INDY NXT SERIES: DETROIT GRAND PRIX

May 31, 2026

Enzo Fittipaldi

Tymek Kucharczyk

Myles Rowe

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Joined by the podium finishers here this morning:

Enzo Fittipaldi, second win of the season. His grandfather Emerson, the two-time winner on the original streets of Detroit. Fifth podium in seven starts in 2026. Takes over the championship lead.

Myles Rowe, his best finish of the season. Moves up to seventh in the championship.

Tymek Kucharczyk, his fourth third-place finish of the season. Fifth podium of 2026.

Enzo, your thoughts on win number two in 2026.

ENZO FITTIPALDI: Yeah, it was like a super crazy race. We started seventh. There was that whole chaos in turn one. Everyone just checked up. I think Lochie Hughes went pretty big lunge. Everybody checked up. Someone rear-ended me. I tapped to the guy in the front. I had nose damage. I was a bit worried at the time. My front wing looked pretty messed up. I could feel it as well in the corner. Was a bit worried the whole race to hang on and stay in the race to not have to pit to change the front wing.

Luckily we were able to stay in the race. I was losing a lot of time through six and seven. Then down the straights, as well. We had a big hole on the front nose. A lot of drag. I could feel the air blowing through the cockpit. I just knew I had to keep my head down and stay in the race. That's what we did.

In the middle of the race we found pace. I was really fast. Catching up to Tymek. Myles did a nice move on me. I think we were both quicker than Tymek. I think Myles went for an overtake, I was able to do the crossover on both of them. Then I had the pace to stay in the lead.

Pretty crazy race. Happy with the way it went for us. HMD did a great job with the car.

THE MODERATOR: On the restart, turn three, things opened up a little bit for you?

ENZO FITTIPALDI: Yeah, it was crazy. I saw Lochie miss his brake point. I think he locked up. He's going like a bowling ball into these guys.

THE MODERATOR: I'm talking about the opportunity you saw when Myles went wide.

ENZO FITTIPALDI: Yeah, I prepared my corner well. I saw he was going for the move. I was just able to do the crossover on both of them.

THE MODERATOR: Myles, congratulations. You have some ovals coming up, a lot of good mo heading your way.

MYLES ROWE: Yeah, very happy with getting the biggest mover and being able to collect points after starting with P11. Definitely looking forward to continuing the momentum into Gateway, no doubt.

THE MODERATOR: Tymek, another podium for you. Talk us through the restart.

TYMEK KUCHARCZYK: Probably messed up the restart a little bit. I went a bit too late. My front tires weren't in. Just struggled a lot in T1, T2.

I seen Myles was pretty close, but he still went for a pretty audacious move. Sent us both wide. Almost collected on the right. Was lucky to escape that. Lost the lead. Not much I could do from there.

THE MODERATOR: Open it up for questions.

Q. Another one of these chaotic races here. What is it about this course that leads itself to the crashes?

ENZO FITTIPALDI: Yeah, I think this track, it's pretty crazy. It's a lot of chaos. Geez, I think when Myles overtook me, I hit the wall again in turn three on the inside wall like really hard. I tried doing the crossover on him, but he cut back really sharp on the exit of turn three. I didn't want to clip him. I ended up just slamming into the wall.

That actually helped my balance. That's when I was able to find speed was after hitting the wall. It kind of just knocked the steering off a little bit. I was really struggling on the left hand corners. The tow changed, I picked up front grip. It actually helped me out throughout the whole race. Very grateful about that.

Yeah, it's just a street course. There's a lot of walls and everything. You're just pushing to the limit. I mean, yeah, it's easy to hit the wall.

THE MODERATOR: Myles, your thoughts on racing here?

MYLES ROWE: No doubt very fun. Obviously a lot of opportunity in turn three. Yeah, I was happy to move up the way I did, take advantage of what Detroit can bring with deep braking in that heavy braking zone.

Q. Scott Dixon said of other day where it's hard to maintain your focus. Do you feel that?

MYLES ROWE: It's all the same, I think.

THE MODERATOR: 141 on-track passes. 124 for position. The most all time for the event, be it downtown Detroit or Belle Isle as well.

Q. I think another big moment in this race was the lap one wreck. Y'all had to avoid that. Can you explain how you avoided that.

TYMEK KUCHARCZYK: Yeah, well, it was kind of expected to be chaotic start. It always is around here. I just tried to cover my inside line. I just made sure no one's there.

When I was going to the corner, I see Lochie coming with a massive speed. I was a bit fortunate. I was really close to clipping both of them. But yeah, it helped me. The restart was pretty clean, as well.

