Jamie Chadwick Makes Bold Statement for Women in Racing with NXT Series Win

There was no catching Jamie Chadwick at Road America on Sunday.

Chadwick, a second-year Indy NXT racer who was a three-time champion in the W Series, led all 20 laps on the 4.014-mile Road America race circuit in Elkhart Lake, Wisc., for her first career NXT win.

Chadwick is the first woman in series history with a win on a road course, and first woman to win in the series since Pippa Mann won on the oval at Kentucky Speedway in 2010. Ana Beatriz is the other woman with a NXT win, having won at Iowa Speedway in 2009.

A Turn 1 crash that collected Myles Rowe and Jordan Missig brought out a red flag with three laps to go made things interesting late. However, Chadwick was able to not only maintain her lead during the final two green flag laps but extend it over teammate Louis Foster and Jacob Able for the win.

Chadwick, who drives for Michael Andretti and his Andretti Global squad, won by 0.8203 second over Foster, who nosed ahead of Abel at the stripe.

Chadwick proved to be a popular winner, as nearly every driver in the 21-car field offered congratulations after the race.

"I've got a lot of support. I'm grateful for that," the 26-year-old Chadwick said. "Yeah, I think from my side, we kind of talk about not having too much pressure early on. At the same time, I really want to show what women are capable of in this sport. I strongly believe women are capable of getting to the highest level.

'We have an amazing young generation coming through. There's so many great women in the sport. We just need more. Hopefully it inspires more and that's all I care about."

Mann even phoned in during the post-race press conference to offer her congratulations.

"Female drivers can be just as talented as men, just as Jamie is proving," Mann said. "With the opportunity and the equipment and the talent, we could win races and championships. This is why it means so much for me to see Jamie out there succeeding."