Alessandro de Tullio Grabs First Win with Foyt at Barber – Motorsport America Photo
It was the first victory for AJ Foyt Racing in the INDYCAR development series since May 2003 as the fabled team returned to INDY NXT by Firestone this season.
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Paul Kelly INDYCAR Staff Writer – One day after another heartbreak, Alessandro de Tullio finally sealed the deal.
Rookie de Tullio earned his first career INDY NXT by Firestone victory Sunday, driving his No. 14 AJ Foyt Racing entry to victory by .3635 of a second over the No. 28 Susan G. Komen car of Andretti Global driver Max Taylor.
It’s the first victory in the INDYCAR development series for the team owned by legendary four-time Indianapolis 500 winner A.J. Foyt since Ed Carpenter won the inaugural Freedom 100 in May 2003 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. That was the Foyt team’s last full-time season in INDY NXT before returning this year.
“It’s incredible,” de Tullio said. “I want to thank first the whole 14 crew for such a great car. We knew we could have done it two races ago in Arlington. We could have had it yesterday. But sometimes that’s the way racing goes.
“The most important thing is we kept our head down, kept focused, and third time is a charm, I guess.”
Nikita Johnson kept the series lead by finishing third in the No. 21 Cape Motorsports Powered by ECR entry. Johnson won the first race of the doubleheader Saturday when de Tullio and Taylor tangled and spun out while running first and second, respectively, with eight laps to go.
Enzo Fittipaldi chased Johnson down the stretch of the 30-lap race today but ended up fourth in the No. 67 HMD Motorsports car. Tymek Kucharczyk continued his consistent rookie season by placing fifth in the No. 71 HMD Motorsports entry, his fourth top-five finish in as many starts.
Pole sitter de Tullio led all 30 laps of the caution-free race, but Taylor pushed him for the duration on the 17-turn, 2.3-mile road course. The gap between the top two ranged from five- to seven-tenths of a second for most of the race. But on the final lap, Taylor closed to within three-tenths – and visions of Saturday were revived.
In the opening race, Taylor made a bold move for the lead in Turn 16 that didn’t work. His left front wheel touched the right rear of de Tullio, forcing both cars into a spin. Johnson squeezed through for the lead and his second win of the season.
But this time de Tullio never let Taylor get close enough to challenge for the lead and powered to the checkered flag. The victory erased the sting of disappointment from Saturday and from March 15 at Arlington, where de Tullio earned his first career pole but was shoved out of the lead in Turn 1 on Lap 1 and ended up 11th.
“I managed as best as I could, but unfortunately it fell away from us there in the middle of the race,” de Tullio said. “The rears (tires) were pretty dead, so I was just hanging on and trying to cover with Push to Pass and cover what I could. We got it done; that’s most important.”
Said Taylor: “It’s points. It’s a long year, and I didn’t realize that yesterday when I made that a bit of an aggressive move. Ale did a really good job (today), didn’t make any mistakes. That’s all he had to do, and I was pushing him the whole way, trying to get him to mess up. It was a good race.”
The series now takes a short break before returning for the second of five doubleheader weekends this season, May 8-9 on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course.
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