Photo: Joe Skibinski
Jacob Abel was thrilled to claim his and his family’s Abel Motorsports team’s first Indy Nxt win at Barber Motorsports Park last weekend.
It not only ended a winless streak for Abel dating back to his 2021 Formula Regional Americas campaign, but also put him in the joint points lead with Nolan Siegel.
The HMD Motorsports driver had challenged Abel for the win, and finished 1.3326 seconds behind in second place.
“I’m speechless, man,” Abel said, fresh from taking victory. “This team has been working for this for so long now, and to finally get it done and on such a picture-perfect weekend, it’s been lights out all weekend long. It was just up to me to deliver it. A lot of nerves all weekend long, but I can finally say that yes, everything went right this weekend. Super happy with it.”
Abel had been fastest in both practice sessions and qualifying, where he earned his second career pole, and his first win came on his 30th Indy Nxt start.
“Props to Nolan,” added Abel. “He kept me honest. The whole entire race, he was right there. He’s a great competitor, and I look forward to many battles like that throughout the season.”
Siegel had led Abel home in the St. Petersburg season opener, and they now both have 95 points after two rounds. Andretti Global’s Louis Foster is third in the standings and 29 points behind.
While Siegel did congratulate Abel on his victory, saying “he did a great job all weekend”, he thought he could have taken his second win in a row.
“Honestly, I think we were faster today. The car was fantastic. We saved everything for the last lap; we saved all our push-to-pass, saved our tyres the entire race sitting there, and right as I started to go for it, that yellow came out. Super disappointed, but I think it’s a good day when you’re disappointed with second.”