{"id":7582,"date":"2024-09-15T10:13:41","date_gmt":"2024-09-15T14:13:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/?p=7582"},"modified":"2024-09-16T10:15:02","modified_gmt":"2024-09-16T14:15:02","slug":"abel-motorsports-back-on-indy-nxt-podium-to-close-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/2024\/09\/15\/abel-motorsports-back-on-indy-nxt-podium-to-close-season\/","title":{"rendered":"ABEL Motorsports Back on INDY NXT podium to close season"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yuven Sundaramoorthy scores best INDY NXT by Firestone season finish of his rookie season<\/em><\/p>\n

LEBANON, Tenn. (15 September, 2024) \u2013 Yuven Sundaramoorthy saved the best for last, moving from 11th to second through the INDY NXT by Firestone field to capture his top series finish to date in the 65-lap Music City Grand Prix at Nashville Speedway.<\/p>\n

Rain halted series qualifying on Saturday midway through the session, with Sundaramoorthy (No. 22 Optima Batteries\/Clarios\/ABEL Motorsports) at the top of the speed charts. The cancellation meant the field would start based on points, with Jacob Abel (No. 51 ABEL Construction) starting second, Sundaramoorthy 11th and Taylor Ferns (No. 55 Bradford Allen\/ABEL Motorsports) 18th. Knowing he had the speed, Sundaramoorthy was determined to go for the win.<\/p>\n

But drama started even before the green flag, as Abel experienced a steering wheel failure, with the wheel refusing to click into place. He immediately came to pit lane for a new one – which meant he took the green from the back of the 18-car field.<\/p>\n

At the drop of the green, Sundaramoorthy headed straight for the high line, moving up to seventh by lap three then using the low line to steadily continue passing cars as he took third on lap 17.<\/p>\n

Abel also began making moves, up to 15th by lap 10 and 13th by lap 19. But unfortunately for Ferns, an issue brought her to pit lane on lap 20, ending her day.<\/p>\n

By lap 28, the leaders had caught the tail of the field, and Sundaramoorthy balanced getting through traffic and tracking down the two leaders \u2013 all while laying down lap times one or more miles an hour quicker. After a multiple-laps battle, Sundaramoorthy made a move in Turn 1 to take second, while Abel moved into the top 10, taking eighth position several laps later.<\/p>\n

Slight contact between two cars on lap 53 prodcuced the only yellow of the race, bringing the leaders together with lapped cars behind. Going green with seven laps remaining, Sundaramoorthy stapled himself to the leader, looking for a way by, but at the checkered flag, he was happy with the second-place finish \u2013 and a positive start to his 2025 season with the team.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s everything I could have hoped for,\u201d said Sundaramoorthy. \u201cThe ABEL team gave me the best car. If quali hadn\u2019t been rained out, I think we would have checked out, but Louis (Foster) ran a perfect race, he didn\u2019t give me an opening. He was breaking the draft as he needed to do and I just couldn’t hold it. I didn’t warm my tires up enough initially on the restart so the first couple of laps were a bit sketchy but once I got rolling, I just caught him. I think we should have had a go there at the end, but I made the pass in the wrong corner and that was that.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut this has been a great learning year for me,\u201d continued Sundaramoorthy. \u201cI signed a two-year deal with the team so we always knew that was the focus. But the second half of the year, I felt super comfortable. I can\u2019t wait for next year.\u201d<\/p>\n

An eighth-place finish was not how Abel wanted to end his INDY NXT \u2013 and his junior formula \u2013 career, but looking back over a season that includes 10 podiums and three wins in 14 races, and second place in the championship battle, he knows that he\u2019s made a statement as he looks toward a move to the NTT INDYCAR SERIES.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I left pit lane, I turned the wheel and it wouldn\u2019t click into place,\u201d said Abel. \u201cI don\u2019t know what it was but it was just something mechanical. Definitely not how I wanted my INDY NXT career to end, but we made a few moves through the field and hopefully showed what we can do when things don\u2019t go our way.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m proud of the entire team this season \u2013 everyone on the team worked so hard to get me where I got in the end, I\u2019m glad we were able to do this as a group. Some of these guys have been with me through my whole junior formula career so I\u2019m happy with how the season went \u2013 that obviously wasn\u2019t how it was supposed to end but I\u2019m really proud of everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Team principal Bill Abel looked back on the season for his two full-time drivers, noting the progression that both Abel and Sundaramoorthy have accomplished.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my mind, this season exceeds our expectations,\u201d said Abel. \u201cThe championship didn’t quite go like we wanted it to, but Jacob led the first part of the season and was never out of second place, so that’s a pretty good run at it. We had the pace to win today, Yuven showed that.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I think one of the big achievements for us is \u00a0watching Yuven\u2019s progression this season, from where he started to the way he finished up,\u201d said Abel. \u201cThat’s what we predicted with him, similar to what we\u2019ve seen with Jacob over the last three years. Yuven will be back with us next, definitely one of the championship contenders. We hope to have a few other drivers with him to help him that effort, drivers that are going to be really good, able to share good supporting data and video. It\u2019s exciting \u2013 the team is in a really good spot.\u201d<\/p>\n

The race might not be a \u201chome\u201d one for the Speedway, Ind.-based team, or for Louisville, Ky.-based ABEL Construction, but family, friends and employees made it feel like one, as over 125 people gathered in the team\u2019s hospitality area and in the grandstands for the race.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe really appreciated everyone who came out,\u201d said Abel. \u201cIt was great to see all the ABEL Construction shirts everywhere!\u201d<\/p>\n

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

The first event of the 2025 season for ABEL Motorsports and the INDY NXT by Firestone series will be the Chris Griffis Memorial Test at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Friday, October 18. Live timing and scoring of the test will be available at\u00a0racecontrol.indycar.com<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yuven Sundaramoorthy scores best INDY NXT by Firestone season finish of his rookie season LEBANON, Tenn. (15 September, 2024) \u2013 Yuven Sundaramoorthy saved the best for [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":7583,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,73],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7582","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\/7582","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=7582"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7582\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7584,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7582\/revisions\/7584"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}