INDIANAPOLIS — After scoring his first career Indy NXT victory at Barber Motorsports Park on April 28, Jacob Abel carried that momentum into the month of May, scoring his second career win at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.
Abel started on pole and led wire-to-wire, holding off championship rival Nolen Siegel by roughly a half a second.
"It's super, super special," said Abel about winning at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. "We haven't really been the best here in the past, so that's pretty unfortunate because this is a track that we go to all the time, and it's the one that all my friends usually come out to, too, so I want to do well in front of them."
A dominant win now gives Abel a 14 point lead in the championship over second place Nolan Siegel.
Siegel, who has already had a few IndyCar starts so far this season, said the IMS road course was one of his worst tracks, but was happy with the execution of his race on Friday.
"Happy with the day and happy that I was able to kind of redeem myself here and now maybe this won't be considered one of my worst tracks," said Siegel after the race.
Finishing on the final step of the podium in third was British racer Jamie Chadwick, who scored the best finish for a female driver in the Indy NXT Series since Pippa Mann won at Kentucky Speedway back in 2010.
The three-time champion in the now-defunct W Series struggled during her rookie season in Indy NXT, posting a best finish of sixth at Portland and finishing 12th in the championship.
"I think especially coming off the back of last year, which was a tough year and tough transition into the series, to then find what I felt was good form and pace this year but struggling to kind of convert that into a result, to then get our first podium here definitely means a lot," said Chadwick after the race.
Chadwick was also the highest-finishing Andretti Global driver, with teammates Louis Foster finishing seventh, Bryce Aron finishing 14th and James Roe finishing 15th.
"I think we had a really, really good car underneath us today, and I think that was probably shadowed a bit by the fact my teammates weren't up there, as well," said Chadwick. "But I think tomorrow we should be in a good place."
