Young stars emerging on IndyCar's open-wheel ladder

The four main American open-wheel training series are hitting the final stretch of their seasons, and there’s good news for IndyCar’s future because breakout talent has emerged across all three tiers of the USF Championships presented by Cooper Tires.

USF Juniors, the new entry-level series created by Andersen Promotions in 2022, has seen a healthy year-to-year increase in car count and a strong statement being made by 18-year-old Nicolas Giaffone, son of former IndyCar driver Felipe Giaffone.

The Brazilian has taken four poles and six wins from 10 races and amassed a huge 66-point lead over his DEForce Racing teammate Quinn Armstrong from Australia. With two tripleheader events left to run, Giaffone is on pace to earn the champion’s prize that would take him straight to USF2000. A pair of young Americans in Joey Brienza and Jack Jeffers have also won for their Exclusive Autosport team and hold third and fourth in the standings.

Giaffone is making a statement in USF Juniors. Image via USF Pro Championships

Overall, DEForce and its eight-out-of-10 victory strike rate has Giaffone and Armstrong in an advantageous position over the rest of the field, and while it’s still possible for Armstrong to overhaul his teammate, Giaffone is the name making waves in USF Juniors.

USF2000 is another example of one driver and one team making the series its own. American Simon Sikes, who entered the year on financial fumes with Pabst Racing, has won, and won, and continued to win his way forward. Five victories and seven poles from 15 races has the 22-year-old almost within reach of the championship; there’s one weekend and three races left to go at Portland.

While Sikes has been the class of the field with 11 podiums from those 15 races, last year’s USF2000 season finale saw points leader Myles Rowe arrive with a healthy lead over Michael d’Orlando and hand that lead — and the title — over to his closest rival, so it would be premature for Sikes or the Pabst team to ease off the throttle and play it safe in Oregon.

Sikes has been class of the field so far in USF2000. Image via USF Pro Championships

But even if Sikes does keep first place and secure the championship, he won’t be the only USF2000 driver to make headlines in 2023. Lochie Hughes from the Jay Howard Development Drivers team has been Sikes’ steadiest opponent, scoring four wins so far and eight podiums as a rookie.

Hughes needs 69 points to catch Sikes, which is a lot to ask, and behind him, Nikita Johnson is 79 points back; he’s got one win and a bunch of podiums as well. Mac Clark, the inaugural USF Juniors champion, is fourth, has won a pair of races and shown he’s got a ton of potential, and the same goes for fifth-place 15-year-old Cypriot Evagoras Papasavvas, who has a win and a wide-open future in the sport.

Like Giaffone in USF Juniors, USF2000 has been the Simon Sikes Show. But there’s a much deeper pool of talent in pursuit of the Georgian, and for junior open-wheel racing fans, Hughes, Johnson, Clark, and a few more USF2000 kids are worth following because they’ve got something special to refine and show in the coming years.

USF Pro 2000 has been a remarkable thing to follow, and it’s all because of the mounting rivalry between Myles Rowe (main image) and Michael d’Orlando.

Across the four tiers of the American open-wheel training ladder, Rowe’s become the main name and greatest standout among all the drivers. With five victories taken over 13 races, his winning percentage is unmatched in the Pabst Racing with Force Indy entry. And with his five USF2000 wins with Pabst from last year added in, he’s been victorious 10 times from 31 races since 2022.

Rowe’s big performances have created an 81-point lead in the championship – the most of any driver in the USF Championships and Indy NXT. There’s two weekends left to complete and five races spread across Circuit of The Americas and Portland, so like Sikes and like Giaffone, Rowe needs to keep his head down and keep producing points at a steady clip and the title should be resolved in his favor.

And what about d’Orlando? The American and his Turn 3 Motorsports team are giving Pabst the business this year with d’Orlando ranking second in the series with wins, but those three victories have come after the New Yorker got off to a terrible start.

