2023 Indy NXT

The 2023 Firestone Indy NXT Series season is the 21st season of the primary support series for the IndyCar Series, sanctioned by IndyCar. Known as Indy Lights before 2023, the championship was rebranded following its acquisition by Penske Entertainment, the owner of INDYCAR, in 2022.[1] This rebrand coincided with the three lower support series, still run by Anderson Promotions, also changing their branding.[2]

2023 Indy NXT season
Firestone Indy NXT Series
Season
Races14
Start dateMarch 5
End dateSeptember 10
Awards

Linus Lundqvist, the reigning 2022 Indy Lights champion, became a free agent after the season, so he did not defend his championship.

Series news
  • On June 22, 2022, it was announced that after seven seasons, Cooper Tires would be replaced as tire supplier by Firestone.[3]
  • As part of the rebrand, the prize structure was changed. The champion will receive a sum of $850,000 to spend on tests at Texas Motor Speedway and Indianapolis Motor Speedway as well as to run the 2024 Indianapolis 500 and an additional IndyCar race. The drivers finishing second and third in the championship will receive $125,000 and $65,000 respectively.[4]

Team and driver chart

The following drivers and teams compete in the series.

Team No. Drivers Round(s)
Abel Motorsports[5][6] 51 United States Jacob Abel[7] All
57 United States Colin Kaminsky[8]  R  All
Andretti Autosport 26 United Kingdom Louis Foster[9]  R  All
27 New Zealand Hunter McElrea[10] All
28 United Kingdom Jamie Chadwick[11]  R  All
29 Republic of Ireland James Roe Jr.[12] All
Cape Motorsports[13] 47 Pakistan Enaam Ahmed[14]  R  All
98 United States Jagger Jones[15]  R  All
HMD Motorsports 14 United States Josh Pierson[16]  R  1, 3, 6–12
United Kingdom Toby Sowery[17] 2, 4–5, 13–14
21 Cayman Islands Kyffin Simpson[18] All
HMD Motorsports with Dale Coyne Racing[19] 3 United States Josh Green[20]  R  1–3
6 Denmark Christian Rasmussen[21] All
7 United States Christian Bogle[22] All
10 Sweden Rasmus Lindh[23] 1
United States Reece Gold[24]  R  3–14
39 United States Nolan Siegel[25]  R  All
68 Singapore Danial Frost[26] All
HMD Motorsports with Force Indy 99 United States Ernie Francis Jr.[27] 1–2, 4–14
Juncos Hollinger Racing[28] 75 Italy Matteo Nannini[29]  R  All
76 United States Reece Gold[29]  R  1–2
Sweden Rasmus Lindh[30] 3
R Eligible for Rookie of the Year
  • Legacy Autosport planned to enter the series, but later confirmed it would not do so.[31]

Team changes
  • In July 2022, Cape Motorsports, a long-time USF2000 team with consistent success, announced they would enter Indy NXT for 2023.[13] They won the 2022 USF2000 Driver's Championship with Michael d'Orlando.
  • In September 2022, Juncos Hollinger Racing announced its return to the series after not competing in 2022 to focus on their IndyCar entry.[28]
  • In October 2022, Force Indy announced a collaboration with HMD Motorsports to co-run the No. 99 entry under the HMD Motorsports with Force Indy guise.[27]

Driver changes
  • On September 7, 2022, new entrant Cape Motorsport announced their first driver to be Jagger Jones, grandson of Parnelli Jones. Jones made the step up directly from the USF2000 series where he came fourth in 2022, skipping the Indy Pro 2000 series.[15]
  • On September 15, 2022, HMD Motorsports with Dale Coyne Racing confirmed Josh Green, stepping up from Indy Pro 2000 after coming 6th in 2022 with Turn 3 Motorsports.[20]
  • On October 6, 2022, Road to Indy double-champion Christian Rasmussen announced he would leave Andretti and move to HMD Motorsports with Dale Coyne Racing for the 2023 season.[21] His replacement at the team was later announced to be Jamie Chadwick, three-time W Series champion and the first female driver in 13 years to compete full-time in Indy NXT.[11]
  • On October 17, 2022, Rasmus Lindh announced his return to Indy NXT with HMD Motorsports with Dale Coyne Racing. He last competed in the series in 2021, coming 14th with Juncos Racing.[23]
  • On October 18, 2022, HMD Motorsports announced the signing of Josh Pierson for a part-time schedule alongside his WEC and IMSA campaigns.[16] His signing completed HMD's eight-car entry, confirming the exit of Manuel Sulaimán and reigning champion Linus Lundqvist.
  • On January 4, 2023, Andretti confirmed that James Roe Jr. would move to their team.[12] He drove for TJ Speed and HMD Motorsports in 2022 and came 12th in the championship. Roe replaced Matthew Brabham, who returned to competing in the Stadium Super Trucks Series.
  • On January 18, 2023, IndyCar team Dale Coyne Racing announced Andretti driver Sting Ray Robb as their 2023 driver for the No. 51 car.[32] Louis Foster, 2022 Indy Pro 2000 champion, was signed to replace him.
  • On February 3, 2023, IndyCar team A. J. Foyt Racing announced a multi-year deal with Global Racing Group with HMD Motorsports driver Benjamin Pedersen, who came fifth in the 2022 season.[33]
  • On February 8, 2023, Abel Motorsports announced Colin Kaminsky as their second driver alongside Jacob Abel.[8] He made the step up after three years in Indy Pro 2000, achieving six podiums in that period. Abel Motorsports three other drivers would leave the series, with Antonio Serravalle moving to the IMSA SportsCar Championship.[34]
  • On February 25, 2023, Enaam Ahmed announced his move to new team Cape Motorsports. Ahmed stepped up from the Indy Pro 2000 championship after finishing the 2022 season in third.[14]

