Indy NXT Barber Race 2 start sees de Tullio hold the lead
Heading into Indy NXT Barber Race 2, the field returns to Barber Motorsports Park after a chaotic Race 1. Contact between Alessandro de Tullio and Max Taylor opened the door for Cape Motorsport’s Nikita Johnson to take the win. With de Tullio holding a second pole position from qualifying, the fight at the front remains far from settled.
The green flag for Indy NXT Barber Race 2 waves as de Tullio gets a strong launch, while Johnson jumps Taylor for second place.
There’s a few moments of contact and the field sorts itself out, but no major incidents.
Andretti Autosport teammates Myles Rowe and Max Garcia come together after Rowe jumps a curb. Both cars head to pit lane with heavy damage.
Taylor moves back past Johnson for second place and begins to chase down de Tullio for the lead.
Early battles and recovery drives shape Indy NXT Barber Race 2
By lap 5, HMD Motorsport driver Josh Beeton is up six positions to ninth, while Australia’s Lochie Hughes has climbed to 16th. The battle for the lead stabilizes at a 0.7-second gap.
Rowe returns to the track after repairs to the rear suspension, five laps down. He is issued a 30-second hold-and-go penalty for the lap 1 incident.
On lap 11, the top five are de Tullio, Taylor, Johnson, Brazil’s Enzo Fittipaldi, and Poland’s Tymek Kucharczyk, covered by 3.7 seconds.
Andretti driver Josh Pierson and Cusick Morgan Motorsport’s Nicolas Stati have a good battle coming into turn 5 with Pierson getting by for 14th. Hughes is right on their tails.
At the half-way point, de Tullio has 25 seconds of push-to-pass left while Taylor has 39. In fourth place, Fittipaldi sets the fastest lap of the race with 52 seconds of P2P left.
On lap 19, Pierson gets past Cape Motorsport’s Mateo Nannini for 13th. He gets past James Roe for 12th just two laps later.
Late-race fight tightens at the front
With six laps to go in Indy NXT Barber Race 2, the top four are separated by just one and a half seconds. De Tullio continues to control the pace as Johnson takes a look at Taylor for second.
Pierson elbows past Salvador de Alba for 11th. He earns a penalty for the incident, though de Alba is able to continue.
A battle between Hughes and Stati sees the pair trade positions multiple times. Jordan Missig gets past Kucharczyk for fifth, but only holds the position briefly.
On the final lap, de Tullio leads Taylor by half a second, while Fittipaldi looks to challenge Johnson for the final podium position.
They cross the checkered flag and it is a first Indy NXT race win for Alessandro de Tullio. Max Taylor crosses in second and Nikita Johnson keeps Fittipaldi behind for third.
Pierson’s penalty drops him to 14th in the final classification.
