{"id":7402,"date":"2024-08-13T08:51:19","date_gmt":"2024-08-13T12:51:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/?p=7402"},"modified":"2024-08-14T08:53:08","modified_gmt":"2024-08-14T12:53:08","slug":"experience-is-key-as-abel-motorsports-heads-to-world-wide-technology-raceway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/2024\/08\/13\/experience-is-key-as-abel-motorsports-heads-to-world-wide-technology-raceway\/","title":{"rendered":"Experience is key as ABEL Motorsports heads to World Wide Technology Raceway"},"content":{"rendered":"

All four team drivers have raced on the oval before \u2013 though three will see their first action in an INDY NXT car at the Madison, Ill. track<\/em><\/p>\n

Taylor Ferns set for the \u201cdouble\u201d \u2013 contesting both the USAC Silver Crown race and the INDY NXT event<\/em><\/p>\n

SPEEDWAY, Ind. (August 13, 2024) \u2013 ABEL Motorsports will field its largest team of the season in this weekend\u2019s\u00a0INDY NXT by Firestone\u2019s OUTFRONT Showdown at World Wide Technology Raceway, with four cars set to take the green flag Saturday afternoon.<\/p>\n

Jacob Abel (Louisville, Ky.), Yuven Sundaramoorthy (Oconomowoc, Wis.), Taylor Ferns (Shelby Township, Mich.) and Jordan Missig (Joliet, Ill.) all have experience on the 1.25-mile oval, located just across the Mississippi river from downtown St. Louis, Mo.<\/p>\n

Abel has three USF Pro 2000 races and two INDY NXT races on the oval and has delivered improving results each season, with four top 10s finishes, while Sundaramoorthy and Missig both raced at WWTR two years ago in USF Pro 2000. Missig will make his INDY NXT oval debut this weekend.<\/p>\n

While Ferns will race the No. 55 ABEL Motorsports Dallara at WWTR for the first time, the USAC veteran has raced at\u00a0the 1.250-mile oval twice (2022 and 2023, and she tested there at age 16), all in her Silver Crown car. In 2022, she was pacing in the top three and looking for a podium, but a radiator issue with six laps remaining put her back in ninth at the checkered flag.<\/p>\n

All four drivers tested on the Nashville Superspeedway last week, which puts them back into the oval mindset following the NTT INDYCAR SERIES\u2019 \u201csummer break\u201d during the Paris Olympics (broadcast on NBC).<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not your typical oval, because the two ends of the track are obviously pretty drastically different,\u201d noted Abel. \u201cTurns 1 and 2 are very tight and you end up lifting and downshifting, whereas 3 and 4 are two of the highest speed corners we race on. But it should be close to flat the whole race, which will be interesting. It presents a unique challenge because you need a different balance for both. We were good there last year, and we raced strong. We\u2019re ready to get going after this break, with the first race of this final stretch, setting up a strong finish for the end of the season.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s nice that I’ve raced there several times before,\u201d said Sundaramoorthy. \u201cOf course, it would have been nice to test there, but I think we’ll still be pretty fast, the car was fast last year. It\u2019s just going be the same as everywhere else: head down, just figure it out. The track has raced well in the past \u2013 two years ago, I was able to go two and three-wide, so it should be a good race.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m looking forward to going back there \u2013 it\u2019s a good track for my oval debut,\u201d said Missig. \u201cI like the big ovals and I\u2019m excited to see what it’s going to be like in the INDY NXT car, compared to the USF Pro 2000 car. I know there will be a substantial difference, but I know the ABEL Motorsports guys will be ready. I\u2019m looking forward to getting some oval experience now with an eye toward next season, so that is one of the keys. Having the test last week at Nashville helped get me into the oval mindset, since it\u2019s a very different driving style, so that gives us just that little bit more confidence going into this weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m excited to get there and get more seat time in the INDY NXT car,\u201d said Ferns, who will look to build on her Iowa INDY NXT debut last month. \u201cI know it\u2019s going to be much different than racing in the Silver Crown car \u2013 from the racing lines to the driving style. I’m excited to try that out and I’m ready for the challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ferns is also ready for the challenge of competing in two very different races on the weekend. She will contest Friday\u2019s 75-mile Ranken Technical College Silver Crown Shootout Presented by Welsch Heating & Cooling, and Saturday\u2019s 75-lap INDY NXT by Firestone OUTFRONT Showdown.<\/p>\n

\u201cRacing is my passion, so I just didn’t feel right not doing it in the end,\u201d said Ferns, who finished fourth in the Silver Crown main event last Saturday at Jennerstown (Pa.) Speedway. \u201cThe INDY NXT car is my focal point, but I think there\u2019s just a natural intuition with the Silver Crown car \u2013 so I am skipping Silver Crown practice and qualifying in order to focus on the INDY NXT sessions, then doing Friday night\u2019s race from the back of the field. I don’t have a problem passing cars so hopefully we can put on a good show.\u201d<\/p>\n

ABEL Motorsports thanks partners ABEL Construction Company, Advance Ready Mix,\u00a0Boyd Cat\u00ae<\/sup>, S Team Motorsports and OMP for their continued support.<\/p>\n

The INDY NXT by Firestone\u2019s OUTFRONT Showdown takes the green flag Saturday at 4:05 p.m. ET. The race will be streamed live in the U.S. on Peacock, while international viewers can watch via\u00a0INDYCARLIVE<\/a>, with INDYCAR Radio available at\u00a0indycar.com<\/a>\u00a0and on\u00a0Sirius XM<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

All four team drivers have raced on the oval before \u2013 though three will see their first action in an INDY NXT car at the Madison, [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":7403,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,73],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-abel-motorsports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7402"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7402\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7404,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7402\/revisions\/7404"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}