TAMPA, Fla. — The job was not meant to last. After all, what teenager stays in one place forever? No, this was a temporary gig for the kid from Pinellas County, Fla. Get in, blow some minds, get out. And, at the end of it all, if they want to hand you a trophy, declare you a champion and invite a bunch of millionaire businessmen to start calling your agent to woo you for your next job? Well, ...

Nikita Johnson displays his Indy NXT 2026 championship trophy and winner's ring near Gulfport Beach Recreation Area.

Jefferee Woo/Tampa Bay Times/TNS

TAMPA, Fla. — The job was not meant to last. After all, what teenager stays in one place forever?

No, this was a temporary gig for the kid from Pinellas County, Fla. Get in, blow some minds, get out.

And, at the end of it all, if they want to hand you a trophy, declare you a champion and invite a bunch of millionaire businessmen to start calling your agent to woo you for your next job? Well, Nikita Johnson isn’t going to complain about that, is he?

It’s been two weeks since Johnson won the Indy NXT season title — essentially the Triple A of IndyCar racing — and his career seems to be accelerating at speeds few can understand. The youngest-ever season champion in the Indy NXT series at 18 years and a few months change, Johnson is already preparing himself to step up to the big leagues of open-wheel racing.

The real career is waiting to begin.

“I sat down with my dad when I was maybe 11, and he was trying to figure out where to put me, what series would be best for me,” Johnson said recently from a barstool on a balcony overlooking his hometown of Gulfport. “We kind of mapped it out, but ultimately it has to happen organically, right? You can’t just throw a kid into a series and expect them to do great. The results have to come naturally. And that’s kind of what happened. It led us to this fast-track process of getting to IndyCar.

“That’s where we are now. In the next month or two, I’d like to know where we’re going in IndyCar. Get the contract signed, prepare for the next year, figure out if I have any weaknesses, get them fixed and get ahead of the curve. Everybody is going to have a weakness stepping into a new class, so I want to see them and iron them out before the next year starts. The sooner I get signed, the better.”

Does he sound mature at 18? Or is it assured? Maybe even spooky?

One thing is clear, the certainty in his voice is not arrogance. Not even close. It is more calculated. As if he has spent most of his waking time since climbing into his first go-kart at age 5 trying to figure out how to get to this moment. He’s won in every professional series he’s ever tackled. Three victories in a juniors series in 2022. The next year, he became the first driver to win at all three levels of the USF Pro Championships series and was the youngest-ever winner in the USF Pro 2000 Championship at 15.

He spent time racing in Europe, graduated from high school online and found his first part-time ride in the NXT series shortly after turning 17.

It’s not his skill as a driver that they talk about around the track — although that is obvious and abundant — but rather his composure. Never angry, rarely effusive. Just determined. Quietly, stoically, viciously determined.

“I was taught from a young age: Don’t show anyone your weaknesses. Don’t even let them see when you’re happy. Just let them keep guessing,” Johnson said. “All my competitors are like, ‘What makes you happy? We never see you happy.’ That’s just part of my personality, but it’s also how I want to be known. Racing gets me excited and I’m passionate about it, but racing without emotion gives me the most clear thoughts and the advantage on everyone else.”

Understand, that is not a PR-cultivated explanation. That’s how Johnson won the NXT season title, despite being several years younger than most of his competition. A half-dozen drivers led more laps than Johnson during the season, and yet he was the one who claimed the championship.

He did it by racing smart, efficiently and safely. He was the only driver to complete every lap, and he finished in the top 10 of all 17 races. He took risks, but only when the odds were in his favor and never because he was angry or upset with his rivals.

Even the way he chose his ride for the 2026 season speaks to his planning. He talked to both the Andretti and HMD teams — which had combined to win the NXT series every season since 2018 — but signed instead with the smaller, lesser-accomplished Cape Motorsports team. The idea was that he would have more room to grow with Cape and, in the process, he maneuvered around the bigger boys.

Will he go the same route in IndyCar in 2027? Will he look for a mom-and-pop team, or as a secondary driver with a brand-name team? That’s still to be determined.

“It’s hard to come into a very, very top team your first year. So I’ll probably need to spend multiple years with a good team that I can learn with,” he said. “One of the joys of racing is coming in as the underdog and kind of putting a team, and myself, on the map. Hopefully, I’ll be able to do something like that.

“The main thing is growing. As soon as you stop learning or growing in life, that’s the moment you kind of quit. There’s so much to do in racing and in life in general that you always have to keep learning. That’s what excites me.”

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