{"id":7418,"date":"2024-08-17T10:11:10","date_gmt":"2024-08-17T14:11:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/?p=7418"},"modified":"2024-08-17T10:11:10","modified_gmt":"2024-08-17T14:11:10","slug":"dual-top-10-qualifying-effort-for-abel-motorsports-at-wwtr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/2024\/08\/17\/dual-top-10-qualifying-effort-for-abel-motorsports-at-wwtr\/","title":{"rendered":"Dual top 10 qualifying effort for ABEL Motorsports at WWTR"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jacob Abel and Yuven Sundaramoorthy set to start in the top 10 for Saturday\u2019s race<\/em><\/p>\n

MADISON, ILL. (August 17, 2024)\u00a0\u2013 With just one practice session to set up the cars, ABEL Motorsports put two of its four entries into the top 10 for Saturday\u2019s 75-lap INDY NXT by Firestone OUTFRONT Showdown at World Wide Technology Raceway.<\/p>\n

At the end of qualifying, Jacob Abel (No. 51 ABEL Construction) had set the team\u2019s quickest time, qualifying sixth with a two-lap average of 163.261 mph, with Yuven Sundaramoorthy (No. 22 S Team Motorsports\/ABEL Motorsports) close behind in eighth, Jordan Missig (ABEL Motorsports) in 15th and Taylor Ferns (No. 55 Bradford Allen\/ABEL Motorsports) in 16th.<\/p>\n

The quartet had just one 45-minute practice session early Friday afternoon to dial in setup ahead of qualifying early in the evening, focusing on both in-traffic running and qualifying runs. Sundaramoorthy led the team, setting the eighth quickest time, with Abel 10th, Missig 16th and Ferns 18th in very hot and humid conditions.<\/p>\n

As the only one of the four drivers to have raced at WWTR last year, Abel had a basis of comparison \u2013 but with a new Firestone tire compound for the weekend and much warmer temperatures, team engineers looked at times and data to come up with the best balance for qualifying.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe raced at night last year, so it was cooler, and this year we’re on a little bit of a different tire compound, so with the short practice session, we had to basically put our best guess going into qualifying,\u201d said Abel. \u201cIt\u2019s impossible to get a truly perfect race car, so you’re always making compromises. Tire management is huge as well, because the more you save for the end of the race, the better \u2013 these tires do wear and I think it’s a good thing, to train us for the next level.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ambient temperatures hovered in the mid-90s for qualifying early that evening. At the checkered flag, all four drivers agreed that time had been left on the table \u2013 boding well for Saturday\u2019s race.<\/p>\n

\u201cI messed up the first laps, to be honest,\u201d said Abel. \u201cI over drove it a little bit. There was a lot more grip and we were going a lot faster than we did in practice. and I wanted to make sure I didn’t leave anything on the table, and I didn\u2019t. But I actually overstepped a little bit on that first lap. The second lap was great, a super strong lap, just needed that first one.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the change in temperature and rubber on the track, it was difficult to know where the pace would be,\u201d said Sundaramoorthy. \u201cWe kind of had to guess what the speed was and I didn’t get it all out of my first lap. The second lap was halfway there, but I still had more room to improve. But I’m happy because we know the car is there and I know I had the speed to qualify better \u2013 and on an oval, you can work from eighth.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe team put together a really good car for us,\u201d said Missig. \u201cWe\u2019re trying to figure out where the balance is going to be, especially with the high-speed corners around here, and we knew that would be key going into qualifying. Having four cars here means we have more information, and I think we found that balance in the end. But for me, it\u2019s just about getting more laps, since the Nashville test was the only oval running I\u2019ve done in this car \u2013\u00a0 and there, you\u2019re flat all around. Here, you have to manage it a little bit and kind of trim the car out with a little bit more speed into some of these corners. It takes a little bit more aggression, a little bit more confidence, and that\u2019s what we\u2019re building up to.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe team has given me a really good car and just working with me as far as my adaptability and my seat time, and giving me what I need to improve,\u201d said Ferns. \u201cI\u2019m actually still mad at myself, I feel like I left some time on the table. But I still picked up a lot time compared to where we were in practice. I wouldn’t be a great competitor if I wasn’t super hard on myself and expecting more, but I know we’ll get there.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

The 75-lap INDY NXT by Firestone 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":"

Jacob Abel and Yuven Sundaramoorthy set to start in the top 10 for Saturday\u2019s race MADISON, ILL. (August 17, 2024)\u00a0\u2013 With just one practice session to [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":7419,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,73],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7418","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\/7418","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=7418"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7418\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7420,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7418\/revisions\/7420"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7419"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}