Hughes muscles his way through eye-opening first IndyCar test

Andretti Global’s No. 98 Dallara DW12-Honda Indy car provided Lochie Hughes with an action plan to follow for the next 12 months of his life.

The diminutive Australian spent Monday wrestling the bigger, heavier and faster machine for the first time, which gave Andretti’s Indy NXT front-runner a proper understanding of the physical transformation he’ll need to undergo if he’s able to secure a race seat in IndyCar for 2027.

The scrappy 23-year-old is strong, but there’s Indy NXT strength, which he used to win a pair of races as a rookie for Andretti and place third in the standings, and then there’s the demands of the DW12 which has the likes of two-time champion Josef Newgarden and his rivals living in the gym and packing on pounds of muscles to wrangle 5000 pounds of downforce without the assistance of power steering.

“Got to run through a lot of different setup items the team wanted to try, but it was definitely tough physically, just trying to hang on the whole time,” Hughes told RACER after turning approximately 100 laps. “Had a few sets of tires to go through as well, but we continuously improved. It's bit different the way you find the lap time in this car to the NXT car, especially with all this weight. It doesn't want to turn as much with the weight.

“Definitely need to put on some muscle, because towards the end there, I was struggling. When probably I understood the car the best, I was hanging on a little bit. All in all, good day – kept four corners on the thing and learned a lot. Hopefully, the team gained some valuable data from it.”

Hughes found the approach needed to drive an Indy car somewhat different to his NXT car. Joe Skibinski/IMS

Hughes captured the USF Pro 2000 title in 2024 and heads into his sophomore NXT season as an instant favorite to claim the championship. Monday’s IndyCar test was an eye-opening affair where the Queensland native was fifth fastest of the seven drivers, and second behind Mick Schumacher among those making their IndyCar testing debuts.

Moving forward, Hughes has his physical transformation assignment to follow and has complete confidence in where he’ll be driving after the 2026 NXT season is finished.

“This is what I will be doing,” he said of becoming an IndyCar driver. “There’s no doubt in my mind. It’s just about going and winning NXT next year. That’s job number one.”