Matteo Nannini earned his second victory of the INDY NXT by Firestone season in the Music City Grand Prix on Sunday at Nashville Superspeedway, and this one meant much more than his first.
Pole sitter Nannini led a 1-2 finish for Cape Motorsports Powered by ECR, driving his No. 20 Enve Motorsports car to a 5.6449-second victory over teammate Nikita Johnson in the No. 21 machine. It was his third career victory in the INDYCAR development series and the first 1-2 finish ever for the longtime junior formula standout Cape team in INDY NXT competition.
SEE: Race Results
This was the first win this year in which Nannini took the checkered flag first. He placed second on track in the second race of the Road America doubleheader last month but was awarded the victory after a procedural violation in post-race inspection with the car of Alessandro de Tullio of AJ Foyt Racing, which crossed the finish line first.
“I’m happy to get P1 on track, actually get it here and not with some penalties and stuff,” Nannini said. “I think it’s great for the team, for me, the sponsors, everybody for confidence. Again, the first of many more.”
Myles Rowe, who had won three of the last four oval races in the series, finished third in the No. 99 Abel Motorsports with Force Indy machine.
Rookie Max Garcia tied his career-best finish by placing fourth in the No. 12 Abel Motorsports car, with Max Taylor rounding out the top five in the No. 28 Susan G. Komen car of Andretti Global.
The fierce championship race also took on a new look with this race, as Johnson returned to the lead by one point, 451-450, over previous leader Enzo Fittipaldi, who finished 11th in the No. 67 HMD Motorsports machine. There are just four races left this season as drivers compete for the INDYCAR career enhancement package awarded to the series champion.
Nannini led 64 of the 65 laps from pole, eventually pulling away to victory by more than five seconds. But those are perhaps two of the most deceiving statistics from the race on the 1.33-mile concrete oval, which featured plenty of action throughout the 23-car field.
The only time Nannini lost the lead came on Lap 17, when Rowe dove under him and Johnson in Turn 1 as they dueled for the lead, jumping from third to first in one move. But the last of two caution flags flew on the next lap for debris as Nannini had just nosed past Rowe to regain the lead.
On the Lap 20 restart, Nannini stayed out front. But the gap to his rivals never exceeded a second over nearly the next 30 laps, as Johnson, Rowe and Lochie Hughes in the No. 26 Andretti Global car all took turns at hounding Nannini’s gearbox and trying to find a way around the Italian.
The complexion of the race changed on Lap 49 when Rowe and Hughes began a wheel-to-wheel duel for second, with Johnson right behind. That joust stirred the crowd, but it also added wear to their Firestone Firehawk tires and let Nannini pull away.
“We had the car to stay out front,” Nannini said. “I was not sure if we were going to get passed, but I wanted to get clean air, so I was driving some different lines depending on how close the guys behind were to me.”
Nannini padded his lead to 1.5 seconds by Lap 50 ahead of the dicing and slicing behind him. By Lap 58, that edge had mushroomed to 4.2 seconds, and Nannini continued to drive away.
Meanwhile, Johnson was able to pass Rowe and Hughes to regain second and grab the points lead. His climb to second comprised some of the track-record 184 on-track passes in this race (photo, above), including another record 140 for position.
“I tried passing Matteo early on and burned my tires a little bit,” Johnson said. “I just settled in, kind of cleared my mind and made sure the tires got back to normal, pushed again and then at the very end I held off Myles. He was really fast, as well.”
The next INDY NXT by Firestone race is the Grand Prix of Portland on Sunday, Aug. 9 at Portland International Raceway.
