Ever since she returned to the driver’s seat in early 2021, Lindsay Brewer’s aim has always been establishing her place in the IndyCar circuit. And in 2024, she will get her chance.
Brewer is set to begin racing in the Firestone IndyNXT series starting March 10, 2024. Her entry into the IndyNXT competition comes after a series of successful tests this fall.
In joining the IndyNXT, a circuit of 15 races that take place over 12 weekends, Brewer will be the first American female driver in 33 years and the first to drive a full season of IndyNXT this century.
“This has been a dream of mine since I was a kid, to be able to move up and eventually into the top level of open wheel or formula racing here in the US,” Brewer said today. “It’s such a big jump up to IndyNXT, which runs close in speed to Indycar.”
Brewer, who has spent most of her competitive time on the trace up to now in touring cars, said she embraces the challenge and acknowledged that jumping into a new type of vehicle isn’t something racers do every day.
“(T)his being my only second full season in open wheel cars, I will try my hardest to learn as much as possible and show progress through the season.”
The open-wheel models that 26-year-old Brewer will race in IndyNext have twice the horsepower of the best touring cars, and she will be racing for Juncos Hollinger, a team based in Indianapolis.
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Brewer added that her transition to open-wheel racing has been a concerted team effort.
“I’m incredibly thankful for my team Juncos Hollinger and team principal Ricardo Juncos for allowing me to show what I can do, and for everyone that has supported me in this journey, including my previous teams, my advisor Pieter Rossi, and my manager Chris Young.”
This year’s IndyNXT opens with a street race in St. Petersburg, Florida. Within the series, there are three street courses and three oval tracks, plus six traditional racetracks with up to 20 cars competing per race.
VIDEO: Lindsay Brewer finds lots of speed in Indy
In previous races and trials, Brewer has excelled in both road course and oval tracks, doing well at Portland, Mid-Ohio, Wisconsin’s Road America, and Indianapolis Speedway Road Course.
“To be representing America and women in a full season at the top of the sport— and being the only one to do so since Cheryl Glass in 1993—is something I’m really proud of,” Brewer said.
Thus far, Brewer has spent the last few racing seasons running high-performance touring cars in the TC America Series. In her first year after completing college at San Diego State, Brewer drove the No. 29 Honda Civic Type R for Skip Barber Racing in partnership with Clubhouse.
All about the business of racing
Anyone who follows motorsports closely understands how entrepreneurial the profession has become. Off the track, drivers and the closest members of their spend almost equal time courting sponsors and business partners. From the beginning, Lindsay Brewer was game.
While attending San Diego State, Brewer studied business management and obtained a bachelor’s degree in business administration. During her time in school, she also worked for Red Bull, doing sports marketing support for the mega-brand.
Her passion for racing, combined with her experience working for one of the giants of motorsports, has given Brewer a keen ability to court her own sponsors now that she continues to build her own career as a driver.
Currently, Brewer is sponsored by caffeinated beverage brand C4 Energy. In addition to wearing C4 Energy’s banners on her fire suit and car, Brewer assists on the B2B side with C4’s regional sales partners and at races with local distributors.
“I’m very excited to move up to IndyNXT with the support of sponsors that are organic and get my passion and whose core values and goals match with mine.”
“I also wouldn’t be able to run this next year without the support of Gtechniq,” Brewer said of her other main sponsor, which develops, produces, and distributes car care products backed by science and heavy R&D, best known to racing enthusiasts for their cutting-edge paint coatings and sealants.
Brewer, being one who is not at all afraid to “geek out” about all things car-related, added that Gtechniq’s products are something she has “used on my personal cars, and whose science-backed car coatings are important” for keeping her race cars in pristine condition.
Brewer is also partnered with Skip Barber Racing School, America’s largest racing school, of which she is a graduate.
The school, founded and run by retired American race car driver John "Skip" Barber III is known for producing some of the world’s most talented alumni.
Some of the big names to come out of Barber’s academy are Red Bull Formula One racer Sergio “Checo” Perez, 2023 Indy500 winner Josef Newgarden, now-retired Formula One trailblazer Danica Patrick, and two-time NASCAR Cup Series champ Kyle Busch.
Brewer, a Colorado native, grew up on snowmobiles and ATVs and began racing at the age of 11 after her father took her to a friend’s go-kart-themed birthday party. Cars would end up being Brewer’s lifelong obsession.
In gearing up to race IndyNXT, Brewer said she hopes to keep pushing the envelope for women in motorsports.
“I’ll do my best to show that an American female will once again hopefully be driving a full season in Indycar, following in the shoes of women like Danica Patrick.”
