Salvador de Alba’s path to Indy NXT has not followed the most traditional route. Before joining the American open-wheel ladder, the Mexican driver built experience in other disciplines, including NASCAR Mexico. Since then, he has moved through USF Pro 2000 and Indy NXT, spent two seasons with Andretti-affiliated teams, and joined HMD Motorsports for the 2026 campaign.
In the first part of an exclusive interview with Pit Debrief, de Alba discussed what he brought with him from racing in Mexico, the adjustment to HMD Motorsports, and how he measures progress beyond the final results.
de Alba brings lessons from Mexico into Indy NXT
Although de Alba’s background in Mexico came in a different type of car, he said some parts of that experience still translated into the U.S. ladder.
“Yeah, for me, something very different, but I think I translated very well was the race distance. You know, I was used to racing for two and a half hours, two hours straight. So at first in the USF, which was a 25 minutes, it was like a sprint, you know, and that mental state that changed in me was really good because I knew how to deal with starts and that was something that gave me very good [confidence].”
That experience gave de Alba a different foundation as he adapted to open-wheel racing. While many drivers enter the ladder after years in junior formula cars, De Alba arrived with a background that had already taught him patience, race management, and how to handle longer contests.
However, not everything translated directly.
de Alba admitted that oval racing in the U.S. ladder was a different challenge from what he had experienced before. While he had experience turning left, the type of oval racing he found in USF Pro and Indy NXT brought a new set of demands.
“And yeah, I don’t really translate it. The ovals, cause they’re really different. You know, I’ve never been in an oval flat, like being like the USF, we do Lucas Oil and you’re up in the wall almost all the lap.
“I wasn’t used to that, but something clicked very well by, you know, I probably used to turn left, even though it’s in a different car, a heavy car, whatever, but yeah, it was a good click there.”
In 2025, he claimed his first INDY NXT win at the Milwaukee Mile, giving him a breakthrough victory on an oval before joining HMD Motorsports. As things stand, he is P16 in the championship this year.
A bigger change with HMD Motorsports
de Alba spent his first two Indy NXT seasons with Cape Andretti and Andretti Global. Because of that, his move from one Andretti-linked programme to another felt more familiar. That made his move to HMD Motorsports a much larger transition.
“Yeah, you know, I was, I knew the people, I knew the engineers, I knew the shop. So it was like kind of a translate. I knew that I was going there next year.
“So I started to prepare myself for that, you know, so it wasn’t a big, big change as I feel it this year.”
Joining HMD brought a new environment, new personnel, and a larger teammate group than de Alba had been used to. Still, the Mexican driver said the atmosphere helped make the adjustment easier.
“I didn’t knew the people, I didn’t knew the shop, being with this much teammates is something also new. But as I said, it was very easy. Like at first I was like, ‘whoa, this is a big, big shop.’ You know, it’s insanely big. There’s a lot of people, but everyone’s very friendly. Like it feels like more, more kind of a family. Like everyone gets along together. I heard that they’re doing like a barbecue in the 4th of July, in the hotel, you know, all the teams. So that’s something that’s something really cool about it.”
For de Alba, that environment has been important as he continues to settle into the team. A new team does not only mean a new car set-up or a new engineer. It also means learning how people communicate, how the team operates, and how to build the trust needed to give feedback.
Building trust and managing information
When asked what it takes to feel comfortable speaking up about what he needs from the car, de Alba immediately pointed to the relationship with his engineer.
“Yeah, I think, I think everything goes down to relationship and getting to know your engineer and clicking together, you know, probably even before we started, I talked to Alex, my engineer, and said, ‘hey, this is what I normally like. This is what I don’t like.’ You know, he’ll normally like, he really understands me.”
That communication has become an important part of the process at HMD. de Alba said his engineer understood how he works, including his desire to have as much information as possible.
“Like I want a lot of information. I want, I want to know everything. Sometimes my downside is like, I overthink stuff, you know, the data, the video, everything.”
That self-awareness is key for a driver in a development series. Data and video can help unlock performance, but too much information can also become difficult to manage.
For de Alba, the process has been about finding the right balance. He wants to understand the details, but he also needs to avoid letting those details become a distraction.
“So he was really, he was really chill and, and talked to me about ‘maybe we got to sort this out and do this, do that.’ And, and yeah, everything is clicking.”
de Alba on measuring progress beyond results
Results remain important in Indy NXT, but de Alba said they are not the only way he evaluates a weekend.
The 26-year-old explained that a successful weekend can also come from knowing he maximised what was available.
“Yeah. I think maximising, you know, when, when you feel like you did everything in the car on track, like you put the best lap together, you did this X, Y, Z, everything that was on your hands to make the result. And even if it doesn’t come quite quickly you’re happy and you know, it will come.
“As for now, I will say I’m still missing some things here and there that haven’t really, I haven’t really put it together, but as I said before, this mid Ohio test really, really give me a breath and some potential for the next events.”
That mindset is especially important during a season of adjustment. Instead of separating performance from results, de Alba sees execution as the process that eventually allows results to follow.
Ahead of the upcoming double-header at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course, de Alba said he would judge progress by whether he executed what he and the team planned before qualifying and the race.
“Yeah. As I said, I think maximising and jumping out of the car, knowing that I did my theoretical lap, I put the lap together. I did what we talked before qualifying, I finished there.I think we put together everything. The result will come, but we’re looking for both things, putting everything together and besides the results as well.”
For de Alba, progress is not separate from results. Instead, it is the process that should eventually lead to them.
Competitive in everything
Away from the car, de Alba said his competitive nature does not disappear.
After a test day was cut short by rain, de Alba and others went to play pickleball. It was his first time playing, and he admitted he was not very good. That only made him want to go back.
“Well, I think everything I get into competitive, like out the test, we went to the first day it rained out. So it got cancelled soon. And we went out playing pickleball, which was my first time and I was so bad at it.
“And now I’m like, we need to go to pickleball again. So I need to improve and be, and be better. So yeah, we’re competitive. That’s why that’s in our blood, you know? And we try to be the best.”
The same mindset applies to other sports. de Alba recently got a road bike, and the motivation remained the same: improvement.
“I recently got a road bike and the same, you know, I want to go out and improve myself and, and be better.
“So I think it’s something about, about sports that I want to be, I want to be better every time I jump in something.”
That answer reflects the same theme that runs through his racing approach. Whether it is in the car, on a bike, or on a pickleball court, de Alba is driven by the desire to improve.
The challenge of resetting after difficult weekends
That desire to improve can also make it difficult to step away.
de Alba said resetting after a race weekend is not always easy, especially when the weekend does not go the way a driver hoped.
“Yeah. It’s always hard, you know, because you push yourself to be better, to be the best, to be there where you want. And especially on the bad weekend, you know, you go out maybe the next weekend, you don’t have anything racing related, but you’re still thinking about it.”
The challenge, then, is not only physical preparation. It is also mental preparation.
de Alba said it is easy to talk about resetting, but harder to actually do it.
“Like I said, especially if it goes wrong and you go there thinking, ‘yeah, resetting, it’s, it’s the best thing.’ It’s so easy to say it, you know, but putting it together and saying, ‘yeah, let’s go to the next one’, that is a hard part. And that’s why we prepare, you know, not just, not just physically, [but also] mentally.”
For de Alba, that process includes finding ways to put racing aside when he is away from the track. Then, when the next event arrives, he can return with full focus.
“And, we do, or at least I do a lot of things to put aside racing. And when racing comes in, just be really focused and think about how to improve.”
