INDY NXT SERIES: GRAND PRIX OF PORTLAND

August 9, 2026

Alessandro de Tullio

Lochie Hughes

Max Taylor

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Our winner today, Alessandro de Tullio. Led all the laps today. Second win of the season, first since Barber race two. Fourth podium of 2026.

Lochie Hughes came in second. His best finish since a win at Road America. Third podium of the season, 11th of his career.

Max Taylor coming in third. Best finish since a second on the IMS road course.

Ale, congratulations. Another win for you. How does this one feel? It looked easy. I'm sure it wasn't.

ALESSANDRO de TULLIO: Yeah, it wasn't easy. It's never easy. Yeah, start was pretty gnarly with Lochie. He broke pretty late. He was going for it. So was I, of course. But we kept it clean.

It was a good race. We had the safety car pretty early. Just one thankfully this time. Was able to get a good restart, not really have to defend in turn one. From there it was just about building a bit of a gap, then managing everything.

Pushed for the fastest lap at the end, but I don't think we got it by a little bit.

Yeah, it feels good to get it done. I think we deserve a lot more this year, to be honest. That's the way racing goes sometimes. But I'm glad we never gave up, the whole team never gave up. We kept pushing. They keep giving me a great car to try again and again and again.

THE MODERATOR: Lochie Hughes, do you want to talk through the start, maybe the restart as well.

LOCHIE HUGHES: Yeah, start was pretty hectic. Yeah, kind of a lottery here in turn one. It's kind of like 60% of the time it works every time (smiling). But yeah, just tried out-braking Ale on the outside. Didn't really work, which I expected, just the inside being so strong here.

Then I expected there to be some kind of carnage coming. Left the door a bit open thankfully 'cause got a pretty big hit in the side pod. Yeah, after that was a pretty boring race.

We came across a back marker, which was Ale's teammate, which he got out of the way pretty nicely for you. Blue flags, but wasn't getting out of the way, whatever. I don't know what the issue was there. That kind of ruined our race a little bit.

Yeah, no, happy to be back on the podium.

THE MODERATOR: Max, back on the podium. Fifth of the season for you. Talk us through the start, what you saw.

MAX TAYLOR: Yeah, I mean, I think ultimately we lost the race yesterday in qualifying. Wasn't able to capitalize on the start. I knew what I needed to do to try to get the lead, but the opportunity wasn't there. The door wasn't fully open. Yeah, just kind of had to make it through there, survive, come out in third. Sort of manage it from there.

But yeah, ended up being, like Lochie said, a bit of a boring race.

THE MODERATOR: Open it up for questions.

Q. Ale, you talked about how odd of a season this has been. What have you been able to take from it, given the week-to-week craziness you've dealt with? Are you at a place where you think you can secure an INDYCAR ride for next year?

ALESSANDRO de TULLIO: Yeah, I mean, it's been a crazy season. I think the most important is that with eight poles and starting 12 out of 14 races in front row, I think that shows quite a lot of the speed and capability and potential that we have - not just me, but the team is also a big part of that, of course.

Looking into next year, of course I want to be an INDYCAR driver. But right now I'm just focusing on what I have to do as a driver. We've had difficulties this year with stuff that has happened, especially that Road America win that got taken away in tech. That really just ruined our chance for the championship. If not, I think we'd be much closer, top three, around there. That was difficult.

Mid-Ohio was difficult because of that. Mid-Ohio, you still think about the past a little bit when it's happened so many times. You do everything right one weekend, put yourself back in it, it gets taken away. I think that was the toughest. It was even tougher than all the times I've been taken out.

Once Mid-Ohio was done with, now I'm in a much better... More calm again. So yeah, I'm not really thinking. Obviously I have to think about next year, but we still have races left this year. It's about executing and finishing off strong.

Q. Ale, you mentioned the difficulties in thinking about that. From a mentality standpoint, how have you managed to kind of overcome that and focus on the positives? Any things that have helped you overcome some of those difficulties out of your control?

ALESSANDRO de TULLIO: The thing is, as well, out of the difficulties you also learn a lot. Basically last year was my first year back in cars. Before that I was in karting. I went from karting to pro to now this. Everything is coming quite fast. I don't have much experience, if we're honest, if we're realistic.

Going through these tough experiences is also going to make me stronger and better. In the moment, it's difficult. I hate it when it happens. When you think back on it, it's something that makes you stronger. It's something that's going to happen, especially in my first years. At this level when everyone wants to win, there's going to be stuff that happens. It's normal.

Just not beating up yourself over it is very important. Just get stronger and learn. Even from the bad stuff there's always positives to take. I think that's what we've done this year. The team has supported me, my family has supported me, my sponsors have supported me. I have all that behind me. That's the most important, to keep fighting and pushing.

Q. Max, you started the season so well, lost some ground. Why do you feel you did lose a bit of ground over these last few months? What do you think you've learnt, as well?

MAX TAYLOR: Yeah, I mean, similar to Ale, I'm not very experienced. This is only my fourth year racing cars. Yeah, just learning a lot. Making some mistakes. As well, I think we've had some bad luck, to be honest. Yeah, taking the learning experiences as we go. Try to put it all together.

We always have really good pace. We always end up saying we should have, could have, would have been on the top step of the podium.

But yeah, just about sort of taking what we can learn and putting it together a bit better.

Q. Lochie, obviously that point in the season when you are thinking towards next year. What is your head space at the moment in terms of next season? Would you be open to doing another season of INDY NXT?

LOCHIE HUGHES: Yeah, not too sure at the moment. Yeah, just taking it race by race. Kind of similar for me this year. A lot of pace, a lot of races like Nashville last time out where we were fighting for the win and ended up really having nothing to show for it.

Open for anything right now. Yeah, just at the moment taking it race by race.

THE MODERATOR: Guys, congratulations and we'll see you in a couple weeks at the Milwaukee Mile.