{"id":849894,"date":"2026-08-10T05:14:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-10T05:14:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/849894\/"},"modified":"2026-08-10T05:14:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T05:14:12","slug":"indy-nxt-news-aussie-confronts-compatriot-in-pit-lane-hughes-claims-podium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/849894\/","title":{"rendered":"Indy NXT news: Aussie confronts compatriot in pit lane, Hughes claims podium"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img fetchpriority=\"high\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Nicolas-Stati-Grand-Prix-of-Portland-INDY-NXT-Presented-by-Firestone-By_-Travis-Hinkle_Large-Image-W.jpeg\" class=\"sc-hero-img\" alt=\"Aussie confronts compatriot in pit lane, Hughes claims podium\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"eager\"  \/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNicolas Stati (left) battles with Jack Beeton during the Indy NXT race at Portland. Image: Travis Hinkle<\/p>\n<p>Following the 35-lap race, Beeton was captured on the broadcast running towards Stati.<\/p>\n<p>Beeton grabbed him before HMD Motorsports members split the drivers.<\/p>\n<p>Stati\u2019s team Cusick Morgan Motorsports has a technical alliance with Beeton\u2019s team HMD Motorsports.<\/p>\n<p>Beeton alluded to the cause of the fracas on social media, citing an incident late in the race.<\/p>\n<p>Replays showed Stati\u00a0baulk Beeton at the final corner, which caused the #45 to go wide.<\/p>\n<p>Stati was a lap down at the time of the incident.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBumpy ride this race. Taken out lap one and got severe damage,\u201d Beeton wrote.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRecovered from P24 [to] P12. Then hit by a car that was a lap down. Cheers for that mate.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnyway, finished P13. Eventful one, pace was good even with a damaged car. Sh*t happens.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Tempers flare at Portland after the <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/INDYNXT?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow\">@INDYNXT<\/a> race. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/fnxBIAv0lZ\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/fnxBIAv0lZ<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 INDYCAR on FOX (@IndyCarOnFOX) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/IndyCarOnFOX\/status\/2086528003303940115?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow\">August 9, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The race was won by AJ Foyt Racing\u2019s Alessandro de Tullio ahead of another Australian, Lochie Hughes, for Andretti Global.<\/p>\n<p>De Tullio led all 35 laps, which began in chaotic fashion with Beeton spinning at the chicane thanks to a hit from Matteo Nanini.<\/p>\n<p>Hughes challenged de Tullio for the lead into the first turn but copped a whack from teammate Max Taylor instead.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe start was pretty hectic,\u201d said Hughes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s kind of a lottery here in turn one. It\u2019s kind of like 60 percent of the time it works every time.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJust tried out-braking Ale on the outside. Didn\u2019t really work, which I expected, just the inside being so strong here.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThen I expected there to be some kind of carnage coming. Left the door a bit open thankfully \u2019cause got a pretty big hit in the side pod. After that was a pretty boring race.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Hughes said he might have had a shot at the win if not for lapped traffic playing a part.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe came across a back marker, which was Ale\u2019s teammate,\u201d said Hughes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe got out of the way pretty nicely for [de Tullio]. Blue flags, but wasn\u2019t getting out of the way, whatever. I don\u2019t know what the issue was there. That kind of ruined our race a little bit.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHappy to be back on the podium.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Hughes sits fifth in the standings with three races remaining. The series returns on August 31 (AEST) at the Milwaukee Mile.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nicolas Stati (left) battles with Jack Beeton during the Indy NXT race at Portland. Image: Travis Hinkle Following&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":849895,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,806,805,803,804,9910,85],"class_list":["post-849894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-slot2","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=849894"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849894\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/849895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=849894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=849894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=849894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}