Levi Jones has been at the forefront of the progress since being named the director of Indy NXT in October of 2021.
A tenured background in racing that featured driving as well as becoming an executive with USAC (United States Auto Club), his venture in IndyCar’s developmental category has only spanned two full-time seasons thus far. However, there has been a significant boost in car counts and involvement from IndyCar teams.
The 2023 season saw the series averaged 17.9 starters per race – the most since 2009. Additionally, 25 drivers competed in at least one race, which is eight more than in 2022.
In an interview with select media, the questions below were asked by Motorsport.com.
Do you feel like there might have to be a limitation on how many cars one team is supplying?
I think there's a lot of angles you could look at that. Overall, we're trying to keep the number of entries at a level where we want it to be. It makes the promoters happy, puts on great races. We're constantly looking at that. ... If everybody else was going to add one or two cars, how do we look at that? How do we make it work? Henry Malukas (team owner of HMD Motorsports) commitment to Indy car racing has been pretty phenomenal here the last two or three years. So that's, that's all good.
There have been and are currently some drivers that aligned themselves with teams in the IndyCar Series, such as Ed Carpenter Racing and Dale Coyne Racing, among others. What is it going to take to get more IndyCar Series teams involved in Indy NXT?
IndyCar teams are looking for more personnel and people, too. So, to not take away from an IndyCar program, I think is probably number one on their radar, but then to look at how Indy NXT can be a series that gets someone ready, right? Not only driver, but crew, people, engineers, all that, just continue to make this series that learning ground for what you can do in IndyCar. And then kind of back to your question of how do you get more teams involved? Well, I think we're doing it a little bit at a time. You know, the IndyCar teams, we're talking to them about it; what we need to do to make it more attractive. How can it be more attractive to connect those two things? Working on those little things every day.
Is there anything specific that stands out to you on what needs to happen for that to become a thing?
I don't think there's one shiny object that you could point to to do it. It's just a little bit in every area, I think, naturally over a little bit of time. We hope to get there sooner rather than later, but I don't know if there's necessarily a definite timeframe to put on it.
What is your vision for Indy NXT over the next five years?
I think it's just an automatic thought, whether it be from a fan or teams, that it's IndyCar and Indy next. It just goes hand in hand. You know, these drivers that are here for a few years learn the tracks that we run, the way things are done, the culture that everybody has created here to transition from an Indy NXT program into an IndyCar program and have a shot at being a champion. I think if you look at my first two years here with Linus (Lundqvist) being a champion and with the timing being right for him getting an opportunity to be a full-time (in the IndyCar Series) driver (for 2024), an incredible talent, a great person. Then with Christian (Rasmussen) winning (the 2023 title) and having some opportunities this year just shows that with the right timing and prepare yourself you can have a shot at it.
The Freedom 100 was obviously something that everybody fell in love with and there's a small contingent that still want it back. We've added another oval to the calendar with Milwaukee. When it comes to the jump being so big from a 1-mile track like that to a 2.5-mile like Indianapolis for whoever eventually graduates and gets into IndyCar, do you almost feel like we need to run into some sort of bridge situation to be able to run a bigger oval?
Yeah, I think just my experience talking with the drivers that have not ran on ovals and now are running on a few ovals, and like you said, Milwaukee's added this year. The more experience that we get these drivers to feel comfortable on the ovals, I think makes everyone feel more comfortable of what we could do in the future.
But is it imperative because when you look at the current IndyCar schedule for 2024, there is no oval before the Indianapolis 500, so for any Indy NXT graduate coming in, they may not have a full understanding or grasp of what IndyCar machinery is going to feel like until the Indy 500 Open Test?
Being able to utilize Texas in the past has been big for (IndyCar rookies) getting that experience before you come to the Indy 500. With the Olympics this year and the schedule, that's kind of just where it landed. You know, the relationship with Texas is still there; great. Still doing rookie tests there. But yeah, on the Indy NXT side of making sure we have our series open test at the ovals we're running where everyone gets that experience, we go back there, and we race. You're just getting those drivers more prepared for a year, two years down the road.
To that end, if there isn’t going to be an Indy NXT race at IMS on the oval, do you almost feel that there should be perhaps an Indy NXT test just for preparation of that next level?
Yeah, I haven't really thought of it or looked at it, any of us as a group like that. The feedback we get, you guys get it, everyone hears it; everybody wants to race here. I mean, everybody wants to race on the oval here, whether it be whatever car you have here. We know that. We know that the race is incredible here. You know, former Indy Lights races are close. Everyone's close, but the speeds are really high. There is a substantial risk. Racing is risky, but with lesser experience drivers and going that fast and that close, that presents a risk that probably, if you would do it here, needs to be looked at how we make it as safe as possible, too.
