenge for wins in 2025.

Expect them to fight for wins too

Myles Rowe also made a jump to ABEL Motorsports in 2025, hilariously taping the team’s name on his firesuit at testing in Indianapolis where he literally was the fastest car on track. Rowe is a calm, collected driver who is one of the smoothest on the grid under pressure (he provided a fantastic quote when asked about it, telling reporters that “pressure makes diamonds.”) Despite this, he had some rough stretches in 2024 and fell to 11th in the standings in his rookie year. Despite this, Rowe knows how to take massive steps forward, having gone from 13th in one season in USF2000 to nearly winning the title in the next, and a driver of his skill and speed should have no issue challenging for wins in 2024.

Two returning drivers for Andretti should also make themselves contenders for wins and podiums in 2025.

One of those is a guy who you have to watch out for on ovals, 2021 NASCAR Mexico Series champion Salvador de Alba. In every oval race in his entire open-wheel racing career in both USF Pro 2000 and Indy NXT, he has never finished outside the top ten and has only finished below fifth once. de Alba is one of the strongest drivers in the entire field on ovals and while he came up short on multiple occasions to series champion Louis Foster and others in 2024, he is bound to pick up a win or two in 2025.

Alongside de Alba is another returning Andretti driver, James Roe. Finishing seventh and sixth in his first two seasons with Andretti in the series, it’s high time for Roe to make the charge toward the front of the grid and be at the top of contention at some tracks. He picked up podiums at Barber and Iowa last season and has put enough consistency on the board to be above some very talented drivers in the standings, even if he hasn’t had the wins or top-end pace to go along with it. Still, expect the Irishman to continue to take strides as a driver who is perhaps more familiar with the car than anyone else.

Additionally, there are three guys who are committed to part-time schedules who have experienced loads of success in the USF Pro Championships. These drivers are guys who, for financial reasons or for balancing schedules with other series, are only a part of HMD Motorsports for a few races each, but all could be in contention for wins.

Max Taylor emerged on the scene as one of the top American open-wheel racing prospects in 2024 out of seemingly nowhere, picking up the USF Juniors title and giving a great fight for the USF2000 title as well.

Taylor’s breakout season was rewarded with the ability to take part in tests throughout the offseason and the 17-year old northeast native will have the chance to make an impact with HMD starting at Barber Motorsports Park this May and at four other circuits throughout 2024. Taylor will also be racing in USF Pro 2000 in 2025. He’s one of the most dominant and consistent drivers his age in the entire country and it should be exciting to see what he can do at the next level.

Another driver who put up an incredibly strong resume in the levels below Indy NXT was Nikita Johnson, who will be suiting up at his home track of St. Petersburg as well as Indianapolis and Nashville. Johnson is only 16 and has won multiple times at his hometown track, and is the youngest driver ever to win a USF Pro 2000 race. He is the racing equivalent of what a five-star recruit would be in American high-school basketball, brimming with elite talent and rising to the occasion at every level he’s tested at. I would be surprised if Indy NXT is any different and Johnson isn’t contending for a win in at least one race in 2025. Johnson will also be racing abroad for Hitech in the GB3 Championship this year.

Taylor and Johnson will share the #18 car in 2025.

The last of the three USF Pro Championships drivers confirmed for at least a round with HMD is Liam Sceats, who was the overall breakout star in testing in Indy NXT in the offseason. It shouldn’t be surprising that Sceats, a New Zealand Grand Prix winner who has fought alongside Hughes and Johnson for podiums in the past is at the front, but he carries prominent one-lap pace that showed at Laguna Seca and Indianapolis. Sceats is only confirmed for St. Petersburg and whether or not he’ll be able to pull off a full season is unknown at this time.

Also in the mix

There are plenty of other drivers in the field who are looking forward to making an impact throughout the course of the 2025 season, including a big name from another form of motorsports.

No Indy NXT rookie, perhaps ever, will carry the name recognition and intrigue that Hailie Deegan will carry into 2025 with HMD Motorsports. The former NASCAR Truck Series driver will bring an immediate presence to Indy NXT and raise the profile of the series, but there is a learning curve that will come alongside that. So far, Deegan has been at the bottom of testing results as she has been gaining experience in open-wheel cars. It’ll be fascinating to see how she develops, especially at ovals, where she carries more experience than nearly every other driver on the grid even if that experience is in a stock car.

As well as this, we have a returning team in Chip Ganassi Racing, who last raced in Indy NXT/Indy Lights in 2008. 

They’ll be rolling out with two drivers with much to prove: Niels Koolen, who only finished in one race in the top ten in the first half of the season he ran with HMD in 2024, and Jonathan Browne, who finished 13th in the standings in 2024 with a best finish of sixth for HMD as well.

Speaking of second-year drivers, ABEL Motorsports absorbed Miller Vinatieri Racing in the offseason and will have Jack William Miller as one of their four entries racing under “Abel Motorsports with Miller Vinatieri Motorsports.” Jordan Missig, the 2024 Radical Cup champion in prototype racing, will round out ABEL’s lineup.