Mid-season changes
  • On March 14, 2023, Toby Sowery announced his return to the Indy NXT series. He last competed in 2021 and was signed by HMD Motorsports to replace Josh Pierson for the races at Barber, Detroit and Laguna Seca.[17]
  • On April 28, 2023, Rasmus Lindh announced he had parted ways with HMD Motorsports with Dale Coyne Racing due to funding issues.[35]
  • On May 5, 2023, it was announced that Reece Gold mutually parted ways with Juncos Hollinger Racing to join HMD Motorsports with Dale Coyne Racing in the No. 10 entry, replacing Rasmus Lindh.[24]
  • On May 10, 2023, Juncos Hollinger Racing announced that Rasmus Lindh would drive the No. 76 entry, thereby completing a swap between Lindh and Gold.[30]
  • On May 11, 2023, HMD Motorsports and Force Indy announced that Ernie Francis Jr. would be unable to compete in the third round of the championship because of a fractured wrist he sustained at the start of the Barber event.[36]

Schedule

The schedule was released on November 3, 2022; with the only minor change from last season being the changed location of the Detroit round from Belle Isle to downtown Detroit.[37] A small update to the schedule was announced on February 22, 2023: the Indianapolis doubleheader was split, with one race running on the GMR Grand Prix weekend and the other race moved to the NASCAR Cup Series Verizon 200 weekend in August.[38]

Rd. Date Race name Track Location
1 March 5 Indy NXT by Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg  R  Streets of St. Petersburg St. Petersburg, Florida
2 April 30 Indy NXT by Firestone Grand Prix of Alabama  R  Barber Motorsports Park Birmingham, Alabama
3 May 13 Indy NXT by Firestone Grand Prix of Indianapolis  R  Indianapolis Motor Speedway Speedway, Indiana
4 June 3–4 TBA  R  Detroit Street Circuit Detroit, Michigan
5 TBA
6 June 18 TBA  R  Road America Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin
7 July 2 TBA  R  Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course Lexington, Ohio
8 July 22 TBA  O  Iowa Speedway Newton, Iowa
9 August 6 TBA  R  Nashville Street Circuit Nashville, Tennessee
10 August 11 TBA  R  Indianapolis Motor Speedway Speedway, Indiana
11 August 26 TBA  O  World Wide Technology Raceway Madison, Illinois
12 September 3 TBA  R  Portland International Raceway Portland, Oregon
13 September 9–10 TBA  R  WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca Monterey, California
14 TBA

Race results
Rd. Track Pole position Fastest lap Most laps led Race winner
Driver Team
1 United States Streets of St. Petersburg United Kingdom Louis Foster Denmark Christian Rasmussen United States Jacob Abel Singapore Danial Frost HMD Motorsports with Dale Coyne Racing
2 United States Barber Motorsports Park Denmark Christian Rasmussen Denmark Christian Rasmussen Denmark Christian Rasmussen Denmark Christian Rasmussen HMD Motorsports with Dale Coyne Racing
3 United States Indianapolis Motor Speedway (Road Course) Italy Matteo Nannini Italy Matteo Nannini Italy Matteo Nannini Italy Matteo Nannini Juncos Hollinger Racing
4 United States Detroit Street Circuit
5
6 United States Road America
7 United States Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course
8 United States Iowa Speedway
9 United States Nashville Street Circuit
10 United States Indianapolis Motor Speedway (Road Course)
11 United States World Wide Technology Raceway
12 United States Portland International Raceway
13 United States WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca
14

