Amid NXT expansion, Abel Motorsports eyes IMSA, Indy 500
10/04/2024 03:10 PM
Bill Abel's team rose to Indy NXT prominence last season as his son Jacob Abel earned three wins, 10 podiums, two poles, and a runner-up finish in the championship behind Andretti Global's Louis Foster.
The two full-time cars for Abel — who is hunting for an IndyCar seat in 2025 — and Yuven Sundaramoorthy, and part-time efforts for a trio of other drivers, served as Abel's largest footprint in NXT since it joined the series in 2022, and with their newfound success, the Indiana-based team is set to continue expanding.
Sundaramoorthy is signed for his second season with the outfit and Myles Rowe, who made his NXT debut in 2024 with HMD Motorsports, has moved across to the team. Abel intends to confirm more NXT drivers and is also looking at taking the team into a new territory.
"We’ve got two other seats that we’re going to fill, and we’ve got tons of interest because of the season we’ve had with Jacob," Abel told RACER. "We’ll be a four-car Indy NXT team, and hopefully an Indy 500 team also. That’s where we’re headed to."
Penske Entertainment's recent formation of its charter program has thwarted Abel's efforts to join the NTT IndyCar Series as a full-time entrant. Despite owning two Dallara DW12 Indy cars situated in his shop located next to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Abel sees partnerships with existing teams as the only avenue to take part in the series outside of the Indy 500.
"Everything that’s going on structurally within IndyCar has made it difficult for us to find a home as a full-time team, so I don’t know that that’ll be obtainable next year, but we’re talking to teams," he said. "Jacob and I are having meetings with teams trying to find a home for him. I’m meeting with teams trying to figure out if there is a future for Abel Motorsports and IndyCar, and what that would look like. We’re having some pretty deep conversations. I don’t know where any of it is to wind up, but we’ll be in NXT next year."
With the door to IndyCar all but closed as a standalone entrant, Abel has been taking a hard look at IMSA as a paddock where his team would be welcomed. Having attended the Sebring 12 Hours in March on a fact-finding mission and developed a range of possibilities partnerships to pursue in the NASCAR-owned sports car series, endurance racing could be part of Abel Motorsports' future.
"We've got a company that's talking to us about jumping into IMSA," Abel said. "It's not out of the realm of possibility. The choke point in our team is John Brunner and what he wants to take on, or how we might take something on with some help.
"And part of it is thinking about Jacob, and if he’s not going to be in IndyCar, our motivation is greater to be in IMSA. I don’t know if that’s TCR, GT3, or LMP2. Nothing is off the table and that would be fun."
