Photo credit: Matt Fraver | Penske Entertainment

Out of the drivers currently announced for the 2026 Indy NXT season, six of them have won a total of 65 races in the USF Pro Championships.

Yes, on average, they’ve won more than ten junior open-wheel races each. Mostly on tracks they will race again on in 2026.

And the most exciting thing? Four of these six drivers have at the very most, only completed partial seasons in Indy NXT cars. Two of them, nine-time USF Pro Championships race winner Alessandro de Tullio and fourteen-time race winner and reigning USF Pro 2000 champion Max Garcia will make their series debuts in 2026.

It feels not too different from other American sports, when you know an elite class filled with five-star football or basketball recruits is finally graduating to the college level, a step below the pros. The crop of drivers that IndyCar teams will have to select from Indy NXT in 2027 and 2028 will contain many of the best American prospects we have seen all decade.

It’s an exciting time for the three USF series, who have seen the total number of races won by graduates who have landed rides in Indy NXT having jumped 86% from the 2016 season. 

In fact, three race winners who have advanced from USF Juniors, the newest series on the lowest rung of the ladder which launched only in 2022. The 2026 Indy NXT grid containing names like Max Taylor, Nikita Johnson, and de Tullio is one of the best proof-of-concept advertisements USF Juniors could get, given it has only taken a four-year span from the series’s inception to generate valuable Indy NXT talent from the series. 

There’s much to be said about the two returners in this bunch – Lochie Hughes and Myles Rowe – two drivers who won races in 2025 and finished in the top-four of the championship standings. With both Dennis Hauger and Caio Collet graduating to the IndyCar Series in 2025, Hughes and Rowe will return to the series in 2026 as the two highest finishers in the 2025 championship. There’s no doubt that we’ll see Hughes and Rowe in the championship fight here as well.

But within these other four drivers (Taylor, Garcia, de Tullio, Johnson), who are all stepping into either their first full seasons or their first Indy NXT drives in the first place, there’s a track record that signals that they too can achieve success at the next level at a high rate if they haven’t already.

Here’s a quick primer on each, and why I feel there should be a very warranted level of excitement surrounding this class of Indy NXT newcomers coming up through the American open-wheel system:

There’s very little praise about Max Garcia that hasn’t been said already, and after a USF Pro 2000 season where he only finished lower than fourth once, the jump to Indy NXT after winning the title is clearly well-warranted. Garcia, 16, jumps to the next level with ABEL Motorsports, a team that finished 2025 on a high note after finding their stride and landing Myles Rowe two wins at Iowa and Nashville. 

Garcia’s consistency will compliment this team well. His strengths lie not only in his pace, but also in his composure and control, which will serve him well at technical circuits like Detroit and St. Petersburg. After landing all four drivers in the top ten of the standings last year, ABEL is a team carrying positive momentum. Garcia is a driver who is going to help get that team to the next level, and his fantastic talent will surprise in 2026.

Alessandro de Tullio’s road to Indy NXT with AJ Foyt Racing is a path marked by resilience. de Tullio, 19, picked up four wins last season in USF Pro 2000 in a triumphant return to open-wheel racing after sitting out for most of the past two years to secure funding. 

The one place where I truly expect de Tullio to shine is going to be in qualifying. His four poles last year showed his fantastic pace when he was in a groove and after other USF Pro Championships drivers had qualifying success in Indy NXT in 2025, expect de Tullio to find himself on the front few rows on multiple occasions in 2026.

We already got to see flashes of Max Taylor’s potential in Indy NXT in 2025, most notably when he picked up a fourth-place finish at Laguna Seca, especially impressive at a track where he did not get a chance to run during his USF Pro Championships seasons. The Laguna Seca performance is a microcosm of Taylor’s greatest strength, his adaptability. There’s very few circuits and cars he will hop on for the first time and not be instantly quick at. 

Picking up top tens at two oval circuits on the back-half of his part-time schedule really helps showcase the wide skillset he’s going to bring to a powerhouse Andretti team in 2026. 

After being one of the quickest drivers in testing throughout the offseason so far, we’ve seen early signs of Taylor continuing to develop and progress well at the next level, especially for someone who only got into an open-wheel championship for the first time in 2023.

That leaves Nikita Johnson, who has grown quicker and stronger in preparation for his 2026 campaign and has also shown immense improvement, landing top-five across test sessions so far in the Indy NXT car. Johnson had an adventurous 2025 which saw him compete around the world, including taking a brief step into the FIA Formula 3 Championship, picking up rounds in the second half of the season and a best finish of 13th at Monza. 

After looking fantastic in 2024 in his final full campaign in America, winning nine races in USF Pro 2000, there’s a lot to look forward to from a driver who has proven time and time again he deserves to be alongside other top American open-wheel prospects. 

Six of the last eight champions in Indy NXT have had comprehensive levels of open-wheel experience in America in the past. While FIA Formula 2 race-winner Dennis Hauger took a commanding lead early in the 2025 championship and never let up, and Enzo Fittipaldi will seek to do the same thing, he’s going to have a stronger-than-ever cohort of stateside talent to contend with to achieve that feat.