2026 Indy NXT

The 2026 Firestone Indy NXT Series is scheduled to be the 40th season of the Indy NXT open wheel auto racing series and the 24th sanctioned by IndyCar, acting as the primary support series for the IndyCar Series. This will be the fourth year of the championship running under the Indy NXT moniker following its acquisition by Penske Entertainment, the owner of the IndyCar Series, in 2022.

Teams and drivers

All teams will use Dallara IL-15 cars with an AER produced Mazda sourced 2.0 litre engine and Firestone tires. The following drivers and teams are scheduled to compete in the series.

Team changes

On August 27, 2025, IndyCar team Cusick Motorsports announced it would enter two cars in the Indy NXT series in a technical partnership with HMD Motorsports that would also see the latter team scale back its Indy NXT program to four cars. On September 5, 2025, Cusick Motorsports announced it had rebranded to Cusick Morgan Motorsports after its team director Billy Morgan.
On September 8, 2025, Juncos Hollinger Racing announced its return to the Indy NXT series. The team had previously competed in the series until the 2024 season, when it had elected to temporarily step back from competing in Indy NXT to focus on its IndyCar efforts.
On October 21, 2025, IndyCar team A. J. Foyt Racing announced it would enter two cars in Indy NXT in a strategic alliance with HMD Motorsports.
On October 24, IndyCar team Ed Carpenter Racing announced it would enter two cars in Indy NXT in a partnership with Cape Motorsports, who ended its association with Andretti Global.

Driver changes

On September 15, 2025, Abel Motorsports announced that [2025 USF Pro 2000 Championship|USF Pro 2000 Championship|2025 USF Pro 2000] champion Max Garcia would graduate to Indy NXT with the team, driving the No. 12 entry for the 2026 season.
On September 22, 2025, Cape Motorsports announced Nikita Johnson would join the team for his full-time debut in the 2026 season after previously competing in two rounds with HMD Motorsports in 2025.
On September 23, 2025, Andretti Global confirmed that reigning champion Dennis Hauger would move up to the IndyCar series with Dale Coyne Racing.
On September 30, 2025, Andretti Global announced that Sebastian Murray would move over from Andretti Cape Indy NXT to the main Andretti team for his second Indy NXT season.
On October 14, 2025, Andretti Global announced their third driver in Max Taylor, who joins the team for his full-season debut after entering six events in 2025 driving for HMD Motorsports.
On October 15, 2025, Cusick Morgan Motorsports announced that their first Indy NXT driver would be Nicolas Stati, who graduates from the Formula Regional Americas Championship.
On October 21, 2025, Abel Motorsports announced that Colin Kaminsky would drive for the team in 2026 on his Indy NXT return after last competing in the series in 2023.
On October 21, 2025, Andretti Global announced Josh Pierson as the final driver in its lineup, who will move over from HMD Motorsports for his fourth Indy NXT season.
On October 24, 2025, Cusick Morgan Motorsports announced that Juan Manuel Correa would drive for the team in his full-time series debut.
On October 29, 2025, HMD Motorsports announced the first driver of their four-car lineup: Jack Beeton will make his Indy NXT debut after previously competing in the Formula Regional European Championship.
On October 30, 2025, HMD Motorsport announced that former Formula 2 driver Enzo Fittipaldi would join the team on his Indy NXT debut in 2026.
On November 5, 2025, A. J. Foyt Racing announced the first driver of the team's Indy NXT lineup in USF Pro 2000 graduate Alessandro de Tullio.
On November 6, 2025, A. J. Foyt Racing confirmed reports that it had signed 2025 Indy NXT runner-up Caio Collet to drive the team's No. 4 IndyCar entry.
On November 14, 2025, A. J. Foyt Racing announced the second driver of their Indy NXT lineup would be Nicholas Monteiro, stepping up from USF Pro 2000, where he came tenth in 2025.
On December 17, 2025, Chip Ganassi Racing announced their expanded four-car lineup: returnees Bryce Aron and Niels Koolen will be joined by James Roe, who moves over from Andretti Global for his fifth Indy NXT campaign, and Carson Etter, who steps up from USF Pro 2000 after finishing the 2025 season in 17th with Exclusive Autosport.
On January 13, 2026, Juncos Hollinger Racing announced the first driver of the team's Indy NXT lineup in Ricardo Escotto, who returned to the series after being released by Andretti Cape halfway through 2025. Escotto had previously made his Indy NXT debut with Juncos for a part-time program in 2024.
On January 14, 2026, HMD Motorsports announced that reigning Euroformula Open Champion Tymek Kucharczyk will join them for the 2026 season.
On January 15, 2026, HMD Motorsports announced that Salvador de Alba would move over from Andretti Global for his third year in the series, taking the final spot in their lineup.
On January 31, 2026, Cape Motorsports announced their second driver in Matteo Nannini, who rejoins Indy NXT after last competing there in 2023 driving for Juncos Hollinger Racing.

Schedule

The schedule was released on September 25.

Icon	Legend
	Oval/Speedway
	Road course
	Street circuit

Calendar changes

Indy NXT will see the debut of the Grand Prix of Arlington. This will be Indy NXT's first race in the state of Texas since it held two races at Circuit of the Americas in 2019.
Barber Motorsports Park, Road America and Mid-Ohio will hold double-headers for the first time since 2021.
The Nashville round will no longer be the season finale and will instead be round 13, held on July 19, while the Monterey round will move from mid-July to the season finale, held on September 5 and 6.
Indy NXT will not return to Iowa Speedway.

Championship standings

;Scoring system

Position	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th	10th	11th	12th	13th	14th	15th	16th	17th	18th	19th	20th	21st
Points	50	40	35	32	30	28	26	24	22	20	19	18	17	16	15	14	13	12	11	10	9

The fastest driver in each qualifying session will be awarded one additional point.
Every driver who led at least one lap will be awarded a bonus point, the driver who led the most laps will get two points.

Entrants will score points in the same way drivers score points, including bonus points for pole position and laps led.