Fort Worth, Texas (May 1, 2021) – Dale Coyne Racing with RWR driver Pietro Fittipaldi will be making his return to the NTT IndyCar Series this weekend aboard the #51 Nurtec ODT Honda for Saturday’s Genesys 300 and Sunday’s XPEL 375 at Texas Motor Speedway.

Fittipaldi’s last official outing in the series came during the 2018 season, also with the Dale Coyne-led team.  The Brazilian has six career NTT IndyCar Starts, including three on an oval, but this will be his first time racing on the 1.5-mile oval at Texas Motor Speedway. 

The Haas F1 Team reserve driver did get the opportunity to test at the track earlier this year in what was his first test since returning to the team. 

Fittipaldi has a Series career best finish of ninth (Portland 2018) and a best starting position of 10th at Phoenix International Raceway. He registered his best oval result at Gateway (WorldWide Technology Raceway) with an 11th place finish.

“This weekend I’m doing my first NTT IndyCar Series Race of the season, with a doubleheader at Texas Motor Speedway,” shared Fittipaldi. “I’m super excited. I love oval racing so it’s great to have one race on Saturday and another one on Sunday. I’ve had one day of testing at Texas and then two days at IMS a few weeks ago to get me back up to speed. I got back in the groove quickly and the team did a great job to get me back comfortable with the car and driving on an oval. Texas is a place where you have to be patient, it’s a long race and you have to make sure you’re there at the end. I’m excited for it and I can’t wait to get on track!”

Fittipaldi will get a 75-minute practice session on Saturday morning from 11:45am local time ahead of the 3pm (local) qualifying session. Drivers will get two timed laps during qualifying with the first lap setting their place on the grid for the first race and their second lap counting towards Sunday’s starting grid. Practice and qualifying will be streamed live on Peacock with qualifying also broadcast on NBCSN.

Race 1 of the weekend, the Genesys 300 will go green on Saturday, May 1 at 6:45pm local time and will be broadcast live on NBCSN from 7pm ET.  The XPEL 375 takes place Sunday, May 2 and will be broadcast live on NBCSN from 5pm ET.