For the second round of the 2026 season, Cape Motorsports powered by ECR visited a brand new street course in Arlington, Texas. An enjoyable yet tricky layout in the shadows of AT&T Stadium greeted both drivers as they attempted to back up the team’s first INDY NXT by Firestone win in St. Petersburg with another strong performance.
Nikita Johnson qualified sixth in the #21 entry, placing himself on the third row for Sunday’s event, while Matteo Nannini put the #20 onto the fifth row of the grid. Starting position ended up holding more importance than usual because heavy winds forced officials to preemptively shorten the race to 30 minutes, which translated to just over half the originally scheduled distance of 27 laps.
When the green flags waved on the long back straight, chaos immediately fell over the field. There was a jump start in front and a crash into the wall behind, but both Cape Motorsports drivers stayed relatively free of trouble as they got up to speed. Johnson moved forward to fifth by the first corner with Nannini getting an even better start to leap from ninth up into sixth.
After four laps of caution to clear the track, racing began in earnest with only 16 minutes left on the race clock. Johnson kept his car tucked up tight to Juan Manuel Correa, looking for a way past for multiple laps. Opportunities proved had to come by on the street course, however, and he held position for the majority of the shortened race.
Johnson put up a fight on the penultimate lap but ultimately ran short of Push to Pass and lost one position to cross the line in sixth, matching his qualifying performance. He now sits second in the points, just 10 points adrift of the top spot.
Nannini spent the race battling against diffuser damage he received from the chaotic race start. The 22-year-old kept pace with the field once the race was under green, but ended up slipping down two positions. He kept up the fight and set his fastest lap with one to go, earning eighth place and giving the Cape Motorsports team a double top ten result.
With two street courses in the books, the next event on the schedule is two weeks away at the always-enjoyable Barber Motorsports Park in central Alabama.
Nikita Johnson:
Solid weekend here in Arlington. Pretty good qualifying. Had a little more in it but we fell a bit short of where we could have been.
In the race, I got a good start. It was a bit messy up front so I just tried to keep my nose clean, but I made it through. Then I just settled in. I ran low on Push to Pass early, so then Lochie [Hughes] got by me in the end. Other than that, a good points day. Kept it out of the wall, and happy to come out of here in one piece.
Matteo Nannini:
Finished the weekend here in Arlington with a P8. I think it was pretty good overall. It was a shortened race, so it was all about the start. It was a little messy out there and I got hit from behind at the start as well. It was good to bring the car back home safely.
Taking the positives: it’s good points for the championship, we finished the race, and completed every single lap. Now we can start working on improving as we get deeper into the season. But so far so good.