Championship standings

Drivers' Championship
Scoring system
Position  1st   2nd   3rd   4th   5th   6th   7th   8th   9th   10th   11th   12th   13th   14th   15th   16th   17th   18th   19th   20th 
Points 50 40 35 32 30 28 26 24 22 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10
  • The driver who qualifies on pole is awarded one additional point.
  • Every driver who leads at least one lap is awarded a bonus point, the driver who leads the most laps gets two points.
Pos Driver STP ALA IMS1 DET ROA MOH IOW NSH IMS2 GAT POR LAG Points
1 Denmark Christian Rasmussen 4 1L* 5 116
2 United States Nolan Siegel  R  2L 2 13 98
3 Singapore Danial Frost 1L 10 11 90
4 Italy Matteo Nannini  R  15 15 1L* 84
5 New Zealand Hunter McElrea 5 13 4 79
6 United States Josh Green  R  7 9 6 76
7 United Kingdom Louis Foster  R  14L 14 2 74
8 United States Jacob Abel 3L* 16 9 74
9 Republic of Ireland James Roe Jr. 17 5 7 69
10 Cayman Islands Kyffin Simpson 10 18 3 67
11 United States Colin Kaminsky  R  11 6 12 65
12 Pakistan Enaam Ahmed  R  19 4 10 63
13 United States Christian Bogle 12 7 18 56
14 United States Ernie Francis Jr. 6 8 52
15 United States Reece Gold  R  8 17 16 51
16 United Kingdom Jamie Chadwick  R  13 11 15 51
17 Sweden Rasmus Lindh 9 8 46
18 United States Jagger Jones  R  18 12 14 46
19 United Kingdom Toby Sowery 3 35
20 United States Josh Pierson  R  16 17 27
Pos Driver STP ALA IMS1 DET ROA MOH IOW NSH IMS2 GAT POR LAG Points
Color Result
Gold Winner
Silver 2nd place
Bronze 3rd place
Green 4th & 5th place
Light Blue 6th–10th place
Dark Blue Finished (Outside Top 10)
Purple Did not finish
Red Did not qualify (DNQ)
Brown Withdrawn (Wth)
Black Disqualified (DSQ)
White Did not start (DNS)
Blank Did not

participate (DNP)

Not competing
In-line notation
Bold Pole position (1 point)
Italics Ran fastest race lap
L Led a race lap (1 point)
* Led most race laps (2 points)
1 Qualifying cancelled
no bonus point awarded
 R  Rookie
 RY  Rookie of the Year
  • Ties in points broken by number of wins, or best finishes.

Teams' championship
Scoring system
Position  1st   2nd   3rd   4th   5th   6th   7th   8th   9th   10th+ 
Points 22 18 15 12 10 8 6 4 2 1
  • Single car teams receive 3 bonus points as an equivalency to multi-car teams
  • Only the best two results count for teams fielding more than two entries
Pos Team STP ALA IMS1 DET ROA MOH IOW NSH IMS2 GAT POR LAG Points
1 HMD Motorsports with Dale Coyne Racing 1 1 5 98
2 2 6
2 Andretti Autosport 4 5 2 58
9 8 4
3 Juncos Hollinger Racing 6 10 1 39
10 12 7
4 HMD Motorsports 7 3 3 39
11 13 12
5 Abel Motorsports 3 6 8 33
8 11 10
6 Cape Motorsports 12 4 9 19
13 9 11
7 HMD Motorsports with Force Indy 5 7 19
Pos Team STP ALA IMS1 DET ROA MOH IOW NSH IMS2 GAT POR LAG Points

