Lochie Hughes captured his first win of the season in the opening race of the doubleheader weekend for Indy NXT at Road America.
The winning move by the Aussie came on a restart with 12 laps to go, where he made an outside pass on pole-sitterAlessandro de Tullio into Turn 1. It was the closest anyone would be to Hughes the rest of the race, as he set off to win by 0.778s at the 4.014-mile, 14-turn natural terrain road course over Andretti Global teammate Josh Pierson. It was the third career win for Hughes, and the 100th win for Andretti Global in Indy NXT.
“It was tricky at the end there,” Hughes said. “I’m just so happy right now. It’s honestly been the worst season of my life so far. Yeah, no, that was great. I feel like we should have been on pole this morning, and I don’t know what really happened yet. Our sessions were so close together.
“I know my name is Lochie, but I feel a bit more like ‘Rocky’ right now because I’ve been taking some punches this year. So, yeah, it’s been good. Just relieved. We’ve been trying all year, but I guess losers try their best, winners go home with the prom queen. We got the prom queen.”
De Tullio, driving the #14 AJ Foyt Racing entry, finished third.
Jack Beeton (HMD Motorsports) and Mateo Nannini (Cape Motorsports Powered by ECR) finished fourth and fifth, respectively.
Nikita Johnson, Juan Manuel Correa, Tymek Kucharczyk, Myles Rowe, and Max Garcia rounded out the rest of the top 10.
The championship picture was shaken up a bit, with Johnson still on top with 314 points, but Kucharczyk moved up to second (-10), with Enzo Fittpaldi in third (-23), Max Taylor fourth (-38) and Hughes in fifth (-56).
The Race
De Tullio led the field to the green flag, but it was Hughes jumping from fourth to second after a strong outside move heading into Turn 1.
Enzo Fittipaldi, who started seventh in the #67 HMD Motorsports entry, broke late into Turn 1 and was dealt contact. He ended up going off course and cut through the tire barriers in Turn 5 and stopped in a portion on the outside of the track among fans and hospitality.
Moments later, however, Jordan Missig (Abel Motorsports) made contact with Niels Koolen (Chip Ganassi Racing) and nailed the wall in Turn 11, suffering massive left-front damage as a result. Koolen was able to continue on.
The restart came on Lap 5, with De Tullio leading Hughes and Nannini. Nikita Johnson, who started second in the #21 Cape Motorsports Powered by ECR entry, already fell to seventh.
Another caution came out at the tail end of the lap as Nicholas Monteiro (AJ Foyt Racing) and Alexander Koreiba (Juncos Hollinger Racing) came together at the exit of Turn 12 and ended up stuffed in the tire barrier.
De Tullio led the field to the green flag on the Lap 9 restart, but it was Hughes timing an outside pass to take the lead in Turn 1. However, a caution came out once more shortly after as Bryce Aron (Chip Ganassi Racing) and Colin Kaminsky (Abel Motorsports) made contact, leaving the former stuck in the gravel trap. Meanwhile, Fittipaldi finally made his way back to his pit stall and received a new front wing and nose assembly, along with work on his right-front suspension.
With uncertainty over a cut tire, Max Taylor (Andretti Global) was urged by his team to pit from ninth and fell to 20th.
Hughes brought the field to the restart with nine laps to go, with De Tullio unable to get close enough to challenge for the lead.
Taylor’s charge was on, with him already up to 14th two laps after the restart.
With five laps to go, the lead by Hughes stood at 0.7s over De Tullio, with Pierson in third at 1.2s behind.
The battle for second was on as Pierson closed to the rear wing of De Tullio with three laps to go, with Hughes a distant 1s ahead in the lead.
On the final lap, Pierson got around De Tullio with an outside pass in Turn 12 to secure second. Taylor’s fight back through the field ended at 12th. Fittipaldi finished 22nd.
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