MONTEREY, Calif. — The odds were strongly in Nikita Johnson’s favor to win the season championship entering Sunday’s Indy NXT By Firestone race at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.
He didn’t need to win the race, but he needed to stay out of trouble.
That strategy prevailed as Tymek Kucharczyk won Sunday’s race and Johnson finished second, 6.6 seconds behind. Johnson’s finish combined with Enzo Fittipaldi’s fifth-place finish gave the teenager from St. Petersburg, Florida the season title.
The 18-year-old knew the formula to the championship didn’t mean having to win the race. He was top eight in every race this season and had nine podium finishes with two wins.
“It’s amazing, it’s good to finally show my emotions,” Johnson said. “I just go out and do the work. The work is done now, and I can show my emotions and go out and celebrate.
“I can’t thank everyone enough.”
Johnson is the youngest champion in series history (18 years, 3 months, 12 days).
Kucharczyk capped off the season with his third victory.
“I’m really proud of what we did today, the car was really great, and I wanted to congratulate Nikita and Enzo Fittipaldi as well,” Kucharczyk said. “The championship is very long. I’m really proud today to maximize what we had.
“I was pushing every lap. I left nothing on the table. I’m really proud, it was an amazing year.”
When the green flag waved, there was a full course caution for a multi-car incident on the frontstretch. Cars involved included Josh Pierson, Niels Koolen and Max Garcia, who would later be issued a stop-and-go penalty from Race Control.
For the first 15 laps of the 30 lap races, Johnson was content to let Tymek Kucharczyk lead the race and settle into second. Kucharczyk was pretty much eliminated from championship competition once the race started, but Johnson needed to keep an eye on his nearest championship pursuer, Fittipaldi.
By Lap 20, Kucharczyk’s lead over Johnson was 6.5480 seconds.
With five laps to go, Kucharczyk had the race in hand with a 7.50-second lead over Johnson, who had the championship in his grasp by finishing second and Fittipaldi fifth.
The win was redemptive for Kucharczyk, who was involved in a first-lap incident in Saturday’s Race 1. In that contest, Kucharczyk made bid for the lead on the outside of Turn 2, but Myles Rowe made contact, spinning Kucharczyk and sending him back in the field. Rowe was assessed a drive through penalty for his role in the contact.
But on Sunday, Kucharczyk said he learned his lesson, and that made the season-ending victory a triumph over Saturday’s adversity.
