PORTLAND, Ore. (Sunday, Aug. 9, 2026) – For the first time since March, Alessandro de Tullio sealed the deal.
De Tullio led all 35 laps from the pole to win the INDY NXT by Firestone Grand Prix of Portland on Sunday in the No. 14 AJ Foyt Racing entry. It was the rookie’s second victory of the season, as he also won in late March from the pole at Barber Motorsports Park.
The victory provided sweet relief for the INDYCAR development series rookie, who has shown tremendous pace in qualifying with eight pole positions this season – one shy of the series record – but had just the Barber win to show for it before today. De Tullio also crossed the finish line first from pole in June at Road America, but he and teammate Nicholas Monteiro were disqualified after post-race technical inspection discovered a sporting infraction.
“It wasn’t easy,” de Tullio said. “I had to take care of the tires. There was quite a bit of (wear) toward the end. Good race. The car was great. I can’t thank the full team enough.
“Super happy to get this one, and hopefully it sticks.”
De Tullio took the checkered flag 2.1885 seconds ahead of series veteran Lochie Hughes in the No. 26 Andretti Global car. Hughes’ teammate Max Taylor completed the podium finishers in the No. 28 Susan G. Komen entry.
Rookie Tymek Kucharczyk finished fourth in the No. 71 HMD Motorsports car, while Jacob Abel rounded out the top five in the No. 48 Abel Motorsports entry in his first series start since 2024.
The tense race for the series championship and NTT INDYCAR SERIES career enhancement package awarded to the title winner tightened even further with just three races remaining this season. Enzo Fittipaldi took over the series lead by one point with his seventh-place finish in the No. 67 HMD Motorsports car, taking the top spot from Nikita Johnson, who entered this event with a one-point margin over Fittipaldi.
Johnson finished eighth in the No. 21 Cape Motorsports Powered by ECR machine. Meanwhile, Kucharczyk drew even closer to the top two with his 11th top-five finish in 14 starts this season, as he remained third, just 18 points behind leader Fittipaldi and 17 behind Johnson.
“Tough weekend,” said Fittipaldi, who started 12th. “I don’t understand why we struggled so much this weekend. We have an idea, but it’s strange. We were looking forward to this race weekend; I thought we were going to be really strong. For some reason, we were struggling a lot.”
De Tullio left no doubt about his speed at the start, as he got a good jump at the green flag and built a small gap entering the notorious chicane in Turns 1 and 2 of the 12-turn, 1.964-mile road course. He parried a strong move by Hughes in the chicane complex and started to pull away.
“It was tough because we have to start early here as a rule, so they (rivals) get a good draft,” de Tullio said. “Lochie, obviously, is a driver with a lot of experience, and he knows how to race. So, it was difficult to hold him off there in Turn 1. We just had to go elbows out, and we kept it clean – that was most important.”
The only other drama happened when rookie Carson Etter spawned the only caution period of the race, on Lap 3. Etter spun exiting Turn 12 and nosed into the pit wall in the No. 11 Chip Ganassi Racing entry.
De Tullio rocketed from the field again on the restart on Lap 5 and never trailed. His gap to Hughes grew to nearly three seconds with 10 laps to go, as de Tullio was able to easily lap the No. 15 Cusick Morgan Motorsports machine of rookie Nicholas Stati, a task that was harder for his closest pursuers Hughes, Taylor and Kucharczyk.
Once that chasing trio cleared Stati, they set sail for de Tullio and sliced nearly a second from his lead. But there weren’t enough laps to trim that gap any further.
The next INDY NXT by Firestone race is Sunday, Aug. 30 at the Milwaukee Mile, the last oval race of the season. The 2026 season concludes with a doubleheader Sept. 5-6 at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca in Monterey, California.
