INDY NXT SERIES: GRAND PRIX AT MID-OHIO RACE 2

July 5, 2026

Jack Beeton

Enzo Fittipaldi

Nikita Johnson

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Wrapping up this weekend for INDY NXT by Firestone here at Mid-Ohio. Race 2 just wrapping up. Joined by the podium finishers in this morning's race. Enzo Fittipaldi, who led all 30 laps in the 67 HMD Motorsports car. Sweet form this weekend here at Mid-Ohio. The first double-header sweep for a driver in the series since Laguna Seca last year, I believe, and then back-to-back for HMD Motorsports for the second time this season. The last time was at IMS Road Course, as well. Fourth win this season for Enzo, and takes over the points lead for the second time here in 2026.

Jack Beeton comes home second in the 45 HMD Motorsports car, third yesterday, second today. His second career podium. Nice job by Jack here this week at Mid-Ohio.

Nikita Johnson back on the podium in the 21 Cape Motorsports Powered by ECR car. Sixth podium of the season. Now third in points, 20 behind Enzo Fittipaldi heading to Nashville Superspeedway here in a couple of weeks.

Enzo, I know you love fast laps. You even did one better than you did yesterday, so congratulations. A sweep here at Mid-Ohio, how difficult was it? How pleased are you?

ENZO FITTIPALDI: Yeah, it was honestly -- yeah, it's been really strong. Ever since, you know, we actually led the Milwaukee test, like, a week and a half ago, so we've been, you know, at the top since Milwaukee test. Came here, practiced, P1, and then quallie, double pole, and then double wins. We're really with some strong momentum here, and I feel really good with the car and stuff.

A very nice bounceback after what we had at Gateway with the car issues and then Road America. Yeah, just a bit didn't put everything together. Yeah, super happy to bounce back like this.

I feel great. You know, we're in great form going into the last part of the season. Yeah, just continue working hard and doing our best.

THE MODERATOR: It would have been very easy for you to hold back at the end. You had a 12-second lead. You kept pushing, though. What's the mentality on all that?

ENZO FITTIPALDI: You know, at the end I knew I had a big gap. At the end I was just kind of competing with myself, like trying to get better lap time and stuff. Yeah, it was fun.

When the car is in the window and you feel really good in the car, it's nice and you really enjoy doing the push laps, especially on a track like Mid-Ohio where it's very fun to drive for a qualifying lap. So I really enjoyed it. As well, it's good seat time as well. I, you know, work on my skills and stuff on track. So, yeah, I'm not going to just back off at the end.

THE MODERATOR: It's a fun driver's track for sure. Congratulations. Jack, also congratulations to you. It's a podium sweep for you. Is this the start of something big here the rest of the season? Your thoughts?

JACK BEETON: Yeah, hopefully. That would be nice. No, it was a really good weekend. We struggled a lot at the start of the year. We've known we've had potential the whole time. The pace has been good. We just haven't put it together.

But to start finally putting it together, you know, we're getting our best results in Road America in the top 5, and then now a double podium here, third yesterday, second today. Really happy with how it's gone, how the event has gone.

Obviously Enzo has been really, really fast all weekend, so he has been hard to beat. Today I was trying to be a big strategic, saving my tires the whole race because I knew he was too far. I was thinking maybe I could get him at the end, but safety car never came. We had three yesterday and none today, so I was a bit surprised. I didn't end up getting it, but really happy to come away P2.

Really happy for the team. Won two today; mega result for the weekend.

THE MODERATOR: Nikita, the championship fight continues here. Disappointed, I'm sure, you're not the points leader leaving here, but you're still obviously very much in the fight to get back on the podium. How important was that for you today?

NIKITA JOHNSON: Yeah, I don't really mind the points lead. It all comes down to the final race of the season anyway, right, so you can win for second or third of the points coming in the last round. Yeah, I'm not really worried about that.

Just really happy that the Cape boys worked super hard. We work really great together, and this weekend we struggled quite a bit compared to HMD. They nailed it down all weekend. We were just a little bit on the back foot, but the boys after yesterday, they worked extremely hard last night. They gave me just a really good race car today, and I was able to go pick up a few positions.

I can't thank them enough for all their hard work and all their determination even though it wasn't looking too good through practice through race one. Just can't thank them enough and such a good group of people.

THE MODERATOR: Strong way to wrap up the weekend for you. We'll open it up to questions.

Q. Enzo, congratulations on sweeping. Your 12.7-second lead puts you second all-time in INDY NXT between Jack Harvey's sweep back in 2014. How much does it mean to you to dominate the field like this and really put a statement that you're a leading contender now for the championship?

ENZO FITTIPALDI: I think it's going to the next race I reset. It's back to 0-0. You know, we had a great weekend here. We're going to have a good time when I get back with the boys and stuff and talk about the race, enjoy a bit, but tomorrow we're back to work and focused on the next race. It doesn't change the mindset.

INDY NXT is a very competitive field. It's very easy -- you know, you make a little mistake in qualifying, and you can end up being ninth or tenth, and you struggle for the races. It's really important to enjoy the moments that you have when you have the wins and stuff, but then when the next race is coming and everything, you need to reset and be back to how -- back to, like, 0-0, I guess.

In Brazil we say it like that. I watch a lot of soccer. I'm a big fan of Palmeiras, and after they win a game, the coach, Abel Ferreira, he always says, okay, after the game, now we're 0-0. That's my mentality.

Yeah, we just got to keep working hard.

Q. The only side-by-side challenge you had was with Ollie going into -- coming out of the straight. Did you feel him on your outside when he went off in the grass there?

ENZO FITTIPALDI: I mean, he was, like, on my outside, but I think I was, like, half a car length ahead of him. I did leave him some room, but I think we braked pretty late. By the time I was mid-corner, I said, oh, he's for sure going off. I think he out-braked himself, and I think he was on the dirty part of the track. There's a lot of marbles out of the racing line.