Sebastian Murray will be a driver to watch out for on Andretti Cape as someone who might have a higher ceiling than many anticipated after a third-place finish in Laguna Seca testing which put him ahead of the likes of Hughes, Rowe and Taylor. He’s coming to Indy NXT after finishing 18th in GB3 in 2024.

Juncos Hollinger Racing dissolved their Indy NXT program in 2025 to focus on their IndyCar efforts and Ricardo Escotto, who drove part-time for them in 2024, will be heading to Andretti Cape to pair up with Murray. He picked up podiums in USF Pro 2000 last year at Road America and Toronto and finished ninth in the standings.

Sophia Flörsch is another driver who, like Murray, I could see as potentially creating some great results in 2025. She has been consistently around the middle of Indy NXT testing in the offseason and carries lots of experience at a wide variety of tracks from her time competing in FIA F3. I think Flörsch could utilize that advantage in a positive way and her progression in early testing mirrors other rookies who have gone on to achieve good results in Indy NXT.

Additionally for HMD Motorsports, they will bring back Nolan Allaer after picking up multiple top-10s in 2024 with the team. GB3 race-winner Tommy Smith will hop to the team as well after competing in FIA F3 last year. 

HMD’s lineup of nine drivers in eight cars is finished out by Josh Pierson, who at 19 years old is the youngest full-time driver in the field, and Bryce Aron, who joins the team after racing for Andretti in 2024.

Storylines and predictions

When Louis Foster took his dominant win of the title in 2024 by over 100 points, one of the ways he was able to build such a massive points gap on his competition was through his almost ridiculous dominance on ovals, winning every single one.

I think ovals are going to be a key part of this title race and with Gateway now coming much earlier in the season in June, it’s going to feel less like the oval races are just packed near the end. Also, with Foster now having moved up to race for Rahal Letterman Lanigan in IndyCar, that will open the door for other drivers who were good on ovals but were shut out in 2024 to get the chance to shine.

Prediction 1: Salvador de Alba wins at least one oval race.

And there’s also going to be such a wide variety of tracks that the series will get to race on as always. It’s not a radically different schedule from 2024 by any means with just some rounds moved around in order from last year and the series going to all the same locations, but one of the best parts of Indy NXT is that you get a teaser for what is to come in IndyCar by partaking. With this being said, keep an eye on the types of tracks where drivers who are entering the series did well in the past, as with all the adaptation people will be most ready to shine where they are comfortable.

Prediction 2: Dennis Hauger does exactly this, picking up where he left off in F2 as a great street circuit driver and winning at the very least one street race in 2025.

There’s also a collection of young talent in the series which is going to shake up the order of the field as well. A lot of the guys in the field or ones who have had one-off opportunities coming up from USF Pro 2000 are drivers who may not have had the money to spend years in the F1 ladder Europe like some other drivers, but come to the series with just as much skill and even more to prove. Keep an eye out for those drivers in particular in 2025.

Prediction 3: Max Taylor or Nikita Johnson take the step up to Indy NXT in stride and win at least one race in the #18 car for HMD Motorsports.

There’s also the added pressure of drivers moving to a new team. I think this will feed well into the hands of some and less so in the hands of others, particularly drivers who can utilize the fresh start as an ability to hit the ground running. Keep an eye on the incredible group of drivers ABEL Motorsports brought in and their progress throughout the season as guys like Callum Hedge and Myles Rowe look to take steps up.

Prediction 4: ABEL Motorsports challenges for a title with at least one of its drivers.

And finally, to loop around back to the new FOX deal. I think this is a game-changer and will drastically improve the visibility drivers in Indy NXT get practically overnight. With this, expect the field to continue to grow in the future.

Prediction 5: The field for Indy NXT will finish the season larger than it starts.

2025 Schedule

To finish our preview, here is the 2025 Indy NXT schedule (all times eastern):

March 2 – Streets of St. Petersburg (10 a.m./FOX Sports 1)

May 4 – Barber Motorsports Park (11:30 a.m./FOX Sports 1)

May 9 – Indianapolis Motor Speedway (7 p.m./FOX Sports 1)

May 10 – Indianapolis Motor Speedway (1:00 p.m./FOX Sports 1)

June 1 – Streets of Detroit (10:30 a.m./FOX Sports 1)

June 15 – World Wide Technology Raceway (Gateway) (12:00 p.m./FOX Sports 1)

June 22 – Road America (1:00 p.m./FOX Sports 1)

July 6 – Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course (11:30 a.m./FOX Sports 2)

July 12 – Iowa Speedway (1:30 p.m./FOX Sports 1)

July 26 – WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca (4:30 p.m/FOX Sports 2)

July 27 – WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca (1:00 p.m/FOX Sports 1)

August 10 – Portland International Raceway (1:00 p.m/FOX Sports 1)

August 24 – Milwaukee Mile (11:30 p.m/FOX Sports 1)

August 31 – Nashville Superspeedway (11:30 p.m/FOX Sports 1)

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