INDYCAR: Attrition-free Barber race leaves Jacob Abel last
by William Soquet, LASTCAR.info Staff Writer
PHOTO: IndyCar.com
Jacob Abel finished last for the 1st time in his NTT IndyCar Series career in Sunday’s Children’s of Alabama Grand Prix at Barber Motorsports Park when his #51 Dale Coyne Racing Honda finished under power, completing 88 of the race’s 90 laps.
The finish came in Abel’s fourth series start. Across IndyCar Series history, it was the 16th where the last-place driver was running, the ninth for the #51 and the 122nd for Honda.
Jacob Abel entered the IndyCar Series this season as one of three rookies, signing with Dale Coyne Racing on January 13. It marked the culmination of a long and calculated climb through the American open-wheel developmental ladder. The redhead from Louisville made his major racing debut in 2017 at 16, running in American Formula 4 and Formula 3 circuits for a couple seasons. He took a double-step in 2019, running mostly full seasons in both Formula 3 and the then-Indy Pro 2000 series. There, Abel grabbed a pair of wins in F3 and a couple of top-fives in Indy Pro 2000.
Most of his racing was done under Abel Motorsports, the team founded by Jacob’s father, construction business owner Bill Abel. Abel Motorsports continued to field Jacob in Indy Pro 2000 throughout 2020 and 2021 with a few podium results to show for it. A varied 2021 season also saw Jacob compete in Formula Regional Americas, IMSA, the GT World Challenge and Stadium Super Trucks. Both Jacob Abel and Abel Motorsports moved up to then-Indy Lights in 2022. Paired with a sister car that rotated between Antonio Serravalle, Ryan Phinny, and Flinn Lazier, Abel recorded a pair of fourth-place finishes and was eighth in points, one spot ahead of Kyffin Simpson.
Jacob grew in his second season in Indy NXT in 2023, again as the only constant Abel Motorsports driver. He led laps in multiple races and landed on the podium four times, leading to a fifth-place finish. The drivers above him in points – Christian Rasmussen, Hunter McElrea, Nolan Siegel, and Louis Foster – are all now familiar names to IndyCar fans. A third season of Indy NXT last year brought more stability, as Yuven Sundaramoorthy was a full-time teammate. Abel scored three wins - which came at Barber, the Indy road course, and Portland - and was runner-up to Foster in the standings.
At the same time that Jacob Abel was coming into his own as a driver, Bill Abel was showing interest in becoming a long-term team owner, most likely because his son would likely be deserving of a spot on the grid at some point. To explore this option, Abel Motorsports fielded a car for R.C. Enerson in the 2023 Indy 500, where the driver comfortably qualified the car into the field but the race was cut short due to a mechanical issue. Bill Abel considered bringing his team into IndyCar full-time for the 2025 season, but the announcement of a charter program in late 2024 brought that to a screeching halt. Instead, the focus shifted to becoming a four-car Indy NXT team.
Meanwhile, Jacob, ready to take one more step up, was looking for options. As available rides were filled, the options dwindled until there were only a couple realistic options left. A positive test with Chip Ganassi Racing in the fall gave Abel some momentum, and he wound up being Coyne’s first driver announced for the 2025 season.
The lack of attrition in the early season has not been kind to Abel. He was 24th, the last car running, at St. Petersburg, and followed that up with a 25th-place showing at Thermal and a 26th-place result at Long Beach.
Abel was last in first practice for the Barber weekend, setting a fast time of 1 minute, 9.51 seconds. That was just a hair off Robert Shwartzman, who recorded a best lap of 1 minute, 9.49 seconds. Abel’s DCR teammate Rinus VeeKay was 23rd. Both team cars shot up the charts in second practice, with Abel placing 18th and Veekay 11th. Josef Newgarden was unable to make a complete lap at speed in that session, placing last, but last of the cars who did a flyer lap was another big name, Pato O’Ward.
In qualifying, Abel slid to last in Group 1, while Devlin DeFrancesco was last in Group 2. As Group 2 had more cars, DeFrancesco drew the final starting spot, putting Abel and yet another big name – Scott Dixon – together on Row 13.
At the drop of the green, last place most immediately went to Dixon in the opening corners, although DeFrancesco drew ahead at the end of the first lap, trailing polesitter, leader and eventual runaway winner Alex Palou by ten seconds. He handed last off to 23rd-place starter Marcus Ericsson on the second lap. Ericsson was 14 seconds back after two laps, and 17 seconds back after three.
At this point, Dixon re-entered the last-place conversation. As Ericsson slid more than 20 seconds back of Palou, Dixon was falling faster. Both cars were within a second of each other at one point, running well behind Callum Ilott in 25th. The television broadcast indicated that one or both cars may be saving fuel to run an alternate two-stop strategy, as compared to what many thought would be a standard three-stop gambit.
However, that did not turn out to be the case. Ericsson was first to pit, doing so on Lap 9. He emerged a minute back of the lead, but with some clean track to make up some ground. Ilott pitted on Lap 13 and took over last on Lap 14, a minute and seven seconds back of the lead. That gap stayed pretty consistent until DeFrancesco pitted on Lap 20 and emerged in last, about a minute and 10 seconds behind Palou.
Abel made his last-place bid after his first pit stop, which came on Lap 22. While he ran in 22nd for most of the opening stint, he emerged in 23rd and fell to last within two laps, 58 seconds back of the lead. As pit stops cycled through, he got as close to 45 seconds behind the lead, but lost ground throughout the stint.
Ericsson pitted for a second time on Lap 36 and took over last. He was promptly succeeded by Kyffin Simpson, then Ilott, who was the first car to go a lap down during the pit cycle. Abel pitted from 22nd on Lap 41 and dropped to last again. His pit lane time lasted almost 44 seconds - an addition of 15 seconds from the usual range. A loose wheel nut was to blame, but regardless, it gave him a big hole from which to dig out.
That gap got bigger when Abel pitted again on Lap 55, ending an unusually short stint. He was the first driver to make a third stop, and as could be expected, the gap became insurmountable after that. He lost a second lap in the midrace, and without any cautions, finished last.
Louis Foster finished 26th, the only other car two laps down. Foster’s off-track excursion near the two-thirds mark of the race almost drew a caution, but he was able to keep it together, even when he re-entered the racetrack in front of oncoming traffic.
LASTCAR STATISTICS
*The last time two consecutive IndyCar last-place finishers were running at the end of the race was 2016 – coincidentally, Long Beach and Barber were the tracks in that back-to-back as well.
*Abel’s 88 laps complete is exactly the same number of laps that Josef Newgarden completed in his last-place finish the race prior at Long Beach.
THE BOTTOM FIVE
27) #51-Jacob Abel / 88 laps / running
26) #45-Louis Foster / 88 laps / running
25) #83-Robert Shwartzman / 89 laps / running
24) #30-Devlin DeFrancesco / 89 laps / running
23) #90-Callum Ilott / 89 laps / running
2025 LASTCAR INDYCAR SERIES OWNERS CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Team Penske (2)
2nd) Dale Coyne Racing, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (1)
2025 LASTCAR INDYCAR SERIES MANUFACTURERS CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Chevrolet, Honda (2)
2025 LASTCAR INDYCAR SERIES DRIVERS CHAMPIONSHIP
