Myles Rowe

Myles Rowe (born June 19, 2000) is an American racing driver. He is signed to compete in the 2024 Indy NXT driving for HMD Motorsports with Force Indy. He is the 2023 USF Pro 2000 champion. Rowe competed in the 2022 USF2000 Championship with Pabst Racing as well as with Force Indy.

Career

USF2000 Championship

2021

After not competing in motorsports for several years, newly formed team Force Indy announced that Rowe and the team would compete in the USF2000 Championship in 2021. Rowe would get his first win at the second race in New Jersey. He would make history by becoming the first African American to win in the series. Rowe would end up finishing 13th by the end of the season.

2022

After the 2021 season concluded, Force Indy announced that it would move up to the Indy Lights series in 2022. However, this resulted in Rowe being out of a ride for the 2022 season in the USF2000 Championship. Due to a lack of a budget for the full season, Rowe launched a GoFundMe campaign. He received a $200,000 donation which allowed him to sign with Pabst Racing to compete at the opening round in St. Petersburg. After crashing in the first race at St. Petersburg with Thomas Nepveu, Rowe would win the second race and his first with Pabst Racing. With additional sponsorship, he was able to compete at the second round at Barber and would win the first race. Rowe continued into the third round at Indianapolis searching for additional funds with his season likely to be cut short if additional funding could not be found. However, his season was saved due to additional funding from Roger Penske.

Rowe would continue to run the full season and contend for the 2022 championship. From the round at Indianapolis Raceway Park to the first race in Toronto, he would take three wins and seven straight podiums.

The championship battle would go into the final round at Portland between Jace Denmark and Michael d'Orlando. Rowe was leading the championship with 346 points with d'Orlando (323 points) and Denmark (321 points) sitting in second and third respectively. Rowe would qualify in 4th for race one but ultimately finished in 10th due to running wide trying to defend position from Nikita Johnson. This would reduce Rowe's lead in the championship to just four points ahead of Denmark.

In Race 2, Denmark started in pole position, however Rowe drove over the back of Denmark's car at turn one, causing him to fall down the order. He subsequently finished 16th, with fellow championship contender d'Orlando finishing P4.

Going into the final race, Rowe was still the championship leader with 363 points while Denmark (357 points) and d'Orlando (356 points) were in second and third respectively. Rowe would experience contact on lap one of the race demoting him to 15th. He managed to make up ten places to finish fifth. Ultimately, this was not enough to claim the title since rival d'Orlando managed to win the race and consequently the championship.

Rowe ended the 2022 USF2000 season with 5 wins, finishing 2nd in the overall championship.

USF Pro 2000 Championship

For 2023, Rowe moved up to the USF Pro 2000 Championship under the Pabst Racing with Force Indy banner. He was dominant through the first quarter of the season. In the opening round at St. Petersburg, Rowe brought home two podiums, including a win in race 2. At Sebring in late March, he won both the 3rd and 4th rounds, increasing his points total to more than 40 that of his closest competitor. At Indianapolis, Rowe would not finish the first race at IMS but would recover to 5th place finish in the 2nd race. He would collect a top 5 in the Carb Night Classic at Indianapolis Raceway Park. At Road America he would grab another podium in race 1 and get yet another top 5. At the 6th round at Mid-Ohio he would finish outside of the top 10 for the first time in race 1, in race 2 Rowe would bounce back with winning the race from pole position. Toronto would be a return to form for Rowe, leading the most laps in race 1 before unfortunately falling back to 7th, then in race 2 he would dominate to grab his 5th win of the season. The penultimate round at Circuit of the Americas Myles would lose ground in the championship as title rival Kiko Porto would take home the win the race 1 on Saturday and 2nd on Sunday, meanwhile Rowe grabbed 4th and 6th respectively. At the championship finale triple-header in Portland Myles would come 2nd behind Porto in race 1. The next day in race 2, Rowe, starting alongside Porto would jump him into turn 1 and chased after Lirim Zendeli in 3rd, and by the half-way stage of the race he would pass Lirim for 3rd. For the rest of the race he would keep the cars behind and come across the line in 3rd to become the 2023 USF Pro 2000 champion. In doing so Rowe would also make history in becoming the first African-American driver to win an open-wheel championship. He would also win the $640,000 scholarship to move up to Indy NXT in 2024.

Indy NXT

Shortly after the conclusion of the 2023 USF Pro 2000 season, it was announced that Rowe would be moving to the No.99 Force Indy/HMD entry for 2024.

Personal life

Rowe was born in Powder Springs, Georgia, although he currently resides in Brooklyn, New York.

Karting record

Karting career summary

Racing record

Career summary

* Season still in progress.

American open-wheel racing results

USF2000 Championship

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap) (Races with * indicate most race laps led)

USF Pro 2000 Championship

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap) (Races with * indicate most race laps led)

* Season still in progress.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rowe, Myles
2000 births
Living people
Racing drivers from Atlanta
People from Powder Springs, Georgia
Sportspeople from Cobb County, Georgia
U.S. F2000 National Championship drivers
African-American racing drivers
Indy Pro 2000 Championship drivers