2026 Indy NXT final standings, top 10. Graphic: Backfire Racing. Data: INDY NXT by Firestone official standings.
Jack Beeton’s name is being attached to Andretti Global for 2027, and at first glance the move looks backwards. If the 18-year-old from the Gold Coast does leave HMD Motorsports, he would be walking out of the team that just finished second and third in the Indy NXT championship to join one whose best driver finished fourth.
Start with the caveat, because it matters: nothing is signed in public. As of October 6, Andretti, HMD and Beeton have not announced anything about 2027. Until one of them does, this is a driver-market story, not a done deal. But if you look past the 2026 points table, the logic holds up better than it first appears.
What the official numbers say
Beeton finished his rookie Indy NXT season ninth in the final standings with 382 points from 17 starts in HMD’s No. 45. He did not win a race or lead a lap, but his series profile lists nine top-10 finishes.
Teammate comparison is where it gets uncomfortable. Enzo Fittipaldi was second on 556 points and won four races, more than anyone else in the field. Tymek Kucharczyk was third on 551. Nikita Johnson took the title on 585 points for Cape Motorsports powered by ECR. Andretti’s best were Max Taylor, fourth on 470, and Lochie Hughes, fifth on 453.
So HMD gave Beeton the best possible benchmark: two title contenders in the same garage, with their data on the same laptop. That is a strong argument for staying. To see why he might leave anyway, you have to look at the calendar and at who runs the other team.
The rookie year had two halves
Beeton didn’t arrive as a project. Before Indy NXT he raced a season of Formula Regional European Championship with Prema, where he took a race win and several podiums. Before that, he finished second in Italian F4 and won the Formula 4 South East Asia title. He was still 17 when INDYCAR listed him in HMD’s 2026 lineup.
The first half of his season was hard going. The breakthrough came in July at the Mid-Ohio doubleheader, where he finished third in Race 1 and second in Race 2. HMD described that weekend as the first 1-2-3-4 finish in series history. Fittipaldi won both races, and Beeton was the one closest to him by Sunday.
Then on August 30 at the Milwaukee Mile, the third oval round of the season, he finished third behind Max Garcia’s first Indy NXT win. For a driver who came up through European junior formulas, which have no ovals at all, an oval podium in his first year is the most useful line on the résumé. It shows he can adapt, and that is exactly what IndyCar teams look for when they shop in Indy NXT.
The car isn’t the reason. The team running IndyCar is.
Indy NXT is a spec series: every team runs the same Dallara chassis on Firestone tires with a common engine. Teams can’t win by building a better car. They win with engineers, damper programs, setup knowledge and how well they work with their drivers. HMD clearly has plenty of all four. If a driver changes teams in this series, he is rarely chasing more speed.
What Andretti offers is an IndyCar team in the same organization. In 2026 Ron Ruzewski is team principal of both Andretti’s IndyCar and Indy NXT programs. That means the person who sees a junior driver’s data every weekend also helps decide who drives the No. 26, 27 and 28 Hondas. On a driver market, that kind of access is worth more than a few tenths in a spec car.
The track record shows how far that access goes, and where it stops. Kyle Kirkwood won the 2021 title with Andretti’s junior team and is now a race winner on a multi-year deal with the IndyCar team. Louis Foster won the 2024 Indy NXT championship with Andretti, then went to IndyCar with Rahal Letterman Lanigan and was 2025 Rookie of the Year. So Andretti’s ladder doesn’t guarantee an Andretti seat, but it does put a driver in front of the people making IndyCar decisions. Our guide to how Indy NXT prepares drivers for IndyCar covers why that step is bigger than the lap times suggest.
Lochie Hughes shows how the current setup works. When Andretti kept him for a second Indy NXT season in 2026, it also named him an IndyCar reserve driver and scheduled him for an IndyCar test at Indianapolis. A pure junior team can offer a driver a winning car. It can’t offer him a reserve role.
The Australian connection
Andretti has also built a strong Australian thread, probably without planning to. Will Power joined for 2026 in the No. 26 after Colton Herta moved into a Cadillac Formula 1 test role. When he signed, Power had two IndyCar titles (2014 and 2022), the 2018 Indianapolis 500, 45 wins and the series record of 71 pole positions. Hughes, also Australian, raced Andretti’s No. 26 Indy NXT car this year.
Whether Power actually mentors anyone is up to Power. What isn’t in doubt is that a teenager moving to Indianapolis from the Gold Coast would have the best qualifier in IndyCar history in the same building, along with a team principal who worked with Power on his 2022 title. That is useful in a practical way: for any junior driver, qualifying is the skill that decides whether he gets a second contract.
Why 2027 is the year to move
The timing is the part that should interest everyone else in the paddock. A second Indy NXT season in 2027 would put Beeton on the IndyCar market for 2028, when the series’ next-generation car arrives. Rookies and veterans will both be learning a new car that season, so an established driver’s years of experience count for less than usual. We looked at the early running of that car in Alexander Rossi’s first oval laps in the 2028 IndyCar.
There’s a reality check too. Year two in Indy NXT is supposed to be a driver’s title year, but it doesn’t always work out that way. Hughes finished third as a rookie in 2025 with two wins, then dropped to fifth in his second season at Andretti in 2026. Changing teams also means Beeton would spend the winter learning new engineers instead of building on what he found at Mid-Ohio and Milwaukee.
What to watch
- The paperwork. Until Andretti or Beeton announces something, treat this as a link, not a signing.
- Andretti’s Indy NXT lineup. If Hughes moves up or out after two seasons, there is an obvious opening at the team.
- Any IndyCar test or reserve role. If a 2027 deal comes with IndyCar seat time, that would tell you what Andretti actually has in mind for him.
- The knock-on effect. The 2027 IndyCar market is already moving, from Christian Lundgaard’s switch to Ganassi’s No. 9 down. Indy NXT seats tend to get settled once the IndyCar seats above them are filled.
If the move does happen, Beeton isn’t trading a fast car for a slow one. He’s accepting slightly worse odds in Indy NXT for much better odds of getting into IndyCar. For an 18-year-old with an oval podium already on his record, that could be the smarter choice.
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