![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Nikita-Johnson-Grand-Prix-of-St_-Petersburg-By_-Chris-Owens_Large-Image-Without-Watermark_m146493-10.jpeg\")
\u201cIt\u2019s my third win around here,\u201d Johnson said in a post-race press conference on March 1. \u201cAnd all in different classes. So, it\u2019s pretty nice to come back here to win.\u201d Photo courtesy of INDYCAR\u00a0<\/p>\n\u200b\u200bNikita Johnson was born on May 25, 2008, the same day as the Indy 500. One of his dreams, he said, is to win the Indy 500 on his birthday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Photo courtesy of INDYCAR\u00a0<\/p>\n
By Skye Smith and Julia Birdsall\u00a0<\/p>\n
Standing in first place on the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg\u2019s podium, 17-year-old Gulfport resident and Indy NXT driver Nikita Johnson did not expect to be here.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0Johnson\u2019s mother, in fact, intended for him to be ice skating.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He was named after Nikita Kucherov \u2014 a well-known hockey player who has been part of the Tampa Bay Lightning since 2013.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Johnson took skating lessons for a few years, but a chance encounter with his mother\u2019s car mechanic inspired him to begin karting.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI hopped in a go-kart at a T4 complex, which used to be Anderson Race Park. And I was pretty hooked after that,\u201d he told The Crow\u2019s Nest. \u201cSo, unfortunately, I didn\u2019t skate or do any more hockey, but I fell in love with racing and went that way ever since.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s my third win around here,\u201d Johnson said in a post-race press conference on March 1. \u201cAnd all in different classes. So, it\u2019s pretty nice to come back here to win.\u201d Photo courtesy of INDYCAR\u00a0<\/p>\n
It was the speed, Johnson said, that made him fall in love with racing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think ever since a young age, I really loved the speed of racing and then the precision,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t think any sport has this amount of precision in it. So, it\u2019s pretty cool to be in something that\u2019s crazy.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Johnson made a switch to formula car racing in 2022 with USF Juniors, an open wheel racing series in North America and the first step in the USF Pro Championship.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
He finished third overall in the USF Juniors championship, earning three wins and five podiums.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After completing USF Juniors, Johnson progressed to the USF 2000 Championship in 2023. As the vice champion of the season, he secured one win and eight podium finishes.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
In 2024, he competed in the USF Pro Championship and finished runner up, securing another vice champion position, after eight wins and 10 podiums.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Johnson wrapped up his USF 2000 career and turned his focus to Europe.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n In 2024 he entered the GB3 Championship, a United Kingdom premier single seater racing series. Although he finished 11th overall, he still managed to secure two wins and two podiums.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n The GB3 is known as a great feeder program for drivers looking to further their career in hopes of joining Formula 1.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n However, Johnson has his sights set on Indy NTT.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cMy ultimate goal is IndyCar. I think everybody has a dream of being in F1. But when you get older, I think you realize that the racing is pretty unmatched in IndyCar,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cWith the spec series, the spec car, every car is very similar. There\u2019s so much talent in IndyCar, so it\u2019s really a driver\u2019s championship.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n 2025 led Johnson to New Zealand for the Formula Regional Oceania Championship, which he placed third in.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Following this, he participated in half of the Indy NXT season, his final stop before joining full time for the 2026 season.\u00a0<\/p>\n He is now driving for Cape Motorsports powered by ECR.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Johnson performed well in Practice 1 and 2 securing 10th position. Qualifying is where he really impressed the crowd, performing best in Group 1 and earning 2nd position for the start of the race on March 1.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n After overtaking Max Taylor in Lap 1, Johnson was able to maintain his lead throughout the race, resulting in his first-ever win in Indy NXT at the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Not only was it Johnson\u2019s first win, but it was also Cape Motorsports first-ever career win.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0\u201cEverything that we\u2019ve done together, it\u2019s paid off and I just can\u2019t wait to get to Arlington and see what happens, but can\u2019t thank the Cape boys enough and ECR,\u201d Johnson said to The Crow\u2019s Nest post-race. \u201cIt\u2019s [an] amazing feeling to get their first win and get my first win in Indy NXT as well.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Before winning the race, Johnson said that he felt that being in his hometown was also a great motivator.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s pretty incredible to just have actual fans now, not just my friends and family, but it\u2019s very big,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cIt gives me a lot of motivation and it\u2019s just really good to kick off the year in my hometown.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Firestone-2026-Sunday-099-1024x683.jpg\")
According to Johnson\u2019s Indy NXT biography<\/a>, \u201cHe also became the youngest USF Pro 2000 race winner at Circuit of the Americas in 2023 at age 15.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0Photo by Makenna Wozniak | The Crow\u2019s Nest\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Firestone-2026-Sunday-167-1-1024x683.jpg\")
Cape Motorsports has been a part of the Indy NXT series since 2001. However, the ECR technical partnership has only taken effect this year.\u00a0Photo by Makenna Wozniak | The Crow\u2019s Nest\u00a0<\/p>\n
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<\/a>
Written by: Skye Smith<\/a> on March 9, 2026.
Last revised by: Julia Ferrara<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u200b\u200bNikita Johnson was born on May 25, 2008, the same day as the Indy 500. One of his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":184852,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-184851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=184851"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184851\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/184852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}