2023 Indy NXT


The 2023 Firestone Indy NXT Series was the 37th season of the Indy NXT open wheel motor racing series and the 21st sanctioned by IndyCar, acting as the primary support series for the IndyCar Series. Known as Indy Lights before 2023, the championship was rebranded following its acquisition by Penske Entertainment, the owner of the IndyCar Series, in 2022. This rebrand coincided with the three lower support series, still run by Anderson Promotions, also changing their branding.
Linus Lundqvist, the reigning 2022 Indy Lights champion, became a free agent after the season, so he did not defend his championship. Succeeding him as the first ever Indy NXT champion was Christian Rasmussen, who won the title after collecting five wins and nine podiums throughout the season. His team, HMD Motorsports with Dale Coyne Racing, won the Teams' championship.

Series news

  • On June 22, 2022, it was announced that after seven seasons, Cooper Tires would be replaced as tire supplier by Firestone.
  • As part of the rebrand, the prize structure was changed. The champion received a sum of $850,000 to spend on tests at Texas Motor Speedway and Indianapolis Motor Speedway as well as to run the 2024 Indianapolis 500 and an additional IndyCar race. The drivers finishing second and third in the championship received $125,000 and $65,000 respectively.

    Team and driver chart

All teams used Dallara IL-15 cars with an AER produced Mazda sourced 2.0 litre engine and Firestone tires.
The following drivers and teams competed in the series.
TeamDriversRound
Abel Motorsports51

Team changes

  • In July 2022, Cape Motorsports, a long-time USF2000 team with consistent success, announced they would enter Indy NXT for 2023. They won the 2022 USF2000 Driver's Championship with Michael d'Orlando.
  • In September 2022, Juncos Hollinger Racing announced its return to the series after not competing in 2022 to focus on their IndyCar entry.
  • In October 2022, Force Indy announced a collaboration with HMD Motorsports to co-run the No. 99 entry under the HMD Motorsports with Force Indy guise.

    Driver changes

  • On September 7, 2022, new entrant Cape Motorsport announced their first driver to be Jagger Jones, grandson of Parnelli Jones. Jones made the step up directly from the USF2000 series where he came fourth in 2022, skipping the Indy Pro 2000 series.
  • On September 15, 2022, HMD Motorsports with Dale Coyne Racing confirmed Josh Green, stepping up from Indy Pro 2000 after coming 6th in 2022 with Turn 3 Motorsports.
  • On October 6, 2022, Road to Indy double-champion Christian Rasmussen announced he would leave Andretti and move to HMD Motorsports with Dale Coyne Racing for the 2023 season. His replacement at the team was later announced to be Jamie Chadwick, three-time W Series champion and the first female driver in 13 years to compete full-time in Indy NXT.
  • On October 17, 2022, Rasmus Lindh announced his return to Indy NXT with HMD Motorsports with Dale Coyne Racing. He last competed in the series in 2021, coming 14th with Juncos Racing.
  • On October 18, 2022, HMD Motorsports announced the signing of Josh Pierson for a part-time schedule alongside his WEC and IMSA campaigns. His signing completed HMD's eight-car entry, confirming the exit of Manuel Sulaimán and reigning champion Linus Lundqvist.
  • On January 4, 2023, Andretti confirmed that James Roe would move to their team. He drove for TJ Speed and HMD Motorsports in 2022 and came 12th in the championship. Roe replaced Matthew Brabham, who returned to competing in the Stadium Super Trucks Series.
  • On January 18, 2023, IndyCar team Dale Coyne Racing announced Andretti driver Sting Ray Robb as their 2023 driver for the No. 51 car. Louis Foster, 2022 Indy Pro 2000 champion, was signed to replace him.
  • On February 3, 2023, IndyCar team A. J. Foyt Racing announced a multi-year deal with Global Racing Group with HMD Motorsports driver Benjamin Pedersen, who came fifth in the 2022 season.
  • On February 8, 2023, Abel Motorsports announced Colin Kaminsky as their second driver alongside Jacob Abel. He made the step up after three years in Indy Pro 2000, achieving six podiums in that period. Abel Motorsports' three other drivers would leave the series, with Antonio Serravalle moving to the IMSA SportsCar Championship.
  • On February 25, 2023, Enaam Ahmed announced his move to new team Cape Motorsports. Ahmed stepped up from the Indy Pro 2000 championship after finishing the 2022 season in third.

