FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Portland, OR. – It was a chaotic penultimate race weekend for ABEL Motorsports during the INDY NXT by Firestone Grand Prix of Portland as drama on the opening lap caused the championship leaders to pile into each other in the first corner. Rookie Yuven Sundaramoorthy however was able to score his best finish to date in the No. 57 Dallara IL-15 despite being involved in the opening lap incident.
Back for his second outing in the INDY NXT Series, Yuven Sundaramoorthy, was ready to get on a track he was familiar with and show the speed he is capable of. Not wasting any time, Sundaramoorthy came out of the gate strong posting a best time of 1:02.9 in practice 2 good enough for 10th on the chart. The other objective for the rookie was to get as many laps under his belt as possible, and between the two practice sessions Yuven completed 61 total laps.
Heading into his very first qualifying session, after qualifying in Nashville was rained out, Sundaramoorthy kept his momentum rolling and put a lap in good enough for 10th on the starting grid next to his teammate Jacob Abel.
On the opening lap of the 35-lap event, a car in the middle of the field made contact with the cars in front causing a turn 1 pile up that saw Sundaramoorthy collected and damage being inflicted to his No. 57. Quick work by the ABEL Motorsports team to replace a broken right front suspension piece, got Yuven back on track only 1 lap down.
After the mele on the opening lap, it was smooth sailing from there for Sundaramoorthy as he worked his way past a handful of cars to finish 10th the first car 1 lap down.
“Overall, I think we had a solid weekend for my first time back in the INDY NXT car. One of our big goals was to get as many laps in as possible and between all of the sessions I think we did a little over 100 laps, so we definitely accomplished that. We had a great race car and race pace, but with the carnage on lap 1 it took away any chance at a great finish for us, but I am really proud of the ABEL Motorsports guys that got me fixed and back out quickly to salvage the best finish possible,” said Yuven Sundaramoorthy.
Coming into Portland 3rd in the drivers’ championship, hope was high for Jacob Abel that the Louisville KY native would be able to continue his momentum and gain more points on the 2 drivers that were ahead of him. After both practice sessions, Abel while not at the top of the time charts, had a tremendous amount of confidence heading into the 35-lap race as he and engineer Kent Boyer worked hard on their race setup and having a car that would come on strong during a long green flag run.
Unfortunately for Abel and the ABEL Construction team, they never got to use their long run speed as Abel was also included in the lap 1 incident that would ultimately result in too much damage internally for Abel to continue. Abel would wind up finishing in 16th.
“Unfortunately, this weekend just wasn’t our weekend. We really were working hard on a car that would remain strong through longer runs but incident inturn 1 took that chance away. Thankfully we are right back to another race weekend next week so I am just focusing forward and thinking about what we can do to maximize the final 2 races of the season. We ran really well and tested well last year at Laguna
(WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca) so I am excited to get to California and grab as many points as possible,” said Jacob Abel.
ABEL Motorsports will once again have a 3-car lineup for the final 2 races of the 2023 INDY NXT by Firestone season at the Weathertech Raceway Laguna Seca in Monterey California. Jacob Abel will once again be joined by Yuven Sundaramoorthy in the No. 57 and Francesco Pizzi in the No. 55 machine. Keep up to date with all things ABEL Motorsports by following the team on social media @abelmotorsports.
Abel Motorsports including team Principal, Bill Abel, has been competing since 1972. Abel Motorsports is now on to the third generation with Jacob Abel being the flagship driver for the team. The team was able to capture the inaugural F3 Americas Championship in 2018, and currently competes in the freshly rebranded INDY NXT by Firestone series, the official development series for the NTT INDYCAR SERIES. For more information visit the official team website at: www.abelmotorsports.com