ELKHART LAKE, Wis. — Jamie Chadwick scored her maiden race victory in Indy NXT with a masterful drive Sunday at Road America.
Chadwick, now in her second season in IndyCar's development series, became the first woman to win a race in the series since 2010, when Pippa Mann took the checkered flag at the Kentucky Speedway oval.
In addition to Mann's victory at Kentucky in 2010, Ana Beatriz scored two victories on ovals between 2008 and 2009. This makes Chadwick the third woman to win a race in the series.
Additionally, Chadwick's victory on Sunday and her pole on Saturday made her the first woman to sweep an Indy NXT weekend on a road or street course. Drivers such as Katherine Legge and Simona de Silvestro won road and street races in ChampCar Atlantics, but Chadwick is the first to do so on that type of track in what is now called Indy NXT.
"It all means a lot. Everyone I race against, but also the wider support," Chadwick said. "Last year was a tough year. Fighting where I think we should be fighting, it's a great feeling. Grateful for everyone's support."
Chadwick's victory did not come easy. While starting from the pole gave her an advantage, she still needed to manage three restarts and a red flag combined with heavy pressure from her Andretti Global teammate Louis Foster and his championship rival Jacob Abel.
"Congratulations to Jamie. Pretty awesome for her to get her first win here. We had a pretty good battle the first half of the race. But she was able to hold onto it," Abel said.
During the race's closing laps, Chadwick was aided by the battle for second between Foster and Abel. The two championship leaders gave spectators a spectacular show, but it also allowed Chadwick to pull away.
Chadwick led all 20 laps in a dominant wire-to-wire victory, bringing some relief and validation to the 26-year-old British driver.
"I felt like we've been, yeah, coming at it stronger race by race. This year, yeah, we definitely made a big step. But it's where I feel like we should be now," Chadwick said. "Normally, before this weekend, I felt like there was a bit of a gap to these two (Foster and Abel) especially. Now we're closing that gap. After today especially, I think we can try to always be up with these two as much as we can."
Chadwick's victory moves her from 13th in points to 9th. Her teammate Foster's runner-up finish moves him six points closer to points leader Abel, who still holds the championship lead.
