STEAM CORNERS, Ohio — Enzo Fittipaldi waited until the closing minutes of Indy NXT by Firestone practice Friday to top the speed chart, turning the fastest lap to kick off this weekend’s doubleheader at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.
The HMD Motorsports rookie posted a lap of 1 minute, 10.7286 seconds in the No. 67 HMD Motorsports entry with less than two minutes remaining in the 45-minute session. Temperatures reached 94 degrees during the afternoon practice, the hottest session of the season.
“It’s very hot out there — super hot,” Fittipaldi said. “I think it was a good practice. We had a good session there. We made some good changes throughout the session, and we made very good progress throughout the whole session. Very happy about it.”
Fittipaldi edged HMD Motorsports teammate Tymek Kucharczyk, who led much of the session before settling for second at 1:10.7736.
Andretti Global’s Lochie Hughes was third at 1:10.8710, followed by AJ Foyt Racing’s Alessandro de Tullio (1:10.9097) and championship leader Nikita Johnson of Cape Motorsports Powered by ECR (1:11.0264). Four teams were represented in the top five.
Johnson entered the weekend with a six-point lead over Kucharczyk in the championship standings, while Fittipaldi sits 27 points behind in third.
“The track’s going to be quite a lot colder in the morning,” Fittipaldi said. “It’s quite early in the morning, so it could change a bit the balance of the cars. It’s just making sure we get the car in in the right window and where we want it to be for tomorrow morning, in which is the day that counts, which is qualifying.”
De Tullio will aim to continue his remarkable qualifying form. The AJ Foyt Racing driver enters the weekend with seven poles in 10 races, including three of the last four and has claimed five of the six available poles during road course doubleheader weekends this season at Barber Motorsports Park, Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course and Road America.
The Indy NXT by Firestone single-season record is nine poles, set by Pato O’Ward in 2018. Ed Jones (2016) and Thiago Medeiros (2004) each earned eight.
