Matteo Nannini led a 1-2 finish for Cape Motorsports Powered by ECR in the Indy NXT round at Nashville Superspeedway.
After starting on pole, the Italian was able to fend off all rivals, including teammate Nikita Johnson, to win by 5.6449s at the 1.33-mile concrete oval. It’s Nannini’s third career win, and second of the season.
“I knew that we had the car to stay up front,” Nannini said. “I was not sure if we were going to get passed, but I wanted to get the clean air so I was running some different lines depending on how close the guys behind me were. I’m just happy to get the P1 on track and actually get it here and not after some penalties and stuff (like Road America). It’s great for the team, for me, for the sponsors, for the confidence, and yeah, first of many more.”
Johnson was able to secure second, with Myles Rowe taking third in the #99 Abel Motorsports with Force Indy entry.
After 13 of 17 races, Johnson reclaimed the championship lead with 451 points, one ahead of Enzo Fittipaldi.
The Race
Pole-sitter Nannini led the field to the green flag, with Alessandro De Tullio (AJ Foyt Racing) alongside on the front row.
Johnson immediately pressured team-mate Nannini for the lead by Lap 2 of 65, while Chip Ganassi Racing’s Niels Koolen and Carson Etter were on pit lane with problems.
As Rowe moved from fourth to third on Lap 5, a massive crash took place further in the pack as JM Correa (Cusick Morgan Motorsports) and Jordan Missig (Abel Motorsports) collided in Turn 4. Missig got loose and spun, leaving Correa with nowhere to go as the pair slammed into the outside wall.
Following an extended cleanup, Nannini led the restart on Lap 15 and immediately came under threat by Johnson as the two went side-by-side throughout the next two laps. De Tullio and Rowe were also thrust into a side-by-side battle for third.
Moments later, Rowe dived to the inside of Nannini and Johnson and took the lead on Lap 17. Nannini was able to draw back alongside and take the lead before a caution came out the following lap for debris.
The restart followed on Lap 21, with Nannini holding the lead as Rowe’s runner-up spot came under threat by Johnson. Johnson took over the spot by the following lap and began to put pressure back on Nannini for the lead on Lap 23.
At the same time, title contender Tymek Kucharczyk (HMD Motorsports) was forced to abandon the top 10 fight on track and come down pit road with a tire puncture. He returned three laps down and in 19th.
On Lap 27, Hughes (Andretti Global) made an outside pass on Rowe for third, with the two making slight contact but continuing on.
Nannini continued to lead on Lap 30, with Johnson second, Hughes in third, Rowe in fourth, and Max Garcia (Abel Motorsports) in fifth. Hughes moved up to second by Lap 36 and set sights on Nannini. Johnson started to lose ground to the leaders and fell back into the clutches of Rowe, who was looked for a way around on the outside but couldn’t complete the move.
With 25 laps to go, Hughes tried an outside pass on Nannini but was unsuccessful. Meanwhile, Rowe was able to get around Johnson for third and was right on the rear wing of Hughes with 20 laps to go.
Rowe pulled an over-under move on Hughes with 17 laps to go and was able to take over second.
While the battle for second was settled, the battle allowed Nannini to build a 1.7s lead.
With 12 laps to go, Nannini’s lead expanded to 2.6s over Rowe, with Johnson taking over third at 2.9s behind.
Hughes continued to fall as Garcia moved up to fourth, with Max Taylor (Andretti Global) rising to fifth. Hughes quickly fell to seventh as another Andretti teammate in Josh Pierson moved to sixth.
As Nannini continued to widen his lead to 5s with five laps to go, Johnson pulled off an outside pass on Rowe to take over second.
The last two laps saw Rowe and Johnson continuing to battle for second, with the latter able to hold the runner-up spot.
Nannini went on to take the win by more than 5s.
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