Michael d’Orlando has the speed to cause problems for main rival Myles Rowe, but is needed to recover from a slow start to the season. Image via USF Pro Championships

On an epic rally, d’Orlando is up to fourth in points, 93 down from Rowe. Misfortune found d’Orlando again last weekend right as he was primed to jump to second in the championship on Sunday, but a drivetrain issue dropped him to the back of the field. Ahead of d’Orlando in third is Exclusive Autosport’s Saldavor de Alba from Mexico, who has one win, three podiums, and a 84-point deficit to the championship leader. He’s another one to watch. Highly talented Brazilian Kiko Porto is closest to Rowe with those 81 points to draw down, and he holds second in the standings on the strength of five podiums, but he’s yet to win for his DEForce Racing team.

A nice surprise has been Swedish newcomer Joel Granfors with Exclusive Autosport. Among the better finds of the season, fifth-place Granfors has a win and three podiums. Granfors arrived in Toronto in third place, but a clash on Sunday ended his race with broken suspension and a two-spot drop in the championship.

After Rowe, d’Orlando is the main USF Pro 2000 driver to consider, and regardless of where he places in this year’s standings, the reigning USF2000 champion has the goods to win more titles. If we’re fortunate, the Rowe vs d’Orlando rivalry will continue upwards and onto IndyCar, just as we had with Colton Herta and Pato O’Ward.

Indy NXT by Firestone also has a couple of potential stars brewing, but unlike the USF Championships, IndyCar’s top development category has no clear favorite to claim the title. From the opening half of the season, six drivers have won from seven races; only HMD Motorsports’ Nolan Siegel has won twice, which is making it quite hard to identify a standout in the group.

Last year, Linus Lundqvist put a beating on his rivals with four wins by the halfway point; there was the Swede, gone into the distance, and everybody else in one of the most lopsided seasons on record. The year before, it was a two-driver affair with champion Kyle Kirkwood and his four halfway wins, followed by longtime rival David Malukas, who had four as well and put up a great fight to finish second in the standings. And what about this year? The spotlight is empty.

That’s not to say NXT is lacking in seriously talented drivers, but it’s also fair to say that we aren’t staring at four or five Lundqvists locked in a battle for championship supremacy. It would be great to have a single Lundqvist or Kirkwood emerge from the herd.

There are no runaway favorites in Indy NXT this year, but Nolan Siegel has established himself as one of the standouts. James Black/Penske Entertainment

HMD’s Danial Frost won the first race but hasn’t been near a podium since St. Petersburg. HMD’s Christian Rasmussen won the second race and has been fast and consistent with two more podiums added to his tally. Juncos Hollinger Racing’s Matteo Nannini claimed the season’s third race, but it’s his only finish inside the top 10. HMD’s Reece Gold won the next race, and in a growing theme, it’s his only podium visit to date.

Siegel claimed the next two, and Andretti Autosport’s Louis Foster won the last race, which was long overdue for the reigning USF Pro 2000 champion. Andretti’s Hunter McElrea, a pre-season title favorite after winning two races as a rookie, has put his year of NXT experience to good use but hasn’t won, and again, only has one podium to his credit.

Siegel’s championship lead over Denmark’s Rasmussen is down to 16 points, and New Zealand’s McElrea is 39 points shy in third. Foster, who endured a luckless start to his NXT season, might be the readiest of all for IndyCar. The Briton is fourth with a 42-point margin to Siegel and hopes to keep carving into his championship lead. Kentucky’s Jacob Abel, in fifth with his family-run Abel Motorsports team, has shown immense growth in his second year of NXT, and has two podiums, but awaits his first win and has 48 points to find over the next seven races to catch California’s Siegel.

So who will end up owning the 2023 NXT championship?

Speak to IndyCar team owners, and they mention Siegel, Rasmussen, and Foster as the ones they’re currently tracking. But the honest ones will also tell you they’re largely apathetic to what they’ve seen this season in NXT. They’re always on the lookout for homerun hitters, and Giaffone, Sikes, and Rowe are knocking it out of the park in the USF Championships. But they aren’t ready for IndyCar in 2024.

Until someone starts swinging for the fences in NXT and places their stamp of authority on the series, Lundqvist’s successor will remain a mystery. The quest to identify NXT’s next star continues this weekend in Iowa.