Johnson to Run Both IMSA, Indy NXT Races; RLL Team Returns to Dual Series Weekend
By Tony DiZinno
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Compared to most of their peers in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) class, RLL Team McLaren is all-in on all-new for 2026.
In Nikita Johnson and Max Esterson, they have one of only two all-American lineups in the class. They have a pair of sports car full-season rookies. And they have a new McLaren 720S GT3 Evo that sees the team return to its successful GT roots after a three-year sojourn into Grand Touring Prototype (GTP).
But what faces Johnson, RLL and McLaren in particular at the Chevrolet Detroit Sports Car Classic (Saturday, 4 p.m. ET, NBC) will be one of the more daunting events of the year.
The teenager from Gulfport, Fla. (a St. Petersburg suburb), Johnson, is set to pull a unique double duty event. He’ll run both in the WeatherTech Championship 100-minute race and the Indy NXT race on the same weekend.
Additionally, the RLL team will return to something it’s done quite often throughout its history but hasn’t yet in 2026: run both its IMSA and IndyCar programs on the same weekend. The RLL Team McLaren GT car will join its three Honda-powered IndyCars in the joint series paddock.
Johnson has fared decently well in two street course appearances this year. He won the season-opening Indy NXT round in his home city of St. Petersburg and also finished sixth at Arlington.
But the 1.645-mile Detroit track is known for its tight angles and treacherous surface, and that’ll make for an interesting juxtaposition between vehicles during the weekend.
“It’s a very busy schedule coming up,” Johnson said heading into the most recent WeatherTech Championship round at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca in Monterey.
“I’ve been managing well so far, but it’ll get difficult over the summer. It’s Laguna, then Indy NXT at IMS road course, so there’s no breaks there.
“And then we get to Detroit. I’ll do double duty, which will be interesting. I haven’t (run at Detroit) in either class, Indy NXT and GT. You have to take it one weekend at a time. I’m having good success in NXT and the GT program, learning quite a bit. I think Max and I are getting there. Just need a bit of time.”
Indeed, the Johnson/Esterson pairing has methodically improved to start the 2026 season and shown flashes of pace and promise against their competitors. In the hands of third driver Dean MacDonald, the RLL Team McLaren No. 59 McLaren 720S GT3 Evo qualified second on debut at the Rolex 24 At Daytona. The team has finished better in each race – from 12th at Daytona to ninth at the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring and seventh in Monterey.
That’s ensured Johnson has had three different time lengths and wildly disparate types of racing to open his sports car career, with a 24-hour race followed by a 12-hour and a two-hour, 40-minute race.
The 100-minute Detroit sprint, where the GTD PRO minimum drive time is just five minutes, opens strategic options where he may actually drive less in the IMSA race than the 45-to-55-minute Indy NXT race.
“It’s completely different,” Johnson noted. “You get Daytona in a 24, Sebring in a 12, while Indy NXT is 45-55-minute races. They’re polar opposites, but it’s so good to get into the sprint IMSA races now. That’s more what I’m used to. I’m learning a lot and getting a handle on the whole sports car world.”
He’s been impressed with the racing in IMSA, too.
“It’s been amazing,” he said. “The racing is so hard in IMSA. It’s different than open wheel. You can rub on them. In open wheel, you can’t.
“I didn’t expect sports cars to be like this. I’ve always watched, but it’s surreal to be racing in it.”
His Friday includes two IMSA practice sessions and qualifying, a single Indy NXT practice after its morning driver meeting, and debriefs anticipated with both teams.
Saturday includes the IMSA warm-up and 100-minute race, along with Indy NXT practice and qualifying and both series’ autograph sessions.
With IMSA’s race complete Saturday, he has just the Indy NXT race on Sunday – where he enters as that series’ points leader by 11 points.