The 2026 Firestone Indy NXT Series is scheduled to be the 40th season of the Indy NXTopen wheelauto 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.[1]
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.
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.[13] On September 5, 2025, Cusick Motorsports announced it had rebranded to Cusick Morgan Motorsports after its team director Billy Morgan.[14]
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.[19]
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.[10]
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.[20]
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.[7]
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.[8]
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.[15]
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.[4]
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.[9]
On October 24, 2025, Cusick Morgan Motorsports announced that Juan Manuel Correa would drive for the team in his full-time series debut.[16]
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.
