2026 Indy NXT Barber | Race 1 results

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Race 1 and round 3 of the 2026 Indy NXT at Barber has been completed, view the full results here.

Earlier in the day, Alessandro de Tullio bagged a double pole for Saturday and Sunday’s races. Championship leader Max Taylor joined him on the front row, as he will do tomorrow. St. Pete winner Nikita Johnson was on the second row with Enzo Fittipaldi.

There was an immediate caution on lap 1. Josh Pierson had a broken left rear suspension down at turn 5. After Seb Murray had tagged Juan Manuel Correa into a spin, the Scot made contact with his Andretti teammate and car #29 was out.

Race control handed Murray a 30-second stop and hold penalty. It put him a lap down.

de Tullio held the lead from Taylor, Johnson, Fittipaldi and Kucharczyk. The Pole and Max Garcia got by Bryce Aron very quickly.

Once racing resumed, Niels Koolen lost the rear under braking heading down to turn 5, ending up in the grass. Luckily for him, he did not get stuck. Carson Etter also had a spin at turn 8.

Championship implications

With nine laps to go, there was massive drama. As Roe and Etter battled almost a lap down, de Tullio tried to go down the inside into turn 8 and made light contact with the #11. It gave the Andretti man a run and the lead. Then, the Irishman checked up Taylor and de Tullio regained P1 into turns 11 and 12.

The drama was not over. At turn 16 Taylor tried to go down the inside of de Tullio but tagged the right rear of the AJ Foyt racer. The Argentine got stick in the gravel, with the Andretti man also spinning down to 7th. Car #28 was handed a 30-second stop and hold like Murray.

Thanks to that incident, Nikita Johnson was handed a gift and he took it to win. He reclaimed the title lead as well. Fittipaldi and Kucharczyk rounded out the podium with a big 2-3 for HMD Motorsports.