Penske Entertainment has split with Indy NXT director Richard Buck.
RACER has learned the former NASCAR executive, who was announced on December 10 as the leader of IndyCar’s development series, was released ahead of this weekend’s Indy NXT season debut in St. Petersburg. The timing of the change gives Penske Entertainment an opportunity to start the search for a new NXT director before racing got under way, and gives Buck the opportunity to find his next station at the early stage of the season.
Highly respected for a lifetime of work in motor racing, Buck was hired to replace the outgoing Levi Jones who steered Penske’s revitalization of the Indy NXT series through 2024. Despite Buck’s short tenure in the role, NXT team owners spoke of a broadening disconnect with the new NXT leader, which RACER understands led to the change days prior to the first NXT event of the year.
An extensive search for Jones’ successor consumed many months during the offseason, and while Penske has moved on from Buck, it has a significant cast of candidates to revisit to find Indy NXT’s next director.
In the interim, new IndyCar Series president Doug Boles and Jason Penix, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s VP of event and track operations who spent many years in a leadership role in Indy Lights — NXT’s predecessor — are expected to temporarily bridge the gap and will be onsite at St. Petersburg to assist with series oversight during the transition. The rest of Indy NXT’s operations group is said to be unchanged.