Matteo Nannini has been awarded victory in the second INDY NXT race at Road America after both A.J. Foyt Enterprises cars were disqualified following post-race inspection.
Alessandro de Tullio had crossed the line first on Sunday, with team-mate Nicholas Monteiro also inside the result, but INDYCAR Officiating found the two Foyt entries had used each other’s qualifying tyre sets during the weekend.
The penalty changed both the race result and the tone of a weekend that had looked like a major statement for the Foyt junior programme. Readmotorsport had already noted how Caio Collet’s Road America practice pace had given the organisation a lift, but this post-race ruling leaves a very different aftertaste.
Foyt tyre breach changes the Road America result
According to INDYCAR Officiating’s official penalty notice, car No. 14’s qualifying tyres were installed on car No. 4, while car No. 4’s qualifying tyres were installed on car No. 14. Officials also stated that neither car started either race of the double-header on the same set of tyres it had used in qualifying.
That was ruled a Level 3 infraction, with both Foyt cars disqualified from Race 2 and made ineligible for driver and entrant points from the race.
Nannini, driving the No. 20 Cape Motorsports Powered by ECR entry, was therefore promoted to victory. Tymek Kucharczyk moved to second for HMD Motorsports, while Cape team-mate Nikita Johnson completed the revised podium. RACER reported that de Tullio had originally finished 1.0584 seconds ahead of Nannini before the inspection decision.
The ruling adds another sharp postscript to a Road America weekend already full of consequences across the IndyCar ladder. Christian Lundgaard’s main-series recovery win had already turned the event into a major Arrow McLaren moment, while Lundgaard’s Road America fightback and Josef Newgarden’s post-race penalty showed how much changed after the chequered flag.
For Nannini, though, the revised classification delivers a significant ladder-series win. For Foyt, it turns a potential breakthrough into a painful reminder that development-series weekends can be won on pace and lost just as quickly in process.