    Mid-season changes

  • On March 14, 2023, Toby Sowery announced his return to the Indy NXT series. He last competed in 2021 and was signed by HMD Motorsports to replace Josh Pierson for the races at Barber and Detroit. He was originally due to also drive at Laguna Seca, but did not do so.
  • On April 28, 2023, Rasmus Lindh announced he had parted ways with HMD Motorsports with Dale Coyne Racing due to funding issues.
  • On May 5, 2023, it was announced that Reece Gold mutually parted ways with Juncos Hollinger Racing to join HMD Motorsports with Dale Coyne Racing in the No. 10 entry, replacing Rasmus Lindh.
  • On May 10, 2023, Juncos Hollinger Racing announced that Rasmus Lindh would drive the No. 76 entry, thereby completing a swap between Lindh and Gold.
  • On May 11, 2023, HMD Motorsports and Force Indy announced that Ernie Francis Jr. would be unable to compete in the third round of the championship because of a fractured wrist he sustained at the start of the Barber event. Francis Jr. returned to competition from round 4 onwards.
  • Josh Green and Colin Kaminsky left the championship ahead of round 7 at Mid-Ohio.
  • On July 18, 2023, Juncos Hollinger Racing announced the immediate termination of their contract with Matteo Nannini. Two days later, his replacement for Iowa was revealed to be Matthew Brabham, who came third with Andretti in 2022.
  • Enaam Ahmed was absent from Iowa, bringing the grid down to 16 cars. In the same press release that announced former Cape Motorsports driver Matthew Brabham as Ahmed's substitute driver for the Nashville race, it was announced that Ahmed wouldn't return to the team for the remainder of the season.
  • On July 26, 2023, Abel Motorsports announced that USF Pro 2000 drivers Yuven Sundaramoorthy and Francesco Pizzi would be driving the No. 57 and No. 55 cars respectively for parts of the rest of the season. Both were announced to drive at Nashville and Laguna Seca, with Sundaramoorthy also doing the Portland race and Pizzi also doing the second Indianapolis race.
  • On August 1, 2023, Juncos Hollinger announced Victor Franzoni to drive the No. 75, previously piloted by Nannini and then by substitute Brabham, for the remaining road and street course races. Franzoni last competed in the category in 2018, also for Juncos, and came fifth.
  • On August 9, 2023, Cape Motorsports announced that USF Pro 2000 racer Kiko Porto would make his Indy NXT debut in the No. 47 car previously piloted by Ahmed and then by substitute Brabham, in the rounds at Indianapolis and Laguna Seca. Brabham once again filled in at WWTR.
  • On August 21, 2023, Kyffin Simpson announced his absence from round 11 at WWTR due to the round clashing with the European Le Mans Series, where he competes for Algarve Pro Racing.
  • Cape Motorsport was absent from Gateway as Kiko Porto prioritized his USF Pro 2000 campaign and Jagger Jones also did not compete, bringing the grid for the event down to 15 cars. Cape returned with one car for Jones for Portland.
  • On August 31, 2023, Juncos Hollinger announced that Brabham would fill in for Rasmus Lindh at the last two weekends at Portland and Laguna Seca.

    Schedule

The schedule was released on November 3, 2022; with the only minor change from last season being the changed location of the Detroit round from Belle Isle to downtown Detroit. A small update to the schedule was announced on February 22, 2023: the Indianapolis doubleheader was split, with one race running on the GMR Grand Prix weekend and the other race moved to the NASCAR Cup Series Verizon 200 weekend in August.
Rd.DateRace nameTrackLocation
1March 5Indy NXT by Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg Streets of St. PetersburgSt. Petersburg, Florida
2April 30Indy NXT by Firestone Grand Prix of Alabama Barber Motorsports ParkBirmingham, Alabama
3May 13Indy NXT by Firestone Grand Prix of Indianapolis Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road CourseSpeedway, Indiana
4June 3–4Indy NXT by Firestone Detroit Grand Prix Detroit Street CircuitDetroit, Michigan
5June 3–4Indy NXT by Firestone Detroit Grand Prix Detroit Street CircuitDetroit, Michigan
6June 18Indy NXT by Firestone Grand Prix at Road America Road AmericaElkhart Lake, Wisconsin
7July 2Indy NXT by Firestone Grand Prix at Mid-Ohio Mid-Ohio Sports Car CourseLexington, Ohio
8July 22Indy NXT by Firestone at Iowa Speedway Iowa SpeedwayNewton, Iowa
9August 6Indy NXT by Firestone Music City Grand Prix Nashville Street CircuitNashville, Tennessee
10August 11Indy NXT by Firestone Grand Prix of Indianapolis Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road CourseSpeedway, Indiana
11August 26Indy NXT by Firestone OUTFRONT Showdown World Wide Technology RacewayMadison, Illinois
12September 3Indy NXT by Firestone Grand Prix of Portland Portland International RacewayPortland, Oregon
13September 9–10Indy NXT by Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey WeatherTech Raceway Laguna SecaMonterey, California
14September 9–10Indy NXT by Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey WeatherTech Raceway Laguna SecaMonterey, California