See also

References
  1. "Indy Lights rebranded for 2023 as "INDY NXT by Firestone"". MSN. Retrieved November 3, 2022.
  2. "Andersen Promotions Announces Rebranding". www.usfpro2000.com. Retrieved December 8, 2022.
  3. "Indy Lights confirms Firestone switch for 2023". RACER. June 22, 2022. Retrieved September 7, 2022.
  4. Wood, Ida (January 13, 2023). "Indy Nxt udpates prize structure for 2023 season". Formula Scout. Retrieved January 13, 2023.
  5. Series, F1 Feeder (October 8, 2022). "Indy Lights Silly Season update: who goes where in 2023?". F1 Feeder Series. Retrieved October 10, 2022.
  6. "TBT to our first Indy Lights race at @GPSTPETE. Sophomore season coming soon". Twitter.
  7. "Abel Staying with Growing Family Team for 2023 Season". IndyCar.com. Retrieved October 24, 2022.
  8. "COLIN KAMINSKY JOINS ABEL MOTORSPORTS IN THE NO. 57 INDY NXT by FIRESTONE ENTRY". Abel Motorsports. Retrieved February 8, 2023.
  9. "Foster joins Andretti Autosport for 2023 Indy Lights season". Motorsport.com. September 8, 2022. Retrieved September 29, 2022.
  10. Herrero, Daniel (September 2, 2022). "McElrea signs new Indy Lights contract with Andretti". Speedcafe. Retrieved September 29, 2022.
  11. "Andretti Autosport | Andretti Autosport Signs W Series Champion, Jamie Chadwick for the INDY NXT by Firestone 2023 Season". Andretti Autosport. December 1, 2022. Retrieved December 1, 2022.
  12. "James Roe Signs with Andretti Autosport for the 2023 INDY NXT by Firestone Season". Andretti Autosport. September 8, 2022. Retrieved January 4, 2023.
  13. "Cape Motorsports to advance to Indy Lights in 2023". RACER. July 3, 2022. Retrieved September 7, 2022.
  14. Wood, Ida (February 27, 2023). "Enaam Ahmed secures move up to Indy Nxt with Cape Motorsports". Formula Scout. Archived from the original on February 27, 2023. Retrieved February 27, 2023.
  15. Report, Staff (September 7, 2022). "Jones Signs With Cape Motorsports For Indy Lights In 2023". SPEED SPORT. Retrieved May 10, 2023.
  16. Wood, Ida (October 18, 2022). "WEC racer Josh Pierson to add Indy Lights campaign in 2023". Formula Scout. Retrieved October 18, 2022.
  17. "Sowery Returns to HMD for Partial 2023 Program". IndyCar.com. Retrieved March 14, 2023.
  18. "Simpson Staying with HMD Motorsports for 2023 Season". IndyCar.com. Retrieved October 10, 2022.
  19. "NEWS | HMD Motorsports will expand to no less than EIGHT cars in @IndyLights next year". Twitter.
  20. Pruett, Marshall (September 15, 2022). "Green joins HMD w DCR for Indy Lights". Racer. Retrieved September 29, 2022.
  21. "Christian Rasmussen makes switch to HMD Motorsports for 2023". Rtd-media.com. October 6, 2022.
  22. Wood, Ida (September 22, 2022). "Christian Bogle sticks with HMD Motorsports for third year in Indy Lights". Formula Scout. Retrieved September 29, 2022.
  23. "Rasmus Lindh is back in Indy Lights with support from Garage XYZ as he joins HMD Motorsports with Dale Coyne Racing". Rtd-media.com. October 17, 2022.
  24. "Reece Gold joins HMD Motorsports in INDY NXT by Firestone". TrackSideOnline. May 5, 2023.
  25. Media, R. T. D. (October 4, 2022). "Nolan Siegel Confirms Full-Time Jump to Indy Lights With HMD Motorsports". RTD Media. Retrieved October 4, 2022.
  26. "Danial Frost Eyes Indy Lights Championship in HMD Motorsports Return". RTD Media. September 29, 2022. Retrieved September 29, 2022.
  27. "Force Indy Expands Reach, Focus in 2023 with Francis, Rowe". IndyCar.com. Retrieved October 19, 2022.
  28. Pruett, Marshall (September 29, 2022). "Juncos Hollinger returns to Indy Lights with two entries". Racer.com. Retrieved October 4, 2022.
  29. "Juncos Hollinger confirms Gold and Nannini for Indy NXT". Racer.com. December 9, 2022.
  30. "Juncos Hollinger Racing on Twitter: Welcome back to the team! @Rasmus_Lindh10". Twitter. Retrieved May 10, 2023.
  31. "Legacy Autosport Climbing to Indy Lights in 2023". IndyCar.com. Retrieved September 7, 2022.
  32. "Dale Coyne Racing confirms Robb for full-time IndyCar ride". RACER. January 18, 2023. Retrieved May 10, 2023.
  33. "Foyt signs Indy Lights race winner Pedersen for 2023". www.autosport.com. September 28, 2022. Retrieved May 10, 2023.
  34. Dagys, John (December 15, 2022). "IMSA Confirms 60-Car Entry List for Rolex 24 – Sportscar365". sportscar365.com. Retrieved May 10, 2023.
  35. "INDY NXT notebook from Barber Motorsports Park". TrackSide Online. April 30, 2023. Retrieved May 4, 2023.
  36. "HMD Motorsports on Twitter: Update on @ErnieFrancisJr". Twitter. Retrieved May 11, 2023.
  37. "IndyCar rebrands Indy Lights, releases 2023 schedule". Racer.com. November 3, 2022. Retrieved November 3, 2022.
  38. "INDY NXT by Firestone Added to Brickyard Weekend at IMS". IndyCar.com. Retrieved February 22, 2023.
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