Yeah, I mean, coming back to your question, I think it's genetic of this track. When it's restarts, everyone has cold tires. It's easy to stay up close to the car in front. There's a big long stretch. You take a tow pretty easily. There's a draft, you're gaining, gaining. Somebody may have cooler brakes, tires. It's easy for a mistake, easy for some chaos. It's all unpredictable around the bumps. It is in that way a bit of a special place. The way the characteristic of the track just makes it a bit more funs.

MYLES ROWE: Yeah, for sure, that naturally cleared the way pretty easily for me. It gave us the opportunity, no doubt. Definitely would have been a longer race for us without that.

Unfortunate for de Tullio, especially. He's definitely had some hardship and things that haven't been going his way.

Yeah, like Tymek said, Detroit kind of breeds these kind of things. That's racing. Sometimes you're in the right position, sometimes you're in the wrong position. Today we were in a position where we could take some advantage.

Q. Myles, you've won on ovals, but today you were going to be a contender going forward on the street course layout. How much does it mean to you to show that strength?

MYLES ROWE: It always means well to show strong. I've always had the confidence and knowledge I have that speed. It's about the program underneath me giving me the ability to extract that.

Q. Enzo, how hard was it to focus on clicking off those fast laps with the broken nose?

ENZO FITTIPALDI: Yeah, it was pretty hard, just trying to drive the best I can with the damage I had on the car. Yeah, just trying to win the race was all I was thinking about.

Q. Enzo, with your damage you said earlier air was coming through the cockpit. What did your team radio to you, to make pit stop, repair?

ENZO FITTIPALDI: No, I would happen have ever pitted even if I didn't have a front wing (smiling). You'd end up like a lap down or something. I was fortunate that everything stayed intact. We had a lot of damage. We just wanted to stay out on track, try and take whatever it gave us. Finish in the top five, top three. Yeah, we ended up with the win. We found pace after that second hit on the wall. It worked out for us.

Q. How was the behavior of the car? Much terrible with the damage?

ENZO FITTIPALDI: Yeah, it was really bad. It wasn't great. I could feel the air coming through my legs. I was like, Man, there must be a massive hole in the front. You're losing a lot of speed on the straight. The car drags a lot. Through six and seven, my front wing was hanging sideways. I was losing a bit of time through there.

But yeah, I had like a lot of understeer. Whenever I hit the wall again, when Myles overtook me on the inside of turn three, I hit the wall quite hard. It knocked my steering off about this much, 30, 40 degrees. It really helped the corners I was struggling in to gain from.

Q. Losing speed was the biggest disadvantage?

ENZO FITTIPALDI: Straight line speed, then the front initially. After hitting the wall, it set the balance differently and it helped me.

Q. Enzo, you now lead the championship. Do you start making more conservative decisions? How does that work?

ENZO FITTIPALDI: When I race, I love racing. I'm a racer. I don't go conservative. I'm like on attack mode all the time. I'm super aggressive. Myles is really aggressive, as well. I knew he was going to be going for some overtakes. He did. I was just out there on track aggressive but at the same time with the damage it was difficult to really do anything.

But going forward, I'm not going to be conservative at all. I'm going for it.

Q. Myles, your perspective on the overtake on Tymek? Would you have done anything differently?

MYLES ROWE: I think there's a little bit of responsibility of us both in how Enzo got around us. From my perspective, there was a reactive move from Tymek. In order to kind of save both of us, I had to release the brake in order to make sure he made sure I was there. We went wide. I think just both kind of fell on us to let Enzo by.

Q. Pretty difficult start to the season compared to previous seasons. To what do you attribute that?

MYLES ROWE: Yeah, I think naturally the ovals are next with Gateway. Everyone around me is very excited for that given our previous success. Like every weekend, like Enzo said, we love racing, we're just going to go out there and do our best and enjoy the craft and capitalize as much as we can and bring that momentum forward, try to carry that into Road America and Mid-Ohio, road courses, as well, which our program has been struggling with this year.

No doubt big things to take away from this weekend and we'll be looking to implementing those the rest of the year.

THE MODERATOR: Enzo, you're up seven points heading into St. Louis. You can't back off.

ENZO FITTIPALDI: Yeah, no, I'm all out. If I can overtake someone, I'm going to go for it. I'm not going to be thinking about I'm going to lose points if I crash. I'm really just going to go for it.

For the ovals, Myles is definitely the benchmark in the series. He's very strong on ovals. I know he's going to be up there at Gateway. He's going to be the guy we're going to be chasing.

Yeah, we're going to be going to Gateway trying to do our best. It's going to be my first time racing on ovals with open-wheel. I'm excited. I'm confident I'll do a good job.

THE MODERATOR: We'll see you next weekend.