Associated Press
INDIANAPOLIS — Dale Coyne Racing has hired Jacob Abel as a full-time driver for the 2025 season, team officials announced Monday.
The 23-year-old Abel has spent the past three seasons running on the Indy NXT circuit – IndyCar’s highest developmental series. He won three races last season, had podium finishes in 10 of the series’ 14 races and wound up second in the points standings.
His steady improvement – going from eighth in points as an Indy NXT rookie to fifth in 2022 to runner-up last season – got the attention of Dale Coyne, who asked Abel to participate in an evaluation day last fall at Sebring. He is scheduled to begin testing at the Thermal Club in California in late January. He’s scheduled to make his IndyCar debut at the season opener March 2 in St. Petersburg, Florida.
“I’ve had a great relationship with Dale for the last couple of years, and I’m very thankful for the confidence he has in me,” Abel said in a statement. “The team has some very experienced personnel joining and returning to the program, and I have full confidence they will deliver a great race car and help me learn the ropes. It’s going to be a fun but challenging journey, and I can’t wait to get started.”
The Kentuckian competed in the Indy Pro 2000 series from 2019-21 after starting his career racing on the Formula 3 and 4 circuits.
Abel will drive Coyne’s No. 51 car. Coyne said he hopes to announce the full-time driver for his No. 18 car in three weeks, giving the team the kind of steadiness it struggled to find in 2024 when multiple drivers drove the team’s cars.
“We have watched Jacob over the years and did an evaluation test with him at the end of the 2023 season, where he showed great promise in these cars,” Coyne said. “It will be good to run one driver in the No. 51 car for the whole season, so we can work on the consistency needed in the highly competitive NTT IndyCar Series.”