Photo: Joe Skibinski
Indy Nxt title rivals Louis Foster and Jacob Abel enjoyed their side-by-side moments during the race at Portland, which Abel won.
Foster started on pole, with Abel third for the rolling start. He took second place straight away, then found just enough room on the inside to get alongside Foster before turn one.
He took the lead there and never relinquished it, but after a caution period had Foster darting around in his mirrors for two laps and at turn 10 he got his front wing alongside. The lightest of contact was made, but it was consequence-free.
“It was a small tap. Immediately I thought he was off. I was there, he turned in, luckily we both got through okay and doesn’t seem to be any damage,” Andretti Global driver Foster said of that moment. “It was good, clean, fair racing, which is fun.”
Abel added: “If he was going to try and pass me, I wasn’t going to let him have it easy. I’ll just say that. But yeah, it was good. I think respect all around there.”
The chasing Foster had realised Abel was pressing the push-to-pass button frequently early on, but noted his rival is “very good at” using it so “wanted to go for a spot where he wouldn’t expect” an overtake.
“I had a nose up the inside [at turn 10]. I think I was never going to really commit to that move. I wasn’t alongside enough. And then he fully committed to turning in. How both of us finished the race after that, it’s beyond me, really.”
On the move for the win, Abel went into more detail.
“It’s a really unique start here because we start accelerating basically on the exit of the last corner. So it almost performs a little bit more like a restart,” the Abel Motorsports driver explained.
“It was kind of like an over-under type of move, because he got a good run out of the last corner. Tucked into the draft and then braked left a little bit, and then dove it down on the inside. We were just talking. He goes ‘how much room was really there?’ and I said ‘I didn’t really know, I was just going to go for it either way’.”
Foster initially felt “I’d defended enough, but there was a little bit extra there on the inside that Jacob was willing to make the risk and go there” and “once he was there, I was like ‘I don’t want any involvement in this’”.
While he reckoned his car had race-winning pace, sitting behind Abel took its toll.
“Faded towards the end with tyres falling off following so closely for so long. I think had we been out front, we’d have had the car to pull away,” said a dissapointed Foster.
Abel agreed, saying to “hold [Foster] in the dirty air and make him his lose his tyres” was important as he felt throughout the weekend his rival held a pace advantage.