Abel reinforces his advantage at Barber in Indy Nxt qualifying

Photo: Joe Skibinski

Jacob Abel continues his weekend of domination at Barber Motorsports Park with pole position for Sunday’s Indy Nxt race.

The Abel Motorsports driver was in the second qualifying group and went to the top of the times with his first flying lap. He was not dislodged from first place following that, and took his second career pole.

There had been cloudier and cooler conditions when the first group was on track, so it did not take long for Abel to maximise the improved weather to beat the 1m11.5746s lap that had earned Nolan Siegel provisional pole in the previous group.

Once he did do that he then went even faster, but only once, and his 1m11.3507s earned him pole by 0.2239 seconds.

The closest driver to Abel in group two was Andretti Global’s James Roe Jr, who was driving with a slow rear-right puncture. He still had enough pressure in the tyre to lap just 0.2464s off Abel’s benchmark, putting him third on the grid.

His team-mate Jamie Chadwick improved on her final lap to go third quickest in the group and therefore line up fifth. Bryce Aron (Andretti) and Myles Rowe (HMD Motorsports) were fourth and fifth quickest, having both spent time in third place.

Louis Foster‘s electrical problems from practice continued into qualifying, and the Andretti Global driver did not leave the pits so will be resigned to 21st and last on the grid.

There was more movement in the order in group one. Siegel topped the times early on, then Caio Collet bettered him. The two traded fastest laps multiple times, and ended up separated by 0.1328s. Collet will start fourth after being second best in his group. 

A late improvement from Michael d’Orlando made him third quickest, ahead of Reece Gold and Callum Hedge. They will line up sixth, eighth, and 10th on the grid.

Qualifying results