So, yeah, it's unfortunate, but it is what it is. It's racing. Yeah, we race hard here.

Q. Nikita, continuing on consistency, you haven't finished less than seventh all season long, and still being a part of the battle, how much does that mean to you to continue the consistency even though Enzo, of course, is looking to be in good form right now?

NIKITA JOHNSON: Yeah, consistency is where it's at. That's what wins championships. That's what I learned from USF Pro, where ultimately we should have won that championship in '24, but a few crashes here and there and then a few penalties took me out of it. I kind of learned from that.

You know, if the car is P5, I'm going to go put it P5. If the car is P1, I'm going to try to go for first. I always try to get the max out of the car, but I'm not going to try to go overachieve and throw off a good points day.

We take it race by race and try to maximize the results and the points.

Q. Does it require a lot of patience to accept those results?

NIKITA JOHNSON: Just a little bit. I mean, I know sometimes that we're just a little bit behind, but we always get there. So I think we need to go kind of take a look back after this weekend in Road America and look on ourselves and try to create the best possible package for Nashville and then all the other road courses and Milwaukee.

So, yeah, it's going to be just a lot of looking back and trying to figure out what mistakes I made on my side on the team and try to push forward and fight for this championship.

Q. Jack, just getting back-to-back podiums, what would you rank this weekend of racing in your racing career?

JACK BEETON: Well, definitely best of the season so far. I've had a few wins, you know, back in Europe. It's definitely not number one because I didn't win, but it's certainly a really, really good weekend.

We're starting to show some good form, and hopefully next weekend I can say that's the best one of my career in Nashville and we just keep building on this, building on this the rest of the season, and try to finish strong.

Q. Obviously you mentioned you've had a bit of an interesting run with Gateway and Road America, the issues you had there. When you are in a kind of title fight, what are some of the feelings when you do have weekends like that, and I guess how do you avoid having desperation in terms of then feeling like you're chasing the points? Just talk a bit about that mentality.

ENZO FITTIPALDI: Racing, it's -- my grandfather always said, you lose a lot more than you win. So you have to just after a race weekend or something, you get a win, you have to be happy and stuff, but obviously when you get, like, a difficult weekend like I had a Gateway, I as well wasn't extremely sad or frustrated after the race. I always try and keep the same energy for a win and defeat.

It's very mental. When you are doing a championship and you're fighting for a championship, it's important to be competitive and mentally strong. So having this approach has helped me quite a lot in my career, and racing is a very difficult sport. You know, it's 25 cars, and there's only one winner. It's not like you're playing basketball or soccer and it's a 50/50 chance of winning.

It's very difficult, and yeah, you need to know how to manage that as a driver, especially throughout a championship and just staying consistent. Like Nikita is a great example. He's been very consistent the whole year. It's impressive to see.

Yeah, we've had the pace to win races, but at the same time, I feel like we need to be a bit more consistent.

Q. Just for Jack, you kind of alluded to maybe a bit of a tough start to the season. What were some of the things that you maybe found particularly hard, and then ultimately looking at this weekend, what in particular do you feel like maybe clicked compared to what you've been battling so far this year?

JACK BEETON: I mean, the biggest thing in racing is qualifying, right? If you're going to start at the front, there's a lot less people you have to overtake, and that's where I struggled at the start of the year. I was never really putting it together in qualifying.

When you are starting, you know, outside even the top 15 some races, it's a lot harder to get up the front. This weekend we had a good qualifying, also Road America. You see when you start at the front, it's a lot easier to stay there. That's definitely been the biggest thing.

We've worked hard as a team to maximize qualifying, and I think we're finally starting to get there.

THE MODERATOR: Right before we wrap up, let's go down the line. Nikita, let's start with you. Obviously, Nashville Superspeedway is coming up; Milwaukee after that. So a couple of opportunities on ovals. Just your thoughts about getting back on an all-left circuit for a couple of races coming up.

NIKITA JOHNSON: I'm excited to go left, and Nashville is very fast and going to be a big draft there. It's going to be like the Daytona 500 almost, right? It's all in the draft. I'm excited for that.

Then Milwaukee was a really good test. I think we need to work a little bit on our qualifying car, but our race car felt pretty strong. We'll see what happens when we arrive there those weekends, but I'm just excited to go back. Turning left, it's so much fun.

THE MODERATOR: Enzo, for you obviously a lot left on the table at Gateway, so an opportunity to make up some ground next weekend?

ENZO FITTIPALDI: Yeah, I think we've been showing good pace on the ovals. We look good in the quallie runs, and I think we need to work a bit on our race car, but I feel like I'm adapting quickly to the ovals. It's very technical the way you approach the race and stuff.

With the dirty air, setting up your passes, setting up your runs, it was a lot to learn, but I feel like I'm in a good position now to fight in the ovals and try and win races there. That's the goal.

Yeah, I'm super excited for the next race at Nashville.

THE MODERATOR: Jack, maybe not a ton of experience on ovals, so what's been your first impressions of it? Are you looking forward to Nashville?

JACK BEETON: Yeah, it was good finally getting to do some testing last week in Milwaukee on the oval. Obviously the Gateway I missed the test there because of an injury from Nashville. Going back to Nashville after the big crash there last time, I mean, just reset, reset the nerves.

We know we've been quick. Like last week in Milwaukee, I was quickest in the morning, Enzo was quickest in the afternoon. HMD, we definitely have a good quallie car. We'll work on the racing. We're good racing drivers, and I'm sure we can race to the front and stay there if we start there.

Yeah, going into Nashville and Milwaukee, super excited. The ovals are really cool. You're racing at really high speeds. It will be super fun.