Note: This continues a series of 2024 INDY NXT by Firestone team previews on INDYNXT.com. The season starts Sunday, March 10 on the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida.
Starting Lineup: Salvador de Alba Jr. (No. 2 Andretti Cape)
2023 in Review: Cape Motorsports grew from no cars on the grid in 2022 to two in most races for 2023. The team contested in 13 of the 14 races, electing to sit out the race weekend at World Wide Technology Raceway and also didn’t send the No. 47 Dallara to Iowa Speedway and Portland International Raceway. That car was split between three drivers, Enaam Ahmed (first seven races), Matthew Brabham (Nashville) and Kiko Porto (three of the final five events). Between them, they had six combined top-10 finishes, including two top-five results. Jagger Jones raced the No. 98 Dallara in all but August’s event at World Wide Technology Raceway. The highlight came with Jones’ runner-up finish in the Detroit Grand Prix in June, one of his four top-10 finishes.
New for ’24: Cape Motorsports, a Brownsburg, Indiana-based racing team founded by brothers Dominic and Nicholas Cape in 2001, has formed a technical partnership with multiple INDY NXT championship team Andretti Global and will scale back to a one-car venture with Mexican de Alba as the driver. The newly formed Andretti Cape INDY NXT alliance will see Cape Motorsports receive engineering and operational support from Andretti, building on the successful model between Andretti Global and Meyer Shank Racing in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES.
Keep an Eye on This: This alliance has plenty of championship pedigree. Cape Motorsports won 14 USF2000 Championship titles and has seen success in sports car racing, earning the IMSA Prototype Challenge championship title in 2006. Andretti Global boasts over 260 race wins, four INDYCAR SERIES championships, five INDY NXT titles, one Indy Pro 2000 and one USF2000 championship, one FIA Formula E Drivers World Championship, a Silver Class GT4 championship and has captured victory five times at the Indianapolis 500. The team also won two X Games gold medals and five U.S. rallycross championships. de Alba has won six driver titles, with two in NASCAR PEAK Mexico Series and four in the Gran Turismo (Supercopa) Mexico series.
Little-Known Fact: de Alba owes his American racing career to former INDYCAR SERIES driver Michel Jourdain Jr. The two met when Jourdain, who made 156 career INDYCAR SERIES starts and won twice, returned to his native Mexico once his racing days in the United States ended. In 2015, Jourdain and de Alba shared the same racing team in Mexico. Instantly, the two drivers forged a bond through which Jourdain helped pave a path for de Alba to